In the 1988 Summer Olympics, an unbelievable feat occurred. The feat happened during one of the premiere events, the 100 meter dash. The event was set up to be a great race between Carl Lewis of the United States and Ben Johnson of Canada. This did not happen. Ben Johnson blew away the field running a 9.79, a world record. Carl Lewis finished a distant second with a 9.88 ("Ben Johnson"). That is not the end of the story. Later on, the runners had to take a urinalysis. All of the runners passed but one, Ben Johnson. He tested positive for anabolic steroid use. It was later discovered that he'd been using steroids for several years. He was striped of his gold medal and his world record. Carl Lewis was given the gold and the world record ("Ben Johnson"). In the many years since this incident, no one has come close to Ben Johnson's time. The next fastest that has ever been ran was a 9.84 by fellow Canadian Donovan Bailey in the 1996 Summer Olympics. Steroids definitely enabled Ben Johnson to reach a new level that others haven't. Steroids are used as much in sports now as they have ever been in the past, even with stricter testing and knowledge of the harmful side effects. Olympians are especially prone to use these drugs because of the great pressure put on these athletes, but it is becoming wide spread through all sports. For the most part, the athletes get away with steroid use because of new technologies and using patterns which make the steroids undetectable to the tests. There are three main classifications of drugs in athletics. The first class is performance continuance drugs, which is the only accepted class in athletics. This class contains such drugs as aspirin, ibuprofen, and asthma inhalers. The se... ... middle of paper ... ...com/enw/eae3a/babine3.htm. March 12, 1998. "BIG Sport." [on-line]. Available: http://www.bigsport.com/main.shtml. March 23, 1998 Elliot, Diane. "Intervention and Prevention of Steroid use in Adolescents." The American Journal of Sports Medicine 24 Nov-Dec 1996: 46. "NIDA Research Report Series." [On-line]. Available: http://www.nida.nih.gov/ResearchReports/Steroids/Anabolic.html. March 16, 1998. Nnakwe, Nweze. "Anabolic Steroids and Cardiovascular Risk in Athletes." Nutrition Today Sep-Oct 1996: 206. Prather, Irvine D. "Clenbuterol: substitute for anbolic steroids?" Medicine and Science in Sports 27 Aug. 1995: 1118. "The Steroid Bible." [On-line]. Available: http://www.anabolicsteroids.com. March 26, 1998. "The use of Anabolic/Androgenic Steroids by Athletes." [On-line]. Available: http://www.medstudents.br/sport/sport2.html. March 26 1998.
Cole's article is not to attack Aristotle on his views of where a woman should be placed within the social and political order, in accordance to the Classic Greek period. Her intrigue is within "surveying some central values of that particular social and political institution," (Sterba 79). At first she begins with Aristotle's view on gender and class in ethics. Making a definite point among the social/political class, ancient Greek women and slaves were only allowed their male citizens to think for them. Being dependent on men silences the women and slaves without a voice to speak out, for the women work while the men socialize with others, the men assume that the women do not need a voice. According to Aristotle, even a woman's virtue is to be subservient to all males. As a part of common life the woman is considered the pack horse and the mother to raise the children, for the men. With all the work that women put into their specific households, some education and training would mature from the experience. It was thought again by Aristotle within; Deliberation, Education, and Emancipation, that woman did not possess the aptitude for practical reasoning. For whomever possessed practical reasoning carried with them authority on their decisions and the action pending. From these three classic Greek examples of how women were considered mentally and treated physically, the author Cole provides a progressive outlook of how women could have gained social and political power in a society of male dominant figures.
Typically in Athenian society, women took care of the things in the household while men, although still retaining the final say over matters of the household, focused most of their attention on the world outside the home. In the plays Assemblywomen and Lysistrata, Aristophanes explores roles of men and women in society, specifically what would happen if women were to take on the roles of men. Looking at these two plays about Athenian society as metaphors for marital life, it shows that men and women were incapable of having balanced power in their relationships. In both of these plays, the men were unable to keep their own sense of power when the women took over politics, and they eventually moved into the submissive role of women. In Lysistrata, the women used their seduction to gain power. Similarly, in Assemblywomen, the women came into power through deception and clever planning. This paper explores why women rarely stepped up to take power; how they would gain power when they would step up to claim it; and how the men would respond once confronted with a woman in power. This all serves to show that in Athens, a marriage of man and woman could not exist with mutuality of power – rather, one (typically the man) would dominate, while the other (typically the woman) took the submissive role.
There isn’t enough literature from this time period from the lower and middle classes of society, and the view of women we have comes from writings of the upper class males. As much of an enigma that the women of Athens were, it is clear that “women were for the most part legal nonentities,” (O’Neal 117) that were denied any association and participation in the intellectual life of their city. The women were not involved in getting an education, and never learned to read or write. O’Neal writes, “The principal spokesmen of fifth century Athens, Pericles and Thucydides, disdained Athenian women.” (O’Neal 117) Based on their writing, and on surmountable evidence, it can be assumed that women had only two roles in Athens - a wife, or a mother. A girl was ideally married at 14 or 15 years of age, and there was necessity that the bride was a virgin, otherwise she was shamed and sold into
Meyer, Jargen C. “Women in Classical Athens in the Shadow of North-West Europe or in the Light from Istanbul”. Women’s Life in Classical Athens. www.hist.uib.no/antikk/antres/Womens life.htm. Accessed: March 10, 2012
Greek women, as depicted as in their history and literature, endure many hardships and struggle to establish a meaningful status in their society. In the Odyssey, Penelope’s only role in the epic is to support Odysseus and remain loyal to him. She is at home and struggles to keep her family intact while Odysseus is away trying to return to his native land. The cultural role of women is depicted as being supportive of man and nothing more. Yet what women in ancient Greece did long ago was by far more impressive than what men did.
Feminism in Greece today reflects a gradual increase in the importance of the role of women in the Greek society and is similar to the status of women in most developed countries. Feminism in ancient Greece was much more complicated due to the perceived lower status of women vs. men. On the one hand, women were objects and possessions with no rights. But on the other hand, they were central to the actions of the men around and often carried great informal influence. They were the weaker gender, but were also seen as people who could easily persuade men. They often had to achieve a sort of balancing act between being an object and being an influencer. This contrasts with today, where women have gradually moved away from being an object and their
Looking at Greek society today, it is quite a relief that this view is no longer held. Women aren’t expected to be obedient, mindless, sniveling little creatures. They are able to be independent— they do not have to live up to a standard that men could easily betray. These women are free, no longer subjected to the unfair prejudices that man branded upon them during an ancient, patriarchal society.
In learning about the feminist movement, we studied the three articles and discussed and reviewed the different authors perspectives on the topic and learned how important the role of woman in Greek Mythology. In presenting the feminist theory to the class we analyzed the three articles, Women in Ancient Greece; Women in Antiquity: New Assessments; and Women in Greek Myth, and discussed how although the three articles provided different views on Feminism in mythology, they all essentially are aiming to teach the same basic concept.
The Western world has given a lot to the so called Non-Western world. Each person from the Non-Western world has felt the influence and guidance, trough different ways that gives the Western world. The Non-Western world has been blessed in large degree to be in contact with the Western world. A great amount of advances in all kind of areas have been discovered from the Western world and brought to the Non-Western. It is inevitable nations to interact with each other and share their knowledge and wisdom, but the Western world has marked fortunately the rest with its unique culture and experience.
Lefkowitz, Mary R., and Maureen B. Fant. Women's Life in Greece and Rome. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2005.
Women’s rights and societal roles have varied throughout history. Yet, a common theme that is notable across many times and cultures is the notion that women are inferior to men. In ancient Greece, the opinion toward women followed this trend, and women were often overlooked in how they could contribute to society. It was rarely considered that the traits women share could be of use beyond their household duties. In this essay I will analyze the Platonic and Aristotelian views on the role and status of women. Although Plato and Aristotle had distinct beliefs on what women could contribute to the collective well being of society, they shared similar opinions about the genuine status that women had in comparison to men. The Platonic view advanced the idea that secluding women to the home was counter-productive to the community as a whole. As such, women should be afforded roles that stretched beyond the boundaries of the home for the benefit of the community. The Aristotelian view, contrastingly, believed that the natural characteristics of women, which deemed them physically and intellectually inferior to men, made the home their proper place within society. In this essay I will advance the view that through the logic constructed by both Plato and Aristotle it follows deductively that women not only have a place outside of the home but their distinctive nature can add something of value to many areas of society.
The society in which classical myths took place, the Greco-Roman society was a very patriarchal one. By taking a careful gander at female characters in Greco-Roman mythology one can see that the roles women played differ greatly from the roles they play today. The light that is cast upon females in classical myths shows us the views that society had about women at the time. In classical mythology women almost always play a certain type of character, that is to say the usual type of role that was always traditionally played by women in the past, the role of the domestic housewife who is in need of a man’s protection, women in myth also tended to have some unpleasant character traits such as vanity, a tendency to be deceitful, and a volatile personality. If one compares the type of roles that ladies played in the myths with the ones they play in today’s society the differences become glaringly obvious whilst the similarities seem to dwindle down. Clearly, and certainly fortunately, society’s views on women today have greatly changed.
Walcot, P. “Greek Attitudes towards Women: The Mythological Evidence.” Greece & Rome 2nd ser. 31.1 (Apr., 1984): 37-47. Cambridge University Press on Behalf of The Classical Association Article Stable. Web.
This chapter of the book focuses on the status of women in ancient Greece in comparison to the eighteenth through twentieth century.
Lysistrata is a bawdy play written by the comic playwright from ancient Athens, Aristophanes. This age-old comedy details the quest of one Athenian woman’s crusade to put an end to the incessant Peloponnesian War. As a method of non-violent resistance, Lysistrata, along with other women who hail from Athens and other warring states, capitalize on their sexuality. In a male-dominated society, the deprival of sexual privileges by these women render their husbands and lovers powerless. In an attempt for peace, a comical yet crucial battle of the sexes erupts. It is evident that emphasis is not placed solely on the influence of sex and sexuality, but rather the gender issues in Classical society and the conceptualization of masculinity and femininity. The complexity surrounding the argument as to whether or not Lysistrata is a useful source for women’s history relies heavily upon the authors application of such ideas. After a qualitative analysis of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Lysistrata and her co-conspirators appear to be dramatizations and not realistic imitations of women in classical Greece, rendering the source highly problematic and unreliable.