f r e u d

Let’s Get Into

Mallika Nawal
Medusa’s Head
Crimes against women won’t stop. As women gain more
independence—both in thought and spirit—man’s castration anxiety
will act out and will always find a Medusa to behead.

T
here is a famous Chinese
curse: May you live in interest-
ing times. And whether we like
it or not—the world around
us is indeed quite interest-
ing (and getting “interestinger” still).
After all, when cops visit Rahul Gandhi’s
office and ask “what he looks like”—oh
boy!—that’s got to be the most interesting
event of the century. So, whether it’s his
“appearance” that’s baffling to the cops
or Putin’s “disappearance” that’s baffling
to the world, you’ve got to admit that we
live in an arrestingly interesting world.
Another event that rocked the world,
the nation, the Parliament and most
importantly—social media—was the
documentary India’s Daughter. However,
before you skip this article assuming it’s
another opinion piece on whether the for-
mer colonial masters and their other fair-
skinned cousins are judging us unfairly,
just give it a rest. Like I said in my last
piece (Let’s Tie Cinderella Up, Swarajya,
March 2015), symptoms do not excite my
pen! Besides, you already know that we
are here to talk about—Medusa!
then banished to the earth’s end where
she continues to terrorize mortal men
(making them—pun intended—rock
hard) till the hero Perseus beheads her
and uses her severed head as a weapon
(for it can still turn onlookers to stone).
He eventually presents the head to
Athena, who places it on her shield.
The stark similarity (between then
and now) is glaringly obvious—it was the
woman who was raped who was cursed
and banished to earth’s end, while Posei-
don continued playing god.
It was the woman who was turned into
a hideous monster so she could not be-
witch and snare another simple-brained
man. It was the woman who was cursed
with a lolling tongue lest she spoke or
complained. In other words, since antiq-
uity, it was the woman who was blamed
for the rape and it was the woman who
was prevented to speak.
Maybe it was for this reason that
Medusa caught the attention of a male
Austrian neurologist and now the father
of psychoanalysis—Sigmund Freud.
In his posthumously published short
ers in a knot since time immemorial.
And…it is this castration anxiety that
keeps acting itself out. How? Simple—by
decapitating Medusa. (By the way, in
case it wasn’t obvious—Medusa is simply
a representation of women and the
decapitation basically acts out as Crimes
Against Women.)
Throughout the ages, strong women
have terrorized men, particularly the
proponents of patriarchy. And through-
out the ages, “these” women have been
persecuted to restore the patriarchal
order (and to assuage man’s castration
anxiety). A classical example of this is
the “burning times”.
The “burning times” is a term that
refers to the witch-hunting and witch-
burning period, which began around the
mid 15th century and extended all the
way up to the early 18th century. The
“burning times” are a stark reminder of a
dark time when we as a society, literally
turned on our own daughters and sisters.
Smart, independent and learned women
were butchered at the stake of humanity
for the sake of patriarchy.

As Sigmund Freud perceptively postulated, the

Well, then, let’s address the Gorgon in
the room first, shall we? Who is Medusa?
When it comes to Medusa, there are
different versions of the myth. However,
in classical Greek mythology, Medusa is
a beautiful young woman with ravish-
ingly lovely head of hair, who is raped by
Poseidon in Athena’s temple. And jealous
of her bewitching beauty (especially her
hair) and angry at the desecration of her
temple, Athena transforms Medusa’s
fine mane into a living, writhing mass of
venomous snakes, and curses her with a
petrifying stare (and, for some reason, a
lolling tongue—the symbolism of which
we will discuss a little later). Medusa is
essay Medusa’s Head, Freud postulated
that the horror of Medusa stemmed from
a simple equation:
To decapitate = To castrate
In other words, the horror of Medusa
was in fact nothing but a reflection of the
castration complex in men.
Of course, when we demystify the
original definition, the castration com-
plex is basically a fear of emasculation—
whether literal or metaphorical. (For the
purposes of accuracy, when it is defined
literally, it is “castration complex”; and
when it is defined metaphorically, it is
“castration anxiety”.) And it is this cas-
tration anxiety that has had men’s knick-
According to Mary Daly in Gyn/Ecol-
ogy: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism
(1978), witches were “women whose
physical, intellectual, economic, moral
and spiritual independence and activity
profoundly threatened the male monopo-
ly in every sphere.”
In fact, the English author Reginald
Scott clearly states in his book The
Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584): “The chief
fault of (these) witches is that they are
scolds.” In case you are wondering what/
who are scolds, “scolds” was defined by
the Jacob’s Law Dictionary as “trouble-
some and angry women, who, by their
brawling and wrangling amongst their
neighbours, break the public peace”.
Therefore, scold was basically a crime
that could only be committed by a wom-
an. In other words—she was a woman
who could not keep her contrarian and
subversive views to herself (much like
me, I’m afraid!).
Scolding as a crime was punishable
too (just like all crimes are). An interest-
ing device that was often used to inflict
punishment was the Scold’s Bridle (also
known as “branks”), which was an
instrument of punishment for women ac-
cused of speaking aggressively or talking
back to a man. It was an iron cage that
encased the woman’s head with a sharp
horror of Medusa was in fact nothing but a
reflection of the castration complex in men
spike that projected into the woman’s
mouth, which prevented her from speak-
ing. Furthermore, it sometimes muti-
lated her tongue too. Do you now see the
symbolism of Medusa’s lolling tongue?
From an anthropological point of
view, it is clear that women-hatred (bet-
ter known as “misogyny”) had reached
its zenith during the Renaissance and
had become a full-time enterprise and
occupation. Eccentricity, independence
and intelligence was enough to get a
woman killed. It is little wonder then that
a basic primal survival instinct made
women learn to wear masks—of docility,
sweetness and compliance. Women learnt
to play the fragile damsel-in-distress to
escape persecution at the hands of a man

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The “burning times” were when we as a society
butchered smart, independent and learned women
at the stake of humanity for the sake of patriarchy
who suffered from a castration complex.
After all, the man’s superiority could
only be guaranteed by the woman’s infe-
riority (a sentiment that was echoed by
Aristotle too).
Post the burning times, women learnt
to play second fiddle to man’s primary
organ. This is why when the Brothers
Grimm compiled their fairy tales in the
19th century; the theme of woman as
inferior (damsels-in-distress who need
saving) became a universal constant.
Did you know that during the burning
times, a large number of women who
were dubbed witches and consequently
burned at the stakes—were practicing
48 A p r i l 2015
“healers” and midwives? Then again, of
course, they deserved to be burned! How
dare they…when medicine clearly was a
man’s domain?!
It was this economic independence of
women that threatened men then (as it
does now), thereby giving rise to a feeling
of powerlessness or emasculation. And it
was this feeling of emasculation that had
men butcher the women. (Can you see
the economic rationale? It’s bewitchingly
simple—eliminate the competition!)
This castration complex becomes
pretty evident if you read Malleus
Maleficarum, a treatise written in 1486
by Heinrich Kramer, a German Catholic
clergyman. According to Kramer (1486),
witches can use their glamour that can
cause the male “member” to disappear (if
that doesn’t scream castration complex,
nothing else will!) He further states that
witches were sexually impure. In other
words, a woman who had known carnal
lust was basically a witch. Hence there
was a need for the upholders of patriar-
chy to punish and persecute them (in
other words—teach them a lesson).
Pay close attention to the above
paragraph and tell me if those same senti-
ments were not echoed by Mukesh Singh,
the rape accused; and the defense lawyers
M.L. Sharma and A.P. Singh, in India’s
Daughter? This sentiment reeks of castra-
tion anxiety—a feeling of emasculation
that is felt by men when they confront a
woman who disobeys the rules of patriar-
chy. Of course, this has been wonderfully
expressed by the Afghan-born American
novelist Khaled Hosseini, who says:
“Like a compass needle that points north,
a man’s accusing finger always finds a
woman. Always.”
Besides, you can see this castration
anxiety at play…every day. It’s castra-
tion complex when a man refuses to
marry someone more educated than him.
It’s castration complex when a man re-
fuses to marry someone taller than him.
It’s castration complex when a man
refuses to marry someone who earns
more than him (or feels threatened when
a spouse starts earning more).
It’s castration complex when a man
refuses to marry someone smarter than
him. It’s castration complex when a man
wants to marry a virgin (for otherwise
she’s a witch who’s known carnal lust).
In other words, it is castration com-
plex when a Madurai cop father beats
up his 25-year-old daughter in public in
Bengaluru over an alleged affair.
What I want to say is very simple—
crimes against women won’t stop. As
women gain more independence (both in
thought and in spirit), castration anxiety
will act out and will always find a Me-
dusa to behead!
Mallika is a professor-cum-author, doing her
PhD in marketing from IIT Kharagpur, and
author of three management books which
are prescribed textbooks in universities across
India. She has taught in India and abroad.
She is also the author of the crime novel I’m a
Woman & I’m on SALE.
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