The Madonna-Whore Complex

Let’s talk about the Madonna–Whore Complex, first coined by Sigmund Freud to represent two separate, sexual “buckets” women fall into: the Madonna—a wholly virtuous, maternal, pure, and chaste woman—and the whore—a promiscuous, seductive, and degraded woman. The issue with this understanding of female sexuality is that it lies in polarized perceptions of women in general as either “good” or “bad,” and the dichotomy divides women's humanity into two neat and tidy categories that don't overlap. But what it completely misses is that our sexuality lies on a spectrum, and the complex is deeply harmful for women, especially Black and trans women.

Intro song by Remmington Taylor [IG: @rmmngtn]

SOURCES

https://www.mic.com/articles/133400/being-a-rizzo-in-a-sandy-world

https://www.34st.com/article/2021/01/freud-madonna-whore-complex-black-women-trans-women-sex-sexuality

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/madonna-whore-complex-sexist_b_6108750de4b0497e67027480

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/02/madonna-whore-complex-still-alive-straight-men-denying-women-basic

https://www.michigandaily.com/statement/sex-or-scripture-the-madonna-whore-complex/

https://etherealmagazine.net/culture/what-is-the-madonna-whore-complexand-how-do-we-defeat-it