Sex and Politics in Lysistrata Aristophanes, whom is a comedic writer, wrote Lysistrata during the Greek civil war. This unstoppable combat was between Athenians and Spartans, whom believed that the only way to prove anything was through war. The theme of Lysistrata revolves around gender, sex, and also politics. Its reasons for development were that if men were not able to fix the problems occurring, women would then take the initiative and do so. The women then came together and decided to withhold sexual pleasure from their husbands in order to expedite a negotiation to end the war. On the contrary to their principal motive, this act made by the women then resulted in a confrontation between the sexes interfering with the political …show more content…

It’s very unfortunate how Kleonike even says this herself after Lysistrata suggest that they deny sex from their partner. Viewed as a sort of toy, these women could not picture themselves without sex and found it very hard to process and even consider doing until Lysistrata convinced them to do so. It would be one topic, and possibly the only topic, that united all Greeks - sex. Greeks have a very open mind in regards to sexuality and their bragging is only normal in the Athenian society. Even before the deal was sealed, the women were expressing among themselves their favorite positions such as the The Lioness on The Cheese Grater. Aristophanes though expresses the women’s dilemma with both an attitude of sympathy and understanding. Knowing that the audience was composed almost entirely by males, and even the female roles were male at times, it’s reasonable that he intends to get a point across in the male society. Women are intelligent and can at times have better proposals than men but it’s only a matter of listening to women that will allow them to express such thoughts. The whole play makes you feel sympathetic towards the women during that time because of the way they were treated and how they were sometimes viewed as objects for sexual desire. Nevertheless, men never changed the way they viewed women anyways, rather they got some entertainment out of watching the