Women who claim freedom reject being reduced to their bodies as passive flesh

Evidence

Even if she has a good figure and is pretty, the woman who is involved in her own projects or who claims her freedom in general refuses to abdicate in favor of another human being; she recognizes herself in her acts, not in her immanent presence: male desire reducing her to the limits of her body shocks her as much as it shocks a young boy; she feels the same disgust for her submissive female companions as the virile man feels for the passive homosexual. She adopts a masculine attitude in part to repudiate any involvement with them; she disguises her clothes, her looks, and her language, she forms a couple with a female friend where she assumes the male role: this playacting is in fact a “masculine protest”; but it is a secondary phenomenon; what is spontaneous is the conquering and sovereign subject’s shame at the idea of changing into a carnal prey. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1041

Categorization

• DEFINE: Uses the core analytical apparatuses: immanence vs. transcendence (body for-itself vs. body for-others), masculine protest as secondary to sovereign-subject shame.
• XREF: The body for-itself/for-others distinction maps directly onto Sartre’s being-for-itself/being-for-others from Being and Nothingness, and onto the immanence/transcendence dialectic Beauvoir established in the Introduction. — connects to: Virginity destruction makes the female body an irrevocably passive object — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 343; Fashion restraints function less to beautify than to render women’s bodies powerless — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 351; Flesh prized in women is that which appears passive, purposeless, and inert — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 351 (+7 more)
• ADDENDUM: The ‘masculine protest’ as secondary phenomenon, with sovereign-subject shame as primary, is the analytical core that explains why lesbians choose women partners — could serve as the precise mechanism behind why autonomy-seeking women avoid men.

Broader Connections

• Passive sexual submission is not masochistic when the subject retains her freedom #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1009
• Women resist pleasure that feels inflicted or actively engineered by the man. #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 988