Madonna Whore Complex - Tumblr Posts

Writing Rant: Adam/Playboy Ship Complex

It's 9:03 and I have a wedding to get to in the morning so let's speed this up!

Basically, I am going to be focusing on a point I brought up about how stories attempting to write queer men with a heteronormative gaze tend to ascribe hyperfeminine men to the role of women even to the point of giving them the same tropes.

PART BL: The MADONNA/WHORE COMPLEX EXPLAINED

Quick explanation time, skip if you already know! TLDR; The Madonna/Whore Complex describes how men view women through a reductive lense. Either women are the:

Madonna: Enigmatic and unattainable or a domestic down-to-earth goddess. Both subtypes are united by their lack of overt sexuality and a distinct and desirable femimine charm.

or

Whore: Sexually attainable and often judged for their sexual desires. They're desirable but not respected as humans with the freedoms they're allowed to enjoy having to fit the fantasy of a sex bomb.

BUT HOW DOES APPLY TO BL STORIES?

If you have read any mlm story on either Wattpad or AO3 you can already tell.

You have the protagonist who typically falls into the enigmatic unattainable doll/Adam archetype with soft porcelain skin and doe-eyed expressions of innocence despite being in their early twenties. They're often younger than their love interest by several years in order to further highlight a power imbalance between the love interest and them.

The name Adam has further symbolism due to the fact that when the male lead and love interest have sex for the first time there is an undercurrent of moral corruption with the normally enigmatic and reserved protagonist turning into a moaning mess with creepy narration about how the protagonist isn't "pure" anymore. Adam as a biblical figure is often said to have been corrupted by the sinful presence of Eve and the apple.

The protagonist is challenged by a "Playboy" character who desires the Male Lead. The character is often portrayed in darker clothing and behaves exceedingly similar to the figure of the Femme Fatal.

You also have several plotlines based on the Madonna/Whore Complex which repeatedly appear in heteronormative queer stories.

"Good Girl Boy Who "Saves" The Sinful Man"

" The Redemption Of The "Playboy" Through Love"

"Wife Vs Mistress/Husband Vs Mistress"

"The Moral Fall Of Adam"