Women and The Church: The Madonna/Whore Complex

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Since the beginning of recorded history, our world has put certain expectations and rules on female and males alike. Whether it be in the workplace, at home, or in society. There is a list of unwritten rules that every person should abide by if they want to fit in to their culture. For women in America, filling this quota is a lot harder than it seems. The Western woman is under the influence of unrealistic expectations regarding the media, this is true, but it is more complicated than that. Scholars have noticed a trend in the guidelines for women, from the stories in the bible to today’s modern media. The woman is to be a sexual being, a vixen, a wild child; while at the same time remaining reserved, submissive and pure. This phenomenon is called the Madonna/Whore complex. Madonna refers to the Virgin Mary, the epitome of chaste and respectable lady, and the whore refers to the side of the woman that is most like Eve, a temptress and dangerous seductress.
The most read and worshipped texts in the world are religious text, especially in the beginning of Western empires, where the bible was the rule book to etiquette in everyday life. Guidelines and laws were often based off of this sacred text. For much of civilization, churches and places of worship have had the most impact on society, contrary to today’s emphasis which focuses more on the entertainment industry. The scholarly article, “Women and The Church: Go Created Women in Her Own Image,” article agrees with this assumption and said, “Of all of the institutions which throughout the centuries have sanctioned and fostered the subjugation of women, the Roman Catholic Church can be charged with being the most influential and therefore the most damaging” ("Women And The Church:...

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...odies and their own choices.

Works Cited

"∇troperville." RSS. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1973. Print.
Conrad, Browyn Kara. "NEO-INSTITUTIONALISM, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, AND THE CULTURAL REPRODUCTION OF A MENTALITÉ: Promise Keepers Reconstruct The Madonna/Whore Complex." vol. 47, no. 2 (May 2006), p. 305: Web. 7 Apr. 2014.
The Breakfast Club. Dir. John Hughes. Perf. Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald. A&M Films, Channel Productions, Universal Pictures, 1985. DVD.
Morgan, Elizabeth. "Mary And Modesty." Christianity & Literature 54.2 (2005): 209-233. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
Spenser, Terre. "The Feminine and Punctuation May Well Save the World." Jungatlanta. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
"Women And The Church: God Created Woman In Her Own Image." vol. 1, no. 21 (May 06, 1971), p. 1: Web. 7 Apr. 2014.

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