madonna-whore complex
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.47 in modern English
41
Scrabble Score
19
Letters
5
Syllables
13
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A 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.
Example Sentences
- "‘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."
- "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?"
- "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."
- "“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?”"
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
Inflected Forms
Madonna-whore complexes (plural)
Madonna/whore complex (alternative)