Gynophobia
Gynophobia (also spelled as gynephobia) is an abnormal fear of women. In the past, the Latin term was used, horror feminae, meaning "fear of women".
Androphobia is the "fear of men".
The word caligynephobia is also coined to mean the fear of beautiful women. In many cases it may also be rooted in social phobia or social anxiety disorder.
Gynophobia used to be considered a driving force toward homosexuality. Havelock Ellis in his 1896 Studies in the Psychology of Sex wrote:
It is, perhaps, not difficult to account for the horror - much stronger than that normally felt toward a person of the same sex - with which the invert often regards the sexual organs of persons of the opposite sex. It cannot be said that the sexual organs of either sex under the influence of sexual excitement are esthetically pleasing; they only become emotionally desirable through the parallel excitement of the beholder. When the absence of parallel excitement is accompanied in the beholder by the sense of unfamiliarity as in childhood, or by a neurotic hypersensitiveness, the conditions are present for the production of intense horror feminae or horror masculis, as the case may be. It is possible that, as Otto Rank argues in his interesting study, "Die Naktheit im Sage und Dichtung," [sic] this horror of the sexual organs of the opposite sex, to some extent felt even by normal people, is embodied in the Melusine (see below) type of legend.
Wilhelm Stekel in his book "Sadism and Masochism: The Psychology of Hatred and Cruelty" discusses horror feminae of a male masochist.
Some authors consider the myths about Amazons (Eva Keuls argues that violent amazons are the evidence of gynophobia in Classical Athens and medieval witch-hunts to be manifestations of gynophobia in human culture.
Melusine
Melusine (or Melusina) is a figure of European legends and folklore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.
She is usually depicted as a woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down (much like a mermaid). She is also sometimes illustrated with wings, two tails or both, and sometimes referred to as a nixie.
See also
- Androphobia: fear of men
- List of phobias
- Femme fatale
- Social anxiety disorder
- Social phobia
- Love shyness
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