Enforcing Gender Stereotypes

     Lysistrata is not only the main character of the play, but she is also the leading feminist of the Greeks. Like all people who have reached the age of puberty, our hormones can sometimes get the best of us. Thus wanting her husband to hurry up and come home from war, Lysistrata hopes to “save the States of Greece” because “the hope and salvation of Hellas lies with the women” (18)!
    Unfortunately “wisdom from women” (18) is not a common theme in Grecian times.  Women were only meant to take care of the house but Lysistrata knew that house ‘chores’ are merely trivial and women have “more fundamental business to engage in” (17). So If women were given jobs back then, she would most likely be the event planner of Akropolis. (And like all event planners she likes things to begin and end on time growing impatient when Myrrhine, along with the “girls from Thebes and the Peloponnese” (21) arrive late.) This is proven true when Lysistrata takes things into her own hands and devises an alluring plan of trickery. Ladies were suppose to “sit, [be] primped and painted, made up and dressed up”, etc. So to prove a point Lysistrata uses these gender stereotypes to her advantage. Telling the women at the meeting that they need to be more glamourous and seductive than ever to get their husbands to do what they wish, and to ultimately stop fighting. This plan of chicanery explicitly shows just how deceitful Lysistrata can be to get her way. It also provides examples of how Lysistrata is a natural leader to her peers.





This quote by Chimamanda Adichie enforces the idea of Lysistrata’s mindset, noting how women have more to offer than just their looks, but the Greek men of the time period only pay attention to beauty and care-taking because those were the values they were raised upon.