Feminism In Lysistrata

Lysistrata is the most dirtiest, obscene and comical Athenian drama written by Aristophanes. It was written during 450-385 BCE and considered one of his best work. He began his career in 427 BCE with the play, Daitaleis, a satire play on educational and moral theories. He has written about forty plays in his lifetime. He is the only comic poet from the 15th century whose works has survived. His works combine the most basic kind of humor with political or social satire, parodies, and allusions or fantasy. During this time, he writes satirical plays or writings that criticize the government and its wars. He was considered as a comic dramatist in which he lived in the small city of Athens. He also knew lots of lead writers, philosophers and politicians

Lysistrata, the protagonist, a strong- willed women with a great sense of taking responsibility formulates a devious plan to stop the unending and strenuous war. Most plays or writings back then were not much about woman being the main character. Modern adaptations of the play are often feminist or pacifist. But when Aristophanes wrote this, it was neither of that. Rather he still emphasizes the gender or sexual stereotypes of women as irrational creatures; in the story, this can be seen when the councilor talks about women and their hysterical nature. The play also questions the role of women in society. In Ancient Athens, women are seen to reside in the private sphere of home and finances since they did not have suffrage. However, in Lysistrata, a suggestion is made that women are better than men when it comes to taking charge of the city. The traditional tasks of the women, such as spinning and weaving require a good management of detail. This management mindset is precisely what the city needs when it comes to ending the pursuits of war. Aristophanes plays around with gender stereotyping, in which tells us what they both are in a very ridicule way. Also, how Aristophanes exchange the gender roles in the story. He breaks traditional male dominance by instead having women characters play a heroic role. In the story, Lysistrata was displaying far more intelligent, brave and courageous than the male characters. Meanwhile, the male characters are portrayed as unskilled, incompetent fools. Another reason why Lysistrata is considered to be important is that it makes the audience where there is war in the first place. Why do men keep pursuing war in which there’s no one can give reasonable justification into which it there was in the first place? Aristophanes gives a good suggestion on how sex and the government are