The Reversal of Sex Roles in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Term Paper Example

The central position that sexuality and gender roles occupy in Aristophanes’ comedic work Lysistrata may be understood as a critique of the power relations in the world of fifth century Ancient Greece. Yet to fully grasp the import of Aristophanes’ critique, it is necessary to highlight the crucial aspect history plays in this narrative. Set against the backdrop of the Pelopennesian War fought between Athens and Sparta and the latter’s allied coalition, Aristophanes can be said to criticize war in general, by portraying the presupposed masculinity of war in a ridiculous light. Namely, the entire story of the play revolves around the women of both sides withholding sex from the men in order to stop the conflict, a form of what may be termed proto-feminist protest that is ultimately stopping the war. Here gender roles become radically reversed, as power is transferred from the physical violence of men and their hegemonic control over society to the social role of the women. The women of Ancient Greece essentially protest and ultimately overthrow the inherent violence of male society in Aristophanes’ work, using their position as sex objects within male society to subvert the society itself.

Accordingly, at the very outset of the work there are two clearly defined gender and sexual roles assigned to men and women respectively, roles that without which Aristophanes could not develop his narrative. This is a narrative that ultimately functions as a critique, in as much as it reveals the absurdity of war and the decision-making process that creates war. The gender role ascribed to the male is that of the warrior, one who seeks resolutions to political disputes and problems through armed physical violence. Hence, the context of the Pelopennesian War serves to illuminate the typical methodology of the resolution of political conflicts in male dominated societies through violence. Thus, during a discussion of the cause and effects of the war between the central female figure of Lysistrata and the legal magistrate, Lysistrata displays her interpretation of the logic of male dominated violence and war as solution to political strife:

MAGISTRATE:

Is gold then the cause of the war?

LYSISTRATA:

Yes, gold caused it and miseries more, too many to be told.

‘Twas for money, and money alone, that Pisander with all of the army of mob-

Agitators

Raised up revolutions.

Aristophanes here develops a close connection between greed and violence: both can be viewed as entirely physical passions, such that the struggle over the control of economic resources is always close to the precipice of plunging into violence. The male solution to this problem is thus violence, and insofar as men represent the dominant group within the Greek society of the time, that is to say, the group that holds hegemonic control over this society, their violent strategies and tactics become the solutions to political strife.

Accordingly, however, because of this same control, women also have a clearly defined role in this same society. Women are relegated to the home, tied to the realm of the domestic, meaning that their primary gender roles are defined in terms of the statues of mother and sexual object. Yet it is precisely these statues, and realizing their inherent power, that leads to the crucial subversion in the narrative: by withholding sex, the women of Lysistrata turn their position of weakness within the male constructed patriarchal hierarchy into a position of strength. Hence, as Lysistrata herself states when outlining her plan to subvert patriarchal political policy she states: “O women, if we would compel the men, To bow to Peace, we must refrain-“. Perhaps the key moment in these phrases is the explicit mention of peace: women can see an alternative political policy towards which men are only blind. In the context of political conflict, patriarchal society sees the only resolution in war; it takes the act of “compelling” to make the men realize the other political possibilities. Yet this cannot be communicated to the patriarchy from a viewpoint exterior to the patriarchy’s logic: this must be an interior subversion of the patriarchy, in other more figurative words, it requires an act that is spoken in a language that the patriarchy understands. This means that the women of Aristophanes’ narrative push their male-ascribed gender roles to the extreme, ultimately using the patriarchal structure to turn it against itself.

Hence, the gender roles of the women are reversed not by the women of the play assuming a gender role that is radically different to the roles that are maintained by the patriarchy, but rather by showing the patriarchy’s internal shortcomings. These shortcomings, as Aristophanes caricatures in a humorous manner, are the reliance of patriarchy upon sex and violence as foundations of the society. In the private realm, sex and violence are combined to forcefully reduce women to sexual objects. In the public realm, violence is practiced as the solution to political problems, whereas sexual violence is practiced by the restriction of women to the domestic realm, not allowing them a voice in the workings of society. Aristophanes wants to critique this structure, and through the reversal of gender roles and the women’s internal subversion of the patriarchy as outlined above, what emerges is another type of society that does not rely upon the logic of man. For example, Lysistrata considers a form of politics that is completely different to the violence-dominated policies of men:

Lysistrata

We abolish war straight by our policy.

Magistrate

What will you do if emergencies arise?

Lysistrata

Face them our own way.

Aristophanes wants to show that through the reversal of gender roles, whereby women occupy a position of power, another type of politics becomes possible. This is a politics that is not rooted in violence on the private and public levels. War is not the only political solution; with the reversal of gender roles in Lysistrata, it becomes clear that it is only a particular political solution, and ultimately one that is ineffective, considering that the womens’ scheme to withhold sex from the men ultimately succeeds and ends the war.

Hence, Aristophanes’ play locates some of the stereotypical gender roles in Ancient Greek society. However, by locating these roles, he does not argue that they are essential roles: these roles are only the result of a particular patriarchal way of constructing a society. The violence that such a social construct is critiqued by Aristophanes, and the ultimate overturning of the construct through the subjugated female sex finding a source of hegemony within society shows that other political alternatives are possible.

Works Cited

Aristophanes. Lysistrata. Project Gutenberg. Accessed at: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7700/7700-h/7700-h.htm