Gender issues in lysistrata, a Essay Example For Students

Gender issues in lysistrata, a Essay Human beings are amazing creatures. Our history has shown spectacular and shameful events from day one. Throughout the course of history we have seen both war and peace. More war than peace, but the point still remains. That we, as a human race, have accomplished many wonderful intellectual break-throughs but we have also done very stupid deeds. Its amazing how a creature of such great intelligence could separate, segregate, discriminate, dehumanize, and enslave members of its own human race. The world as we speak is existing because of gender issues. Going back to days of Adam and Eve. When God asked Adam not to eat from the apple tree, it was Eve, with her feminine lure, who was able to convince Adam to disobey Gods rules and eat the apple. Yet when God came to punish Adam for disobeying the rules, Adam pointed to Eve and blamed her for luring him into the sin of eating the apple. Yet in reality it was the serpent, which was the devil, that lured them into eating the apple. But of course Adam, being male had to blame Eve, the female. Which is typical male behavior to blame the woman, my sister says. In general men don’t take responsibility for their actions. Michealangelo has portrayed all this on the Sistienth Chapel. He has painted a picture that is portraying God punishing Adam for eating the apple. In this painting Adam loses his masculine image by pointing to Eve and blaming her for the problems that were caused by eating the apple. Men threw out history have always been perceived as strong, powerful, heroic beings. Men are depicted as fighters, providers, and of course first class citizens. While woman on the other hand have always been perceived as weak, fainty, delicate homemakers, and unintelligent. Their main purpose in life is to cater for the men, and take care of the house and kids. And of course they were perceived as second class citizens. The focus of this paper is to analyze the gender issues and differences that existed in all three plays. I would like to relate and compare these issues to our past as humans and to our modern day present. We see a wide array of controversial gender issues arise in Lysistrata. This play starts off by showing the main character as a strong independent woman. The beginning of the play focuses on Lysistrata resentment and anger toward the woman of the town. She sees her own gender as weak and ignorant, and is appalled to be a woman at the beginning of the play. But Lysistrata proves us otherwise. She organizes and unites the woman of the neighboring town. In a master plan to end the Peloponnesian war. The plan was complete abstinence, and it was affective because of the unity of the women. This abstinence gave the women the upper hand and the power to demand peace. The men could no longer come home from battle have sex and then leave. The women had the control, which for some reason see ms very farfetched. The play its self brings out conflicts that our society today would think of as old fashion. First off, the image of the male being a fighter, and being powerful is perceived when the men are at war. They left the women at home to take care of the house and kids. Today in countries like the U.S., women also go to war and fight side by side with men. But in Lysistrata, the women stayed behind because they were thought of to be not as powerful, and that they were the homemakers. In reality, it turned out that the women were the most powerful. The women used the most powerful muscle in the human body, the mind. The women united together and executed their plan of abstinence equals peace. While executing their plan the females showed signs of true power. This power was only accomplished because of there unity. They occupied the Acropolis, and in doing so they took control of Athens’ financial reserves. This play shows true signs of women overcoming their gende r roles, which is still unheard of in some cultures today. The men however did not give up easily. They were extremely angry, which understandable. A man goes to battle and risks his life, but when he gets home he can’t even get a little love. This could make almost every man crazy. So the men threatened to attack the Acropolis, but in the end the women won. The power of women is vastly great, but this play shows that they need unity to execute this power. Macbeth Persuasive EssayThe men in this play seem to be the â€Å"all mighty knowledgeable†, while the women on the other hand are pictured to be almost stupid. Men had the go in almost every conversation. Women were just these unintelligent creatures made to take care of the home while the men provide. Very old fashion mentality threw out this play. You get a sense of suffocation and entrapment that is directed on to the women. The woman couldn’t just pack there stuff and leave the town, with out ridicule and hardship. They seemed to be â€Å"stuck†, in the sense that is very hard to leave a small town. The role of the women was to get married, stay home and take care of the kids, while the man provides and puts food on the table. This view is still somewhat shared with our society today. In conclusion it would be safe to say that all three plays relate gender issues to their time set. We can see many similarities within all three of these plays, and we can also see similarities that arise with our culture today. Even though today women are not treated as bad as they were. It is sad to say that even in the year 2000 women don’t have equal rights and don’t get equal treatment. Women still make .70 cents to the dollar as men. Their role is still to be the homemaker. And they hold such a small percentage of any policy making position. To think of all the lost talent and all the advances that could have been made to help our society is truly a sad and inhuman thought, that can get any one angry with our history. If one was to really think about it, the human race has not made much progress with the treatment of women.