Women’s “revelations” are peace, not freedom, because they lack action

Evidence

Moments women consider revelations are those where they discover they are in harmony with a reality based on peace with one’s self. These are the moments of luminous happiness that Virginia Woolf—in Mrs. Dalloway, in To the Lighthouse—that Katherine Mansfield, all through her work, grant to their heroines as a supreme recompense. The joy that is a surge of freedom is reserved for the man; what the woman knows is an impression of smiling plenitude. One understands that simple ataraxia, in her eyes, can be of utmost importance, as she normally lives in the tension of denial, recrimination, and demands; one could never reproach her for savoring a beautiful afternoon or the sweetness of an evening. But it is a delusion to try to find here the true definition of the hidden soul of the world. Good is not; the world is not harmony, and no individual has a necessary place in it. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1764

Categorization

• XREF: Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield named as exemplars connects to reader’s literary frame of reference. — connects to: Women’s otherness lacks the historical before that enables other groups to rebel — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 58; Women lack the practice of sovereign solitude needed for creative transcendence. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1948; Mystical revelation serves women’s own already-chosen aims rather than directing them — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1915 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Women’s otherness lacks the historical before that enables other groups to rebel #expands (0.85) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 58
• Women lack the practice of sovereign solitude needed for creative transcendence. #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1948
• Mystical revelation serves women’s own already-chosen aims rather than directing them #qualifies (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1915
• Deprived of action, women express themselves through fanatical defense of inherited causes #corroborates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1743
• Some women appropriate another’s transcendence rather than pursue objective aims #contradicts (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1823