The Kassandra Complex And The Marginalization Of Women

The Kassandra complex is one of the most famous myths from the Iliad written by Homer.

In it we are told that Apollo, the god of prophecy, was fascinated by the beauty of Kassandra. She was the daughter of the king of Troy. Apollo offered her something in exchange for her love.

What he promised her was the gift of prophecy. However, Kassandra did not like Apollon. So, she accepted the gift, but she refused to be with Apollo in return. He was disappointed. But above all, he was angry.

Apollo came back and cursed Kassandra with predictions that no one thought were true, even if they were.

Then the gift became a curse. Kassandra suffered from seeing how others underestimated what she knew was true.

The feeling of being underestimated makes you feel inferior

The Kassandra complex makes women feel inferior in several areas of life. In fact, they base their identity on some prejudices that already exist about them.

Some of them admit that they are too weak. They say they cry everywhere, that they are always the victims…

But there are also those who often use expressions such as “the ship has gone” or “they have not found a man to be by their side.”

All this leads them to construct an identity based on addiction. Their identity is also based on a need for approval from others, a lack of self-confidence, and a tendency to feel responsible for everything.

To a large extent, this is what happened to Kassandra in the myth.

• She wanted approval from others because of her predictions. But she was just rejected.
• She wanted to save her loved ones from the accident she had told them about before. But they did not trust her. Because of this, she felt bad and her self-esteem dropped.

In the Kassandra complex, there is always a tendency to show courage. This is because people believe that they will gain the respect and love of others in this way.

But none of this happens and you are just rejected.

The Kassandra complex causes psychological changes

Because of this feeling of being underestimated, women suffering from this complex begin to undergo important psychological changes.

One of these has something to do with perfectionism, a need to control everything. In excess, this can be seen as their visible care.

• They are obsessed with small things, especially in their domain.
• This shows the lack of control they have when everything is going well. They can not get approval for what they have no power or control over.

But the most relevant thing is that their intuition is turned off. If others underestimate them, they do the same.  However, they do this to themselves with their thoughts and feelings.

In this way, they stop listening when their instinct tells them things like “this relationship is not good for you,” or “you are suffering in vain.”

Doing all this makes them burn out. They do not notice this at first. But your body will start to show signs that something is wrong. They start to have pain, fatigue and trouble sleeping…

If external rejection is painful, internal rejection is much more terrible.

The marginalization of femininity, the prevalence of masculinity

The Kassandra complex is a marginalization of femininity. This means that women are not taken seriously  and are subordinate to men.

When Apollon felt rejected, he showed his masculinity by exercising power over Kassandra. She had no chance. She suffered the consequences of masculine dominance.

This is something that continues to happen after a sufferer of Apollo’s wrath. She sought approval and trust that would always be denied her.

Many women suffer from this complex. They inherited it. This feeling of being underestimated is something that is assigned to them at birth.

Although there is much we could do against the marginalization of women, this is not taken into account because women are still considered weak, emotional and too sensitive.

Those suffering from the Kassandra complex can also feed it. To get rid of these predefined labels, it is necessary to make some difficult changes.

Illustrations made by Norvz Austria, David Talley, Greta Larosa.