Gender superiority: self-sexualization and the victory of women in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata

Abstract

In gender studies, there is a subliminal consensus among scholars that men are superior to women. Many critics advance terms like patriarchy, masculinity, sexism, and other forms of expression in different contexts to uphold that apocryphal narrative. This mindset has created a parochial understanding of women while undermining their potential. However, through feminism, some critics have emphasized matriarchy to counter male supremacist posturing while demanding fair treatment for women. In this study, using Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and through the critical prism of Marxism, we argue that women possess the innate capacity to be superior to men when they deploy their sexuality and physical strength through spirituality. In the text, the women of Greece led by the eponymous character Lysistrata self-sexualize and embark on a sex strike as a scheme to end the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta. Through dramatic, comical flourishes sustained by ribald and lewd exchanges, the young housewives in the text deploy their bodies for solutions. Also, the older women overcome the men by demonstrating rare physical strength at the Acropolis through supplication and ritual to the god Achelous. Thus, the women’s victory at the end of the play challenges the proposition that men are superior to women.