Madonna-whore complex

plural Madonna-whore complexes · alternative Madonna/whore complex

1. feminist theoryhuman sciencesA complex said to develop in men who see women as either saintly "Madonnas" or debased prostitutes, potentially leading to the inability to maintain sexual arousal within a committed, loving relationship.

   Under the Madonna-whore complexes that plagued me and most boys, there was a deep Christian fear of ourselves as animals, creatures of flesh more than spirit.

   2013, Andrew Hudgins, “Morning, Ladies!”, in The Joker: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 246

   5 more examples

   ‘Who’s That Knocking at My Door?’ [1967] was a film that dealt with a simple theme, one basic idea—a young guy trying to deal with his madonna-whore complex about women—plus a slight indication of what Little Italy was like.

   1973 November 18, Gene Siskel, quoting Martin Scorsese, “Along the ‘Streets’ of Little Italy …”, in Chicago Tribune, section 6, page 6

   The female nurse, however, still fulfils a public stereotype, according to the nurses The Sydney Morning Herald spoke to. She suffers from the Madonna-whore complex – she is a Madonna in the ward because she “helps” people, but socially she’s a Nurse and everybody’s heard of nurses’ parties, haven’t they?

   1981 June 20, “Nurses: think like a man, work like a dog, smile like an angel”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, number 44,765, page 33

   The analyst clarifies the enactments into reality of a defensive dissociation of the intimate object from the sexual object, a classic Madonna-and-Whore complex.

   2005, The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychoanalysis, American Psychiatric Publishing, →ISBN

   “Just got here. Saw the light on my way up to the loo—then I saw your fat arse sticking up investigating Nanny’s drawers so I thought I’d pop in. I see her taste in quasi-nun’s outfits hasn’t changed since 1985,” she observed, flicking through the hangers. “Think she’s got a Madonna and whore complex?”

   2008, Hester Browne, The Little Lady Agency and the Prince, Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 375

   As we’re well into the 21st century, we might have hoped that all of that Freudian hooey about the Madonna-Whore Complex could have been ditched by now, but [Rena] Priest’s work suggests that our society is still impacted by those archetypes.

   2017 June 4, Barbara McMichael, “Two views of life from Bellingham”, in Kitsap Sun, page 4D