Sex as a Means of Agency Essay - 1213 Words

Sex as a Means of Agency â€Å"A woman’s harder to conquer than any beast, than fire, and no panther is quite so ferocious.† (Aristophanes 1058) Life for an Athenian woman was marked by her daily occupation to the household and its occupants. This was the sphere of life where she was able to exert the most power and maintain a certain degree of agency. Her domestic duties included attendance to her husband, and his sexual needs. In the comic portrayal of women in Lysistrata, Aristophanes exploits this domestic power to create a scenario where â€Å"the harsh and intractable realities of life, politics and international aggression are transformed so that wives manage to overcome husbands, love conquers war, insignificant citizens manage to†¦show more content†¦As men created more restrictive roles for women, they came to view them as inherently deviant, and â€Å"consequently came to believe that women needed watching; women were therefore thought naturally to lack self-control and loyalty† (Henderson 23). This view of women as sex-obsessed permeates Aristophanes’ comedies, and is sometimes used as a humorous element that counteracts women’s ambitions for loftier endeavors. The female ambition to overcome their lack of agency is illustrated in Lysistrata, as the women monopolize the men by rallying their collective domestic power, in this case, in the form of â€Å"conjugal strike.† The basis for this plot stems from the pragmatic notion that â€Å"even under the strictest patriarchies resourceful women can wield considerable power within their own families and exert influence on their husbands even on public matters†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Henderson 27). The concept that women are each the ruler of an individual â€Å"polis† is illustrated as Lysistrata argues with the Magistrate. She explains that the wives will manage the money, to which he replies with skepticism: MAGISTRATE: You’ll manage the money? LYSISTRATA: What’s so strange in that? Don’t we manage the household finances for you already? (494-496) Lysistrata attempts to convince the men that the women can run the polis, exemplified by their successful management of the household. 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To obtain control of their choices and actions, or gain agency, some of the characters use sex, though this doesn’t work out in everyone’s favor. 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Through this method, we can also determine who, if anyone, has agency within their situations, or if their free will is influenced or directed by outside forces. 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This is because of the lack of trust and fear of prosecution. Despite numerous laws that have been put in place to help victims of human trafficking reintegrate into the society, law enforcement agencies continue to treat human trafficking vic tims as criminalsRead MoreJames Joyce s The Odyssey And Ulysses1622 Words   |  7 Pagesthe missing element is romanticism and in this essay, the absence of mythical authority. The use of myth romanticizes Odysseus’ journey home while, the crude description sex confronts the reader with the primal realism of life. The lack of godly intervention deflects the blame onto Leopold Bloom for the distance in his marriage. Sex simultaneously represents the distancing factor in his marriage and the process of return to marital intimacy. The â€Å"Naussica† episode exemplifies this and it will be the