Reflections on Lysistrata

Lysistrata is a delightful anti-war skit written by Aristophanes in 411 B.C. It was exceptionally creative for the time, written when the view towards women was bleak and gender roles ruled the communities. Greek men were more likely to go off to war than to ever acknowledge a woman with a mind of her own.

Women were not respected as members of the community, often ignored, and the general male population assumed they did not have the mental capacity to understand matters of state. However, Lysistrata threw them for a loop when she organized widespread abstinence throughout Athens and barricaded access to the city funds in an attempt to stop the war with Sparta. If only life were that simple. The women felt very bitter and resentful to have lost so many husbands, brothers, sons, and potential lovers to the constant carnage. Lysistrata’s plan worked on a very small scale, spreading to Sparta and eventually frustrating the men on both sides into submission.

At the onset of the war with Iraq, a campaign against such action was launched called The Lysistrata Project. The Project, guided by the teachings of Gandhi, seeks innovative solutions to bring peace to the world. The women in charge of the site are, as would be expected, feminists, and will most probably be using gender bias to provoke interest in their cause. This is unfortunate, that such a goodwill organization must play the gender card in modern times. For the original Lysistrata, in a time where women were not seen as equals, a revolutionary idea to bring peace would have generated much attention. Today, gender based committees are more mainstream and passed over as just another outspoken activist group.

And so, in the here and now, women have achieved equality, but what good has it done us? Today, we would never be able to achieve that which Lysistrata initiated, we are too disorganized, too easily passed off as radical feminists, and too unwilling to push the boundaries on acceptable behavior. And, let's face it, as a culture we are too addicted to sex. However, if more women would read the literature of Aristophanes and accept the beliefs of Lysistrata, we may very well see a rise in the influence of women over issues of war and peace.