In the 'Odyssey' women can easily play the role of a wife, a mother, caretaker and a loyal lover. These roles do not show many positive implications than the roles that men play in society, yet it is proved that women and their roles in society contributed a bigger picture. The power and authority of women lies within her at the same time using the combination of wit and incline attributes, they seem to fulfill their feminine roles. Even though the role of a man might be to lead, women seem to fulfill the roles of a leader.
The women’s movement began in the 1800s to justify the right to go to university. Before the women’s movement in the nineteenth century, females were to focus on the sixteenth century of the three C’s, church, children and cooking. The Catholic Church did not start the inequality of men and women. It was already in the world. For most of the years, the Church followed society with many of the factors in life but teachings of the Church state females and males have the same opportunities in faith and are equal in God’s eyes. Many women, including Catholic women, were part of the women’s movement. When it began, the movement did not want equal opportunities but independence.
Historically, power has been manifested hierarchically within the social training of genders. Simone De Beauvoir’s concept of ‘otherness’ has theorized how individuals’ personal manifestations of self are influenced deeply by their social position and the available power to them within these circumstances (2000:145). She remains one of the first to develop a feminist philosophy of women. In her book The Second Sex (1950), Beauvoir provides “a philosophical account of the development of patriarchal society and the condition of women within it” (Oliver, 1997:160). Beauvoir’s fundamental initial analysis begins by asking, “what is woman” and concludes woman is “other” and always defined in relation to man (Beauvoir, 2000:145). “He is the Subject,
There has been a long and on going discourse on the battle of the sexes, and Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex reconfigures the social relation that defines man and women, and how far women has evolved from the second position given to them. In order for us to define what a woman is, we first need to clarify what a man is, for this is said to be the point of derivation (De Beauvoir). And this notion presents to us the concept of duality, which states that women will always be treated as the second sex, the dominated and lacking one. Woman as the sexed being that differs from men, in which they are simply placed in the others category. As men treat their bodies as a concrete connection to the world that they inhabit; women are simply treated as bodies to be objectified and used for pleasure, pleasure that arise from the beauty that the bodies behold. This draws us to form the statement that beauty is a powerful means of objectification that every woman aims to attain in order to consequently attain acceptance and approval from the patriarchal society. The society that set up the vague standard of beauty based on satisfaction of sexual drives. Here, women constantly seek to be the center of attention and inevitably the medium of erection.
At times, women can take action to either preserve the reputation or emphasize the importance of some well-regarded man. In other situations, it is the actions of a man towards a woman that helps preserve or increase the influence that he has. Even symbolically, women have importance in defining the standing of man, as they highlight what made a man of value to the community. Neither the Greek nor Anglo-Saxon depictions of women are too positive; nevertheless, they are accurate depictions of the times these societies lived in and of a time when women were considered to be inferior to
...e, although the Renaissance was considered a revolutionary time period that sprung immense developments throughout Europe, this era however did not bring change to the identity and power of Renaissance women. As a result of analyzing the prejudiced regulations of female versus male sexuality, the misogynistic ideologies of society as conferred through literature and philosophy and the life of notable female Renaissance figures, it is evident that women failed to attain an era of rebirth, therefore delaying the development of female strive and liberty. The advances in the Renaissance have only served to mold the female gender even deeper into their ladylike roles; the wraths of men. Ultimately, with the fear to battle against injustice, the vision for absolute equality and strive for full feminine potential have failed to be accomplished in the shaping of our today.
In terms of Crawley’s argument of illegitimacy when it comes to the construction and idealizing of gendered norms, which she personally counteracts with butchness, Simone De Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” (1949) supports the idea that we create what men and women value. Beauvoir looks at gender not as a natural occurrence, but rather the normalization and expectations related to female bodies; women should be feminine and adapt to physical responsibility different from men.
Though some view it as something that is concrete and cannot be changed, gender is an idea of how each human perceives themselves. Gender is nothing but a concept that is very fluid and can change throughout each generation. Unfortunately, though there is potential for change, human kind has barely made the effort to do so until recent years (barely) and continues to pretend as though these views of the sexes are set in stone. There is still this idea remaining that men should be the “ideal citizen” that brings honor, and that women should be meek and seen not heard. When comparing the views of these gender roles Christine de Pizan and Thucydides (through the voice of Pericles) have differing yet similar views on what is considered to be the
The Odyssey by homer is an epic that depicts the life and Journey of Greek war hero Odysseus, who left for war twenty years prior and had yet to return to his home ten years after the end of his battle in the Trojan War. On his first attempt to return home he was shipwrecked and was the only survivor he landed on the island of Ogygia where he was held captive as a sex slave by the the beautiful goddess calypso who was in madly love with him. Also depicts the many roadblocks he faced with on his journey home which mostly includes his many Encounters with various women. Meanwhile back in Ithaca Penelope wife of Odysseus refused to remarry and stayed faithful to her husband despite the fact that he has been missing for 10 years and is presumably
Imagine being born into a world where your social status is dependent on your gender, where women are considered inferior to men. This idea is exposed in two Ancient Greece plays “Antigone” by Sophocles and “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. In both plays most women are considered inferior and do not go against rules established by men. However, there are some women who do not let men restrain them from expressing their feelings. Therefore, the women in Ancient Greece were considered inferior to men, however, they were gallant.
In Greek literature, women are commonly assigned traditional gender roles. They are forced, confined, and demoted under the relentless and debilitating categorization of submissive, melodramatic, and obedient. When their position in society is juxtaposed with the role of men, the overwhelming discrepancy in the ability to pursue happiness and rights between men and women are especially apparent. While women are often overlooked and considered weak by societal terms, men are regarded upon in the highest esteem and provided with power and authority correlated with their gender, which automatically qualifies them with the role of the dominant figure in society. For the longest of time, society has constructed the role of women in a restrictive way to
Too often feminists argue that socially acceptable gender roles are negative for women (Wiederhold and Springer 2). Feminists usually have pessimistic views of gender roles causing ignorance towards the power of gender roles (Wiederhold and Springer 2). Gender roles were the number one weapon used to women’s advantage in Lysistrata (Wiederhold and Springer 2). Wiederhold and Springer describe Lysistrata as a “powerful rhetorical tool” for feminist anti-war protestation because it resulted in the private domain of women’s sexuality and the public domain of their gender roles as homemakers, mothers, and commoners developing into one social norm (9). By the women of Athens and Sparta merging, they were able to prove to their husbands that regardless of being women they could be just as influential (Wiederhold and Springer 9). They maximized their gender role of being the fertile, fragile creatures and brought peace while the men could not produce such neighborliness for Athens or Sparta (Wiederhold and Springer
Most classical society’s political and social organization revolved around the idea of patriarchy, a male dominated social system. This system exacerbated the inherit difference between men and woman and assigned gender roles based on these observations. Men were generally regarded as superior to woman therefore given greater religious and political roles as well as more legal rights. As the natural inverse, women were subordinated and seen as week; their main roles reproductive and domestic. Information about patriarchy in the classical era, though abundant, was, for the most part, written by men, therefore history does not give us an accurate depiction of women’s viewpoints. Four societies of the classical era, India, China, Greece, and Rome, adopted a patriarchal system, however, due to many factors, each developed identifiable characteristics.
Women in the ancient world had few rights, they differed from country to country or, in the case of the women of Athens and Sparta, from city-state to the city-state. The women of the city-states of Athens and Sparta had profound differences in their roles in the political and the daily lives of their families and their cities. When it came to the difference in levels of power and the rights of women, Sparta was a leader in its time. At the same time, their rights as citizens were almost the same. While they did not take an active part in politics, they had opinions and ideas like women all over the world. Their thoughts, deeds, and opinions rarely recorded or if they were, the male historians or philosophers of the time recorded them. What were roles did the women in ancient Athens and Sparta? Were they citizens, did they have personal freedoms? On the other hand, did they in a time when the beginnings of democracy were happening were they less than a second-class citizen? The misogyny and patriarchal societies continued throughout the ancient and classical periods only beginning to change in the Hellenistic era.
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.