Women in Greek Plays
Since the early Renaissance women have played very small roles in almost all of the plays and theatre, but why were their roles so insignificant? It was rare but some would say that their plays gave women the starring role and gave women all the credit, while writers only did things as rare as to just mention women but when that was done, it was because they were being depicted only for sexual matters. Aristophanes spoke of women in comical circumstances as was shown in Bob Willenbrink's remake of his play Ladies Day. Aristophanes used women as the primary subject in this play while allowing them to make fun of men on both serious and humorous levels. The women portrayed in this play were those that are known best for identifying their sexuality. Men were a very small part of this play and when they were mentioned it was usually in the aspect of making fun of them. Aristophanes portrayed women as cooks, cleaners, and babysitters and why women are known for those things some women became very offended and thought brought about the discussion of how gender would be addressed in Greek theatre.
With the acceptation of Ladies Day, there were more stories about women and how rare they were used in writings at Athens. Some scholars see Athens as completely male-centered and misogynistic (3); others find it no more oppressive to women than other traditional societies (e.g., Lefkowitz 1986). So what's with aggression over women not being mentioned and depicted like most writers did men? Some would say that these problems are exacerbated by the fact that most of our sources are elite texts and art works produced by men, in which representations of women's lives are expressed through, and complicated by, the ideology of gender. Whatever the gender of the writer I feel that the characterization should be the same for both men and women. Setting the argument of the author aside in Euripides' book "Women on the edge he states that "the... [continues]
Since the early Renaissance women have played very small roles in almost all of the plays and theatre, but why were their roles so insignificant? It was rare but some would say that their plays gave women the starring role and gave women all the credit, while writers only did things as rare as to just mention women but when that was done, it was because they were being depicted only for sexual matters. Aristophanes spoke of women in comical circumstances as was shown in Bob Willenbrink's remake of his play Ladies Day. Aristophanes used women as the primary subject in this play while allowing them to make fun of men on both serious and humorous levels. The women portrayed in this play were those that are known best for identifying their sexuality. Men were a very small part of this play and when they were mentioned it was usually in the aspect of making fun of them. Aristophanes portrayed women as cooks, cleaners, and babysitters and why women are known for those things some women became very offended and thought brought about the discussion of how gender would be addressed in Greek theatre.
With the acceptation of Ladies Day, there were more stories about women and how rare they were used in writings at Athens. Some scholars see Athens as completely male-centered and misogynistic (3); others find it no more oppressive to women than other traditional societies (e.g., Lefkowitz 1986). So what's with aggression over women not being mentioned and depicted like most writers did men? Some would say that these problems are exacerbated by the fact that most of our sources are elite texts and art works produced by men, in which representations of women's lives are expressed through, and complicated by, the ideology of gender. Whatever the gender of the writer I feel that the characterization should be the same for both men and women. Setting the argument of the author aside in Euripides' book "Women on the edge he states that "the... [continues]
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