In asking forgiveness of women for our mythologizing of their bodies, for being unreal about them, we can only appeal to their own sexuality, which is different but not basically different, perhaps, from our own. For women, too, there seems to be that tangle of supplication and possessiveness, that descent toward infantile undifferentiation, that omnipotent helplessness, that merger with the cosmic mother-warmth, that flushed pulse-quickened leap into overestimation, projection, general mix-up.

Summary

This quote suggests that men should apologize to women for objectifying their bodies and for creating unreal expectations about them. It proposes that men should understand and empathize with women's sexuality, which may be different but not fundamentally different from their own. The quote also speaks to the complex dynamics present in women's relationships with their bodies, including feelings of both dependence and possessiveness, a yearning for a maternal connection, and a tendency to overestimate and project onto others.

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