Madonna-Whore Complex

"It's kind of a double-edged sword, isn't it? If you say you haven't, you're a prude. If you say you have, you're a slut. It's a trap. You want to, but you can't. And when you did, you wish you hadn't." —The Breakfast Club

"Women who cannot become princesses have no choice but to become witches." —Akio, Revolutionary Girl Utena

File:Madonna-whore 6029.jpg

A pattern of thought that divides women into two mutually exclusive categories: Madonnas and Whores. The virtuous Madonna figure, possessing and protecting social virtue (and deploring sexuality) is an object of worship and everything that a woman should aspire to be. However, sex is not part of this. Any woman who fails to live up to the Madonna standard in any part is a worthless Whore, driven by sexual desire and therefore lacking morality. As soon as a woman is known to have an active sex life, she is automatically viewed as a whore.

The Madonna-Whore Complex (sometimes referred to as the "Virgin-Whore Complex") was described by Sigmund Freud on the basis of some of his clinical work. Specifically, he noticed the difficulty some men had in having sexual relations with their wives because they differentiated women into these categories. Those men were aroused by prostitutes and mistresses but not their wives.

The Madonna is not necessarily a wife. It is commonly also oriented on the mother or a sister, or another woman with close emotional ties.

Note how this contradicts The Three Faces of Eve.

Many societies past and present have bought into this dichotomy (see All Women Are Lustful and Honor-Related Abuse and Defiled Forever). Women can be forced to identify with one or the other, and can be ostracized or socially stigmatized for failing to do so. This burden weighs heavily on the heterosexual relationships of both partners, entirely dismissing the sexual needs of "good" women and relegating the sex lives of "good" men to illicit partnerships (since A Man Is Not a Virgin). Practical considerations, such as the use of sex to strengthen a relationship or as the means by which the madonnas became mothers in the first place, have no place in this sort of thinking.

Commonly found in older, pre-feminism works. Under the Madonna-Whore Complex, all women are either portrayed as promiscuous, immoral, often Evil Is Sexy seductresses or sweet, naive ingenues (or the sweet, sexless matriarchs they become). Smart, capable, good women who enjoy sex do not exist.

Occasionally this is enforced by The Scourge of God.

Compare Light Feminine and Dark Feminine, Betty and Veronica, My Girl Is Not a Slut, Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains, Good People Have Good Sex. The Unlucky Busty Girl trope can carry whiffs of this.

The madonna/virgin: The madonna is always good at heart, though she sometimes is corrupted - often sexually, and often by the whore. Common tropes applying to the madonna:

• Purity Sue
• Ice Queen (because frigidity means chastity)
• The Cutie (who may be corrupted)
• Hair of Gold
• Distressed Damsel
• The Ingenue
• Love Interest
• The Chick
• Light Feminine
• Betty
• Shrinking Violet
• Fragile Flower
• Innocent Flower Girl
• Winter Royal Lady
• The High Queen
• Woman in White
• Proper Lady
• Yamato Nadeshiko
• My Girl Is Not a Slut

The whore: Always evil and scheming, but with massive sex appeal, catering to the Male Gaze and Fetish Fuel. Common tropes applying to the whore:

• Evil Is Sexy
• Evil Redhead
• Fille Fatale
• Femme Fatale
• Black Widow
• Manipulative Bitch
• The Mistress
• Really Gets Around
• Depraved Bisexual
• Psycho Lesbian
• Straw Feminist (well, some of them call themselves "sex-positive"...)
• Dark Feminine
• Veronica
• The Vamp
• Rich Bitch
• I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!
• Lady in Red
• My Girl Is a Slut
• Your Mom / I Banged Your Mom. Mothers tend to be viewed as "Madonnas." Implying that they enjoy sex puts them in the "Whore" category in the minds of some men, which they find deeply insulting.
• Occasionally, particularly in more modern works, the "whore" may be more of an Ethical Slut, Good Bad Girl, or Hooker with a Heart of Gold. The line between Madonna and Whore may be blurred, or subverted altogether.

Examples of Madonna-Whore Complex include:

Anime and Manga

• Revolutionary Girl Utena deconstructs this with the character of Anthy Himemiya, who's viewed as either a Madonna or a Whore by those around her. As Akio says, "Women who cannot become princesses have no choice but to become witches." Even Utena herself falls in this trap, as she believes Anthy to be a helpless Madonna when she's far more complex.
  • The irony is that Akio himself falls into this trope. He was once a pure-hearted prince named Dios who wanted to make all girls feel special in the most unselfish ways until it started to take a toll on his health. Anthy, fearing for his safety, kept him from the public and accepted everyone's hatred for it. Over time, Dios lost his kind heart and slowly evolved into the manipulative devil he is in the series proper.
• Naruto contains a variation with the characterization of Sakura and Karin. Despite being a fiery Tsundere, Sakura is never seen making any sexual advances to Sasuke, only a teary Anguished Declaration of Love and a troubled yet almost devotion pre-timeskip. Whereas Karin is much more openly sexual, to the point of planning to drug Sasuke's teammates post-timsekip so as to try raping him while he's weakened. Karin gives up when Sasuke directly attempts to kill her; Sakura does manage to bring him back to his senses and be with him, but only after much heartbreak and efforts from her and others. Ironically - this leads to Karin and Sakura more or less becoming friends in the Naruto Gaiden novel, to the point later Karin was the midwife for Sakura and Sasuke's daughter Sarada.

Comic Books

• This is basically how Rorschach from Watchmen views women... Except that he doesn't seem to know any Madonnas.
• In Promethea when you get to the upper layer of what is basically Heaven you find out that the Madonna and the Whore of Babalon are the same concept seen from different angles.

Fan Works

• Fanfics including a Mary Sue or a Love Triangle with two women will twist the girls featured in it into these "definitions". The girl on the losing edge will be seen as a Whore or a Bitch due to Die for Our Ship, whereas the "winner" will be the Madonna and obtain the guy. This Trixie Belden fic is a prime example. Hell, it doesn't even matter what the canon personalities were, the "loser" could be a total shrinking violet or solemn type and she'll still inevitably be The Whore. Like in this Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones fic.
  • The Sacred Stones in particular seemed to have a gender inversion going on with the Seth/Eirika vs. Innes/Eirika shipping wars. Seth was composed and suppressed his feelings for Princess Eirika, so he was the knightly Madonna who deserved her love. Prince Innes, however, expressed his feelings for Eirika outright in their A support and declared his intention to win her over by battling Ephraim. This made him the Whore who forced his feelings on Eirika and would totally bully her into an arranged marriage despite all evidence to the contrary.
• The only thing differentiating Hogwarts Exposed from any other Harmonian fic that does this to with Hermoine and Ginny is that both are nudists, adding to the utter hypocrisy. Hermoine goes around naked thanks to the advice of the Mary Sues, but she is pure and chaste and has the decency to be embarrassed and therefore is worthy of Harry's love. Ginny, meanwhile, flaunts her naked body and dates both Snape and Draco, therefore she's a skank.
  • In a weird inversion, Harry Potter fans actively root for "whores" Draco and Snape to snare Hermoine away from "Madonna" Ron, her caring childhood friend.
• A Bleach fan once made a post basically saying Orihime was The Whore because she had big boobs and a pretty face, while Rukia was The Madonna and an ideal future wife because she was slender and tomboyish. They claimed Ichigo could never truly love Orihime with his heart, only with his dick, because only slender flat-chested girls deserve the hero's heart. Naturally, people blasted the fan for this and gloated when canon proved her wrong.
  • Many other Bleach fans, however, insist on this by reducing Orihime solely to her breasts and mockingly saying they were her key to his heart. And keep comparing her to the petite Rukia - while also being hypocrites, since they whine about Orihime's breasts while fetishizing the hell out of Rukia's slim figure and especially her shapely ass.
  • Again, this is actually a distressingly common thing in Ship-to-Ship Combat. Many fictional girls who either win the hero's heart or have good chances to do so will be branded as unworthy whores by opposing shippers, who turn and hold up their chosen darling as the Madonna who either should win or should have won.
• Fire Emblem fans have this even going beyond their fanfics, particularly Fates fandom where Hinoka's fanboys will fetishize her small chest and declare her perfect wife material because of her chaste devotion to the male Corrin, while demonizing her Nohr counterpart Camilla for having big breasts, dressing skimpily, and being more obsessive in her love for Corrin. These same fans either adore or have no problem with the similarly sexy Charlotte, who can also marry a male Corrin...but only because she doesn't have established feelings for him, and is not in the way of their ship.

Film - Animated

• In most Disney films, but especially Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs and The Little Mermaid, where the "good" princess is pure and virginal and the "evil" villainess is an older woman with more sexuality. Though Ariel, unlike Snow, also gets some more burgeoning sexuality deals going on - like when she wriggles her newfound toes...
  • And then this is deconstructed in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, where Quasi views Esmeralda solely as the gentle Madonna who saves and befriends him while Frollo sees her as a sensuous Whore that he lusts after. In reality, Esmeralda is neither... and that's why she falls for Captain Phoebus, the guy who DOES manage to go past both "definitions" and see the real woman behind them.

Film - Live-Action

• Black Swan: Explains the whole plot of the ballet, and juxtaposes beautiful but sexually repressed Nina (Natalie Portman) vs. smoldering sexpot Lily (Mila Kunis).
• The Night of the Hunter: The villain Harry Powell has this — being caught at a strip club at the beginning of the film, then later refusing to have sex with his wife on their wedding night and lecturing her that her body is only meant for having children.
• The Cabin in the Woods has Jules and Dana shoehorned into both roles, Jules becoming "The Whore" and Dana being "The Virgin". Though in reality the Whore is in a steady relationship with her boyfriend and isn't exactly that promiscuous while the Virgin/Madonna isn't actually a virgin and has been having an affair with her professor.
• The existence of the Final Girl in slasher movies runs on this trope. The Final Girl is typically a virgin and above vices such as drinking, smoking and being promiscuous. She is usually contrasted with other girls in the film who enjoy frequent sex and therefore don't survive the film. Halloween was among the first to do this with all the female victims being killed in relation to sex. Two had just had sex while the third was on her way to do so.
• Black Mask 2: City of Masks: The protagonist's love interest is a capable scientist and a compassionate person who is afraid of even being touched by men; Chameleon, the dark action girl among the villains, is introduced being publicly amorous with her boyfriend and fights naked in order to use her stealthy abilities, exhibiting no sense of shame about this.
• The titular heroine of Malena. Renato sees Malena as a Madonna figure, even having an Imagine Spot where she rides through the town dressed as the Virgin Mary. The women of the town see her as a Whore because the men ogle her and stare at her as she passes by. Malena herself starts out the film as a Madonna, but sees herself forced to become a Whore when she has to prostitute herself to make money. And then the jealous women end up assaulting her...
• Cruel Intentions has the virginal Annette Hargrove contrasted with the manipulative and sexual Kathryn Merteuil.
• In Saturday Night Fever, Tony believes a girl can be a "nice girl" or a "c**t", not both.

Literature

• In Making Money this is exploited by Mr. Bent's Love Interest, who concludes that she's already "ruined" simply by being in his room and may as well keep on going.
• Left Behind.
• In Anita Blake, the eponymous character suffers from this kind of thinking. Often she and other characters, mostly male, believe her to be a 'slut' and treat her badly because she has something called The Arduer, a magical compulsion to have sex. If she didn't give in to it, it would eventually kill her, and through her, everyone she is magically tied to (most of the cast). This is a source of much Wangst in the series.
  • It also applies to the rest of the female cast, and has quite the Unfortunate Implications regarding how Anita herself views other women. Any ladies that Anita gets along with and protects must be "Madonnas" who "submit" themselves to her protection and are weak-willed in one or another ways; all women who are sexually attractive, know it and/or are willing to exploit it end up as "Whores" and as antagonists.
• In And Eternity, the protagonists read the memories of a rapist/serial killer, and find that he was motivated by this.
• Certainly the view of Ambrosio in The Monk, who tires of Matilda and Antonia for that matter after she is no longer "pure." Lewis himself seems to take a less extreme stance on the matter, painting Antonia as an innocent victim.
• A Tale of Two Cities has an interesting variant. Lucie Manette is The Ingenue who is good and possesses a childlike beauty, but depends on others to take care of her. Madame Defarge is the sexy, strong-willed villain. Then there is Miss Pross, who is both strong and good, but implied to be so ugly that she looks no different after a fight than before one.
• Shows up in several Catherine Anderson novels. The heroine is either pure and chaste, humble and shy, or too stubborn to admit she desires the man. She waits for him to come to her and make the first move, no matter how much she wants him. Her love rival, on the other hand, is a sex kitten who flings herself shamelessly at the hero and takes any reaction from him at all as a sign that he totally wants her. The man is always put off and disturbed by her advances and pushes her away.

Live-Action TV

• Dollhouse has an entertaining scene where Victor, who has apparently been given the imprint of a psychologist, speculates that Adelle is jealous of Echo and the other female actives because they get to be both the Madonna (their innocent resting states) and the Whore (a fair amount of their requested personas.) Adelle is not amused.
• Discussed in an episode of Mad Men where the characters mull over ideas for an ad and conclude that every woman is either a "Jackie" or a "Marilyn."
• In Noah's Arc, initially it appears that Ricky doesn't want to have sex with Junito because Junito is HIV positive. Ricky later confesses that it's because Ricky's falling in love with him, despite having had random sex partners in the quadruple digits.
• A G-rated gender inversion occurs in an episode of Boy Meets World. A girl Shawn likes decides he's a fun date, but not "boyfriend material" due to his fast reputation and fixation on making out rather than conversation.

Music

• The music video for Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me". The main girl she plays is an oh-so-cute Girl Next Door who latches on a guy who already has a girlfriend, who OF COURSE is a snooty Alpha Bitch for being prettier and more popular. And yet the same Tomboy who whines about how the Girly Girl is a bitch ends up having a very girly makeover before getting together with the guy.
  • In the "The Story of Us" music video, where Taylor's love interest chooses a girl who's much more physical in her affections than Taylor is, who shows to be more flirty and playful.
  • Taylor Swift in general gets a lot of hate for villainizing women that dress skimpily. On the internet, she is often accused of slut shaming.
• Lampshaped in "Opheliac" by Emilie Autumn

She knows in society she either is A devil or an angel with no in between She speaks in the third person So she can forget that she's me

• Christina Aguilera has been very vocal about her dislike of the whole thing, and her second album Stripped spends a good amount of time complaining about it.
• Britney Spears is have been noted for using this as her selling point. In her Greatest Hits:My Prerogative collection the writer says is she a good girl, doing bad things, a bad girl doing good things or a mixture of both
• Justin Timberlake uses this in his musical work.

I know that you're a bad girl You're a good girl

• Meat Loaf has a song titled "Good Girls Go To Heaven, Bad Girls Go Everywhere."
• Marina and the Diamonds has also been accused of this.

Theatre

• Grease has this in spades.
  • "Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee/Lousy with virginity/Won't go to bed 'til I'm legally wed/I can't; I'm Sandra Dee"
  • There Are Worse Things I Could Do" deconstructs this trope. Rizzo, who ironically is the same girl who sang the above quoted Sandra Dee song, very bitterly reflects on how she's viewed solely as the Whore and no one, including her love interest Kenickie (to a degree), seems to really see she also has tender feelings.
• Swan Lake follows two identical girls named Odette (the White Swan) and Odile (the Black Swan), each expressing one side of this complex, and ultimately ends in tragedy. It subtly deconstructs this trope, as the prince loves Odette's purity but doesn't seem to have any problem with it when she seduces him (though it's actually Odile, sent to him as a Honey Trap by her Big Bad of a father). It further emphasizes the deconstruction by often having the same dancer play both parts, implying a real woman has both the Black and White Swan. And additionally, Lighter and Softer versions tend to make Odile more sympathetic.
• Played with in Man of La Mancha: Aldonza is literally selling her favors; while the narrative treats her more-or-less sympathetically, most of the other characters view her as trash for doing so. Alonso views her—quite insistently, nonetheless—as his pure and noble liege-lady.
• In Faust Greta's brother used to boast of her virtue and feminine perfection until she started an affair. Then he calls her a whore and tells her to start charging all comers. Okay, so he's mortally wounded and understandably bitter when he says that bit, but still!

Religion and Mythology

• Famously, nowhere does The Bible say "Mary Magdalene was a prostitute", neither is she positively identified with the Woman With The Alabaster Jar (who seems to be a shamed slut, whether professional or not), it just strikes many people as a great idea to call her a whore to counterbalance, you know, The Madonna.

Web Original

• Gender-inverted with The Nostalgia Chick, Todd in the Shadows and The Nostalgia Critic. In the Chick's eyes, Todd is the every way perfect man who'll fix her, and she's driving herself crazy in order to attain him. Critic on the other hand, is the comfortable flirt who jacks off butter and sings about how everyone should be slutty, but is just too fucked up for her to think a proper relationship with him could work.

Video Games

• The BB Corps in Metal Gear Solid 4 - ultrasexualised female villains depicted with animalistic traits who molest the hero, who are then portrayed (once 'purified' upon Snake's defeat of them) as beautiful, virtuous and helpless people, who only hurt people because they have been corrupted by outside influences. Many Metal Gear villains reveal their tragic pasts on their deathbed, but the BB Corps have no agency over theirs (their stories are even told to the protagonist by a male character) and it's so extreme that it falls hard into this trope.
• Hilda Valentine Goneril invokes this in her B support with Sylvain José Gautier in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. She tells him he's cute, but he'd make a terrible husband because he fools around with too many women.
  • Sylvain seems to invoke this trope on himself in his dalliances with women. He has a lot of sex, but refuses to commit due to his trust issues with women, therefore purporting himself as a whore to protect himself from being hurt by any Gold Diggers. It only causes more problems. Luckily he can overcome this if he achieves A support with Mercedes, Ingrid, Dorothea, female Byleth, or Felix.

Real Life

• Averted, in Real Life by this woman. Sign reads "Not whores, not saints, only women."
• Sadly, many women WILL play this straight in real life due to envy, body issues, or other reasons. Many attractive women receive lots of hate and bullying from other women and especially from those who have self-esteem issues, who see them as Whores and themselves as Madonnas. Even worse if the "Madonnas" try to invoke feminism to cover their asses, often saying the prettier ones are only "loved" for their looks rather than their skills or their talents.