Philippine E-Journals

The Female Gender as Political “Other”: an Ideological Reading of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata

Emmanuel Folorunso Taiwo

Discipline: Literature

 

Abstract:

The concept of Otherness is the process by which societies and groups exclude 'Others' whom they want to  subordinate or who do not fit into their society/group. The ancient Greek society was one of such in which the female gender was perceived in contradistinction to the masculinity of the ‘Greek Glory’. Aristophanes’ Lysistrata portrays the gender politics or battle of the sexes, an expose of the gender role contradictions in the ancient Greek society. This paper attempts an examination of the perception and reception of such feminist/gender polemics in the light of contemporary ideological hermeneutics.