Friday, March 11, 2016

Lysistrata Blog Post #1

           After beginning to read into Lysistrata the first thing that became clear to me was a theme of feminism. Many of the stories first few events have this theme to it as we see different scenarios of the groups of females in the book rebelling and taking a stand to try to counter what they do not appreciate about the culture they live in.  That is especially a significant action for these women to be attempting because this far back in history was a time whkere women were not seen as much more than servants or sexual objects.
            Lysistrata began this movement herself by gathering the Greek women on her own and making them all realize they had a mutual anger against their husbands. They came together and concluded that they were not satisfied with their husbands always being away and fighting at war, and only being used for serving them and for sexual favors. So they come to a solution of withholding sexual privileges from their husbands in order to obtain what they desire. Through this first event in this story we see what seems to mirror a feminist gathering taking place, by these women taking action to get what they want.

             One more event that shows such a theme is the Greek women taking over the acropolis by locking themselves inside. The women, making the men notice their discontent, blocked off a location, which the men had to access in their situation. This shows a sort of feminist rally and leads me to believe the rest of the story could carry out such scenarios and themes.
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 12, 2016 at 8:54 AM

    Lysistrata is able to start an early feminist movement in this time period when women were nothing more than mere objects. It is strange to think about the men who would have to play these parts because women were not even a part of Greek plays. Aristophanes is a man that seemed to advocate feminism earlier than anyone else even though that may not have been his purpose.

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  2. UnknownMarch 13, 2016 at 4:35 PM

    I like that you pointed out the fact that Lysistrata first had to unite the women with a mutual idea. She first had to bond the women over the anger of their husbands which is important because without this bond, there would be no sex strike. United any group of people to stand for something is hard enough but uniting a group of seemingly powerless women would have been near impossible without a likeness to attach to.

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  3. UnknownMarch 14, 2016 at 6:19 PM

    Lysistrata is a good example of a Grecian heroine, precisely for the reasons and examples you commented on. She had to unite relatively powerless Greek women, who together proved to be a formidable force. Although it is not clear yet whether Lysistrata has succeeded in getting the men to notice their protest, she has at least made the point known which is remarkable in and of itself.

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