Male Idealizations of Women

Question 1

What are the structures of discourse in these readings?

Answer 1

1. Gender difference seems to vary in every culture
2. Ancient Greece and Rome seem PRETTY unequal
3. Very few constants, e.g. women are in charge of childbirth and the home, and men are in charge of warfare
4. The roles, rules, stereotypes are only arbitrary because they are not our normal. The things they come up with are ways they understand the world to justify their social realities. The ways of understanding are called DISCURSIVE STRUCTURES. They are shared within civilizations, and seen as natural
5. People can do different things from the same discursive structures, and will evolve over time

Question 2

Funeral Inscriptions of praise, readings 51-57, 191, 337-344. What are some commonalities?

Answer 2

Usually says where they’re from, how long they lived, who set up the epitaph, and perhaps a male relation. Sometimes there are speaking inscriptions, as though the dead person wrote the epitaph

Question 3

Reading 52, Murdia of Roma, 1 BC

Answer 3

1. Her eulogy is given by her son from her first marriage.
2. Unique, because her son says that she did a great job in her will, to make sure that her first family still got stuff.
3. There was also a list of stuff that men typically like about women: obedience, propriety, loyalty, sincerity, chastity, woodworking, industry, virtue, wisdom

Question 4

Reading 57, Allia Potestas, Rome, 3rd and 4th century. What are some conventional and unconventional aspects of her description?

Answer 4

A freedwoman, who was owned by two men who LOVED her.
Conventional: Chaste, honest, trustworthy, resolute, clean, hardworking, respectful
Unconventional: Courageous? A freedwoman, and they’re talking about her beauty? Anxious, never stayed still, studied diligently

Question 5

Reading 191, Turia

Answer 5

1. Unusual text about an anonymous Roman woman, seems to be a eulogy.
2. Lots about acting as a man in the man’s stead. Pretty different from other marriages!

Question 6

Opposition in sources involving misogyny, what social worlds are depicted in these texts? What are the common themes?

Answer 6

1. Archaic Greek poetry (8th-6th c. BC)
2. Athenian tragedy (5th c. BC)
3. Latin satire (2nd c. AD)
   Themes:
4. Men think: Women want to break out of subservient roles, are neglectful of duties and interfere a lot, no self control, manipulative (thru sex?)
5. Women respond: No autonomy, your life is defined by the men in your life. Even playing by the rules gets you screwed over

Question 7

What did Greek poets think of women? What do some famous tragedies say?

Answer 7

They didn’t like them. Hesiod, Semonides, Jason (fictional) all thought that they were destined to be the undoing of men and were a necessary evil. Specific issues, overall women keep holding men back from their desires, and keep outsmarting men

1. Semonides says they are unreliable and cheat behind men’s backs
2. # 68, hesiod. Necessary evil, cannot put up with poverty and demand constantly
3. Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes, #71 women just cry hysterically in front of altars during times of trouble
4. # 72 Euripides, Medea: Jason wants to do away with women when his wife doesn’t want him to go off and marry a Corinthian princess
5. # 73 Euripides, Hippolytus: Women are relationally and economically unreliable

Question 8

What does Juvenal say about women?

Answer 8

Reading 83 Juvenal (Juvenile), lots of different anxieties and stereotypes. Doesn’t like female disobedience. Talks about a woman who cheats on her husband with a gladiator, becomes a gladiator. She goes out to prostitute herself at night (empress as a prostitute). Want to be gladiators because they’re doing athletics, training for games. Denies her sex by wearing a helmet. Doesn’t like when women are smarter than him (want to be scholars). Says they talk too much. Similar to

1. Gladiator-chaser
2. Empress as prostitute
3. Want to be gladiators
4. Want to be scholars

Question 9

What are some female themes in Greek tragedies?

Answer 9

1. Always mythological, not socially realistic
2. Have more independence and agency than real women, which sometimes goes badly
3. May have helped men explore women’s psychology
4. Annoyed at the stupidity of men, and the unfairness of their role