Padriag
Posts: 2633
Joined: 3/30/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: juliaoceania quote:
The Madonna-Whore complex is a slightly more complicated variation on the Oedipus complex. In this case the mother is idolized as an image of purity... the "madonna" or virgin mother... the idea of making any sexual associations with this image is repulsive to the individual. However, sexual urges are powerful and seek expression, so the individual (who probably also see's sex as being "dirty") seeks out the opposite of that "madonna" ideal as a sexual partner... a whore. Interestingly, the more sex is made to seem "dirty" in general by a culture (that is, a culture states or implies that any and all sex is somehow "dirty" and/or taboo)... the more frequently the Madonna-Whore complex emerges in individuals. My best friend has repeatedly been attracted to men that have this issue. I would say that this is because it is so prevalent in men to have this complex, and while it is prevalent, I have never been attracted to men that suffered from it.. A very interesting question to ask her is why is she attracted to such men... does she want to be their Madonna... or their Whore? Just as some men have some, shall we say "extreme", views of what women should be, so do some women. There are those who very much identify with that "Madonna" ideal, who view themselves as being too pure to be touch, above anything carnal, etc. and so come across as frigid and experience unusual degrees of anxiety in sexual situations. Other women more identify with the "Whore" ideal, seeing themselves as dirty, soiled, filthy, lowly, unfit for certain kinds of relationships. The Madonna-Whore complex can appear in women just as often as it does in men, the chief difference being that men apply it to women, while women apply it to themselves identifying with one or the other extreme. There is a submissive I've been talking with for nearly two years now who very much has her own Madonna-Whore complex going. She identifies with the Whore aspect, yet wants to be more like the Madonna aspect, and has been quite unhappily conflicted as a result.
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Padriag A stern discipline pervades all nature, which is a little cruel so that it may be very kind - Edmund Spencer
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