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Advantages and weaknesses of greek gender roles
Gender roles in Greece
Gender Roles in Ancient Greek Society
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Homoerotic Unions Make Up for Unsatisfying Marriages
Marriage is undeniably effective for some things such as procreation and rearing those produced children.Ê Biologically, all creatures need heterosexual union of some kind to continue their species, but this union need not be a required social construct.Ê In ancient and classical Greece, as well as in much of the world today, marriage is a social expectation.Ê Elders encourage young men to choose their even younger wives at the expected time and to create a respectable typical household.Ê But is marriage actually necessary or even what people desire?Ê Hellenic marriage seems to be constructed in such a way as to leave many Greeks unsatisfied and discontent.Ê Why else would adultery and keeping mistresses be so prevalent?Ê One strong indicator of this general dissatisfaction is the prevalence of homoerotic relationships and their benefits compared to the benefits of marriage.Ê Based on textual evidence provided in Plato?s Symposium and Sappho?s lyric poetry, homoerotic relationships seem to be important and often essential unions that do not fit into the social construct of Hellenic marriages.Ê
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ?We human beings will never attain happiness unless we find perfect love (Plato 193c,? says Plato?s version of comic playwright Aristophanes.Ê However, it is not necessarily a joke.Ê For many people, perfect love is not to be found in Hellenic marriage.Ê Rather, their natural desires lead them towards a lover or life partner of the same sex.Ê It seems that many intellectual Greeks understood that homoerotic desire was inherent in many people, yet marriage continued to prevail as the leading lifestyle.Ê In Symposium, Plato has Aristophanes tell a...
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...struct of marriage, homoerotic relationships allow power dynamics to be based on personal rather than societal stipulations, thereby being more fulfilling for many people.
ÊSince there was undeniable same sex desire in many people, these relationships were inevitable in ancient and classical Greece.Ê Unfortunately, as long as these people lived in a society where heterosexual marriage was necessary, they could not pursue their homoerotic relationships as lifelong partnerships.Ê Pausanius and Agathon?s relationship was a rare exception, yet, they did not actually live together.Ê Marriage required people to stay in socially determined, inherently unbalanced, heterosexual relationships and thereby left many unsatisfied.Ê Thus, the presence of these homoerotic relationships, shows that many people were not happy in their traditional, Hellenic marriages.Ê
Athenian Women: Just as a mother nurses a child, Athenian society, nurtured and cultivated a submissive role for women. In Athens, women endured many difficulties and hardships in multiple areas including marriage, wealth, and social life. All three elements shaped and formed the mold of the submissive female. In Athens, women had no legal personhood and were assumed to be part of a household headed by a male. Until marriage, women were under the guardianship of their father or other male relative, once married the husband became the woman’s guardian. Marriage, a modern romanticized idea of being united with a lifelong partner by love was the furthest thought from the mind of a woman living in ancient Greece. When a young woman was to marry, she was given in marriage by her male relatives. The woman’s voice had no bearing on the matter legally or otherwise. Marriage was seen as an exchange making it a practical business arrangement, not a love match.
Homosexuality existed since ancient times, for example in Ancient Greece, where it was evident through many literary and artistic works claiming that “pederasty” which means homoerotic relations between adult men and adolescent boys were very common. The adult male was called “Erastes” which means the “older lover” who was usually the role mode...
It was said that in the Greek millenium “ .. male attachments are presented in an honorific light, through there were always some skeptics. But for many biographers, for man not to have had a male lover seems to have bespoken a lack of character or a deficiency in sensibility.” Homosexuality was accepted and even encouraged, it was seen as very manly and noble. Men would gain acceptance throughout their society if the were known to have been with a male lover. Many philosophers such as Plato, believed homosexuality was acceptable. He wrote that he understood other philosophers views on this topic but did not completely agree with their views. He himself was Gay which changed his philosophy about it, he would write from his perspective of it. In Greek society young men were encouraged to be with older men so they could learn from them, and then in the future could help guide other young men. This philosophy of guiding younger men was so that the society around them could appear as a stronger and well put together community.
Aristophanes thinks that a human’s love is clearly “a lack” – a lack of one’s other half- and having no meant to satisfy themselves they begin to die. Zeus, having failed to foresee this difficulty repairs the damage by inventing sexual reproduction (191 b-c). Any “embracements” of men with men or of women with women would of course be sterile – though the participants would at least “have some satiety of their union and a relief,” (191 c) and therefore would be able to carry on the work of the world. Sex, therefore, is at this stage a drive, and the object is defined only as human. Sexual preferences are to emerge only as the human gains experience, enabling them to discover what their “original form” had been.
Thompson, James C. "Marriage in Ancient Athens." Womenintheancientworld.com. N.p., July 2010. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. .
Racial discrimination is prejudice behaviour towards a person, based on their race. It is when someone is subject to abusive deportment because they are from a different race. These actions occur in every day society because people don’t think, act or believe in the same things as they do. Racial discrimination causes people to feel that they are unwelcome to be that they were born and raised to become. This causes serious effects on that person’s life and everyone else’s who comes into contact with them, as they may become withdrawn or even change the way they are just to fit in. This issue causes many people to feel like there is no peace or justice towards them, as they are apart of the overall world population.
Men were known to be all bisexual. It was normal in the ancient Greece for a man to find both sexes attractive, but their private lives in the classical Athens were more different from anything than being bisexual; which is what experience is today. Moreover, it was not common for men to have relationships with men of the same age. Relatively, men had relationships with adolescent boys or older man. It was common for men to married before the age of 30. On the other hand, women were known to be regularly prostitutes and sex was well known to be cheap in the city. In addition, a women father had arranged marriage for their daughter at the early age of 16. Their marriage was typically arranged with a man who was twice older than her; Often, someone well known by the family or related to the family such as an
Sending your child to day care is a tough decision to make. Parents most look into various ideas when picking a day care center. They also must think about what is best for their child’s development whether it be social, physical or cognitive. There are various pros and cons to sending your child to day care and decide if it is right for your child and family.
In ancient Greece expectations of chastity were confined to wives and daughters and to prohibitions against adultery. After 451 B.C., when Athenian citizenship was rigidly defined, the main profession left open to alien women was that of the hetaerae (companions). A large proportion of women of this class, including most of the temple prostitutes, were slaves, often obtained by rearing female infants exposed by fathers unwilling to rear them; freedwomen in this class ...
In today’s society the majority of households have a family dynamic where both parents need to work. It is nearly impossible for most families in America to survive financially without two incomes. This puts many parents in a situation where they have to find extra help to watch their children while they are away at work. “These days couples face complex negotiations over work, family, child care, and housekeeping. It becomes evident that where traditional marriage through the centuries has been a partnership based on mutual dependency, modern marriage demands greater self-sufficiency” (Hekker). Day care becomes a necessity for many families, and the main concern for most parents is if the day care will be a positive experience for their children. Day care can be a positive option for parents seeking help with child care as well as developmentally for the child.
Pausanias brings up an excellent way to think about Love. He explains that love can be broken down into two types, that of Common and Heavenly love. The common love is that when a man and a woman join merely to satisfy their sexual desires. On the other hand the heavenly love is the type that occurs when two people are attracted to each other with a strong force that goes past the physical appearance but comes from deep within as if from the soul. Although Plato presents examples of the two loves with having the common love as if only happening between a man and a woman and the heavenly love happening between a man and a man, there is not enough proof in the text to say that this if what the whole of Athens really believed.
Every so often, an employer will refuse a woman a job because the other employees are not used to working with women. (“Sex Discrimination At Work") This is an example of unfair discrimination against women. Not only is the employer refusing the woman the job because of the personal opinions of the other employees, but the other employees are not open to new people and new ideas in the workplace. Also, the employer is not giving his employees the opportunity to be exposed to new people and new ideas, which will not assist his company in years to come. There are other types of gender discrimination when hiring.
Because many stay at home mothers are entering the work force, there is a higher demand for day care centers for the mothers’ children. The topic of day care centers and whether they are beneficial to young children is becoming discussed more frequently. An increasing number of parents are becoming more cautious about the type of childcare they choose for their children. Some parents are adhering to the traditional way of raising their children by staying at home and caring for them. However, other parents have no other option other than to send their children to a day care facility due to both parents’ work schedules. Researchers have performed studies in which they examined children’s development in different child care settings and the effect those types of daycares have on them.
Discrimination for women in the workforce in the 1900’s were fewer than 25% of those who participated in the labor market. But in today’s time the percent has risen to around 75% and is still growing. As many women were affected in the workforce by prejudice. One in four women go though discrimination during the workforce process at least once during her life. Unlike men women are more likely to accept a lower income job because they have a house to clean, and also a husband and family to take care of. A fact is known that all women will make less over their lifetime then men will. More women are encouraged to follow the stereotypical career path such as nursing and teaching then doing construction work or even being a truck
Women’s Rights has been a controversial topic and debated for many centuries. Despite the many strides to enforce a law to protect women in the workforce, little change has occurred. Gender discrimination in the workforce has continued to be debated. Do women get paid less than men? Are employers more likely to pick men over women in a promotion? Gender discrimination is described differences in “working conditions, salaries, hiring, promotion or bonus criteria for women and men”. Sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination are also a huge topic when discussing gender discrimination. Women should have a voice in deciding what happens in their workplace. It’s prominent that changes occur and help change the status for women in the workforce.