Madonna–whore complex

[1] First identified by Sigmund Freud, who called it psychic impotence,[2] it is a psychological complex that is said to develop in men who see women as either saintly Madonnas or debased whores.

[6] Psychoanalyst Richard Tuch suggests that Freud offered at least one alternative explanation for the Madonna–whore complex: This earlier theory is based not on oedipal-based castration anxiety but on man's primary hatred of women, stimulated by the child's sense that he had been made to experience intolerable frustration and/or narcissistic injury at the hands of his mother.

[5] Another theory claims that the Madonna–whore complex derives from the alleged representations of women as either madonnas or whores in mythology and Abrahamic theology rather than developmental disabilities of individual men.

[9] Feminist theory asserts that the male-written culture (MWC) perpetuates patriarchal norms by controlling women's sexual autonomy through shaming, reinforcing gender stereotypes, and allowing men to maintain power.

[16] In his film Vertigo, Kim Novak portrays two women that the hero cannot reconcile: a blonde, virtuous, sophisticated, repressed "Madonna" and a dark-haired, single, sensual "fallen woman".

[17] The Martin Scorsese films Taxi Driver and Raging Bull featured sexually obsessed protagonists, both played by Robert De Niro, who exhibit the Madonna–whore complex.

[20] The complex is also pictured in the series Sex and the City, season 3 (ep.16, "Frenemies", directed by Michael Spiller), as Charlotte (Kristin Davis) struggles to make her husband Trey (Kyle McLachlan) see her in a sexual way.