“The Magdalene, like Eve, was brought into existence by the powerful undertow of misogyny in Christianity.

The church venerates two ideals of the feminine - consecrated chastity in the Virgin Mary and regenerate sexuality in the Magdalene. Populous as the Catholic pantheon is, it is nevertheless so impoverished that it cannot conceive of a single female saint independently of her relations (or lack of relations) with men.” 

Marina Warner.  ‘Alone of all her sex - The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary’.