Madonna/Whore

In he “Introduction” to Feminist Paradigms, Rivkin and Ryan list the various movements of feminism. There exist new and old notions of feminism. One of the goals of feminism was to redefine the Madonna/Whore complex, in which women are seen as virgins and therefore angelic, or they are seen as whores; there is no in-between. This aspect however, is still seen today. While reading this, it reminded me of one of the episodes of Sex and the City. Charlotte’s husband, Trey is unable to perform in the bedroom and Charlotte cannot figure out why. At first she does not tell her friends out of embarrassment. She even becomes insecure and thinks that the reason Trey “cannot get it up” is because she is unattractive. However, when she presents this at the breakfast table with her friends, Samantha suggests that this is because she is a wife and her husband sees her as an Madonna, and is not sexually aroused. Charlotte’s attempts to be sexy for her husband fail even when she buys sexy lingerie to arouse him.