The Cassandra Complex And The Marginalization Of Women

The Cassandra complex is a term from Homer’s Ilyas. This myth is one of the most famous in the world.

This myth tells that Apollo, the god of prophecy, was enchanted by the beauty of Cassandra. She was the daughter of the king of Troy. In exchange for her love, Apollo made her an offer.

He promised her the gift of prophecy. But Kassandra did not like Apollo. She accepted the gift but refused to accompany Apollo in return. Her act destroyed him. But most of all he was filled with anger.

So Apollo returned to curse Kassandra. He showed her what would happen. No one would believe her predictions would come true, even though they did.

So the gift became a curse. Kassandra’s sorrow was that she could see the future while others underestimate these truths.

What is called the Cassandra complex is when women feel inferior in several areas of their lives. In fact, they base their identity on prejudices that already exist about them.

Some women admit that they are too weak. They claim that everything makes them cry, that they are always the victim…

But others are caught up in phrases like the following: “my time is up” or “they haven’t found a man to stand by them.”

As a result, they build an identity based on dependence. Their identity also rests on the search for confirmation from others. They have low self-esteem and a tendency to feel responsible for everything.

This is what happened to Cassandra in the myth. We can summarize it in general as follows:

• What she really wanted is the validation of others based on her predictions. But all she got was rejections.
• She wanted to save her loved ones from disaster by telling them in advance what would happen. But they didn’t trust her. For those reasons, she felt bad and lost her self-confidence.

In the Cassandra complex, the tendency to show courage is always present. That’s because people think that that way they will gain respect and love from others.

But that doesn’t happen. You will only be rejected.

Women who suffer from this complex feel undervalued. As a result, they undergo significant psychological changes.

One of those changes has to do with perfectionism. They want to keep everything under control. If this attitude is exaggerated, it shows in how they take care of everything.

• They are obsessed with the little things, especially in their close environment.
• When everything is going well, they have no control. Then you see how they obsess over trifles. Because they can’t get confirmation for something they have no control over.

But the most striking thing is that their intuition no longer works. If others undervalue them, they do the same. Only they focus it on themselves and make use of feelings.

As a result, they no longer listen to their instincts. They no longer hear when their intuition says “this relationship is not good for you”, or “your suffering is meaningless.”

By doing all this they exhaust themselves. They don’t notice this at first. But their bodies will start to show signs that something is wrong. They suffer from pain, are overtired, cannot sleep…

External rejection is painful. But internal rejection is much worse.

The Cassandra complex is a marginalization of femininity. Because here women are not taken seriously. They are subordinate to men.

When Apollo felt rejected, he showed his manhood by exercising power over Kassandra. She didn’t stand a chance. Because she suffered the consequences of the male force majeure.

It is something that persisted after undergoing the wrath of Apollo. She went looking for confirmation and trust. But it was always denied to her.

Many women suffer from this complex. The reason is that they are born with it. It’s ingrained in them. This feeling of being undervalued is something they get from birth.

So much remains to be done to tackle the marginalization of women. But this is not taken into account because women are still considered weak, emotional and oversensitive.

The women who suffer from the Cassandra complex also nurture these attitudes and ideas. To put an end to these notions, we still have a very arduous and difficult road ahead of us, full of steep slopes.