Ever Heard of the Oedipus Complex?

Sticker by Claire McCulley.

“Of course she sleeps around, she has daddy issues.”

Societally speaking, when did girls and women become the punchline to this unoriginal, dated, misplacement of a joke?

In this essay, I will-

Kidding, but not really.

I think there is an unequal distribution of attention when it comes to this issue. Women and girls with “daddy issues” have been the plot line, an entire personality of a character and the punchline of bad jokes for years in the media. And for what? It’s always used as an insult, thrown at women as if it’s their fault, while they’re fuck ass fathers are held unaccountable as always.

But no one ever wants to talk about dudes with mommy issues. Let’s unpack that one.

DEFINING THE TERMS:

Daddy issues in women typically manifest as: sexual promiscuity, self esteem issues and clinginess. These women often date older men (and not for their money).

Mommy issues in men typically arise as: being misogynistic, they treat women like objects or avoid them completely, OR they become too attached to women, and seek out women who resemble their own mothers and become overbearing and clingy.

Either way I find this to be problematic. One way, they’re seeking out women who remind them of their mothers to abuse them, hurt them, punish them, etc. Or they’re seeking out women who remind them of their mother’s because they want to subconsciously have sex with them.

Freud really popped off when he defined the Oedipus complex.

Because for me, I find it to be quantifiably less weird to try and fill the emotional void your father left by getting involved with random men, then it is to subconsciously want to fuck your own mom. Like ???? You want to fuck your own mom, bro.

You know who had hardcore mommy issues? Every serial killer that has ever terrorized America. Ed Kemper, Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Son of Sam, The Green River Killer, The Zodiac Killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, and these are just the fan favorites. There’s more but you get the point.

So if you want to talk about issues, I’d say let’s shift the focus away from the girl who’s sleeping around and minding her own business, and put it towards dudes that are showing sociopathic tendencies.

I’m just saying that girls with “daddy issues” are far less harmful to society than boys with mommy issues.

And as long as we’re going to keep shifting the blame away from absentee fathers and placing it onto the women it’s affected, let’s start calling out boys for the fat Oedipus complexes! Equality, am I right, ladies?