Misogyny: As Relevant Today as in Greek and Roman Mythology

The subject of sexual politics of Greek and Roman mythology is very degrading to the feelings, rights, and respect of women in today’s world. The myths describe women as being monsters, hated, cursed, deceiving, sexual, and claim to desire to be treated this way. This seems inconceivable for them to believe this way yet we believe and celebrate this same misogyny in today’s world.

In the Odyssey, by Homer, almost all of the monsters were women and blamed as the cause of most of Odysseus’ hardships. Calypso was categorized as a sexual, persuasive, nymph who keeps Odysseus on her island for 8 years. The Sirens and Scylla were ruthless monsters who’s goal was to kill Odysseus and his men whether it was by biting off their heads or a sensual song they sang to lead them into their trap. Helen was essentially the cause of the war and was stolen away yet she seemed pretty calm and collect about it all. There is no mention of it being wrong for the women to act this way.

 Other myths include Pandora’s Box and the Myth of Europa which both show this Misogyny. Pandora is blamed and is the original cause for all man kind to experience the disease and sickness and bad things in life. Europa is celebrated on the Euro coin when she was stolen by a bull. The beautiful and some would say “worshiped” statue of Bernini’s “Rape of Persephone” has Zeus and Persephone intertwined and spiraled upwards. Why do we celebrate these stories and works of art when the subject matter is so horrid? Maybe we as humans love a story with a “good vs. evil” theme?

Stories older than Disney have always portrayed the “damsel in distress” who is stolen and tied up and thrown on a railroad track. She then, of course, is rescued by her hero soon after. But, who didn’t love the excitement of the anticipating train coming closer and closer? If things like this would happen in real life everyone involved might suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for years afterwards, and may not even be able to speak of the experience, instead of brining it up in small talk. Yet, somehow we don’t even notice that this kind of thing is still all over the movie screen, our radios, and other forms of entertainment.

“Twilight” for example describes a girl who falls in love with a boy who not only can kill her because he is a vampire, but the fact that he is so strong he can bruise her from holding her too tight. “Twilight” is one of the biggest things that has hit this world and has gotten a hold of every 40-year-old “Team Edward” mothers who seriously need a life. Or for example, the song “Love the Way You Lie” by Rihanna and Eminem, that lyrics describe a conversation of a man who has beat his significant other and promises to not do it again. Yet what does Rihanna think about this? The same Rihanna who was actually beaten Chris Brown. She says that she “loves the way he lies.” This song is played more on the radio more than a Jason Mraz song. And lastly I’d like to bring up that recently I have found it significantly disturbing that during Halloween you can actually pay an extra fee at a haunted house to have the actors not just scare you, but touch you and carry you away from all your friends in a fabricated horror story environment.

This is because gender roles today are still a little bit skewed. Woman in magazines, television, and movies are portrayed as scandalous, over-emotional, rude, jealous, loud, and what they call “independent.” They claim that if a woman is all of these things it breaks her away from the stigma of being a silent housewife controlled by man. Aren’t these similar attributes that perhaps the Greek God Hera has? Zeus cheated on her more than any mythological story. Was Zeus blamed for his actions? No. He is still considered the God of all Greek Gods.  We still see this today that when a woman is raped we still tend to blame the women on either being too flirty, too vulnerable, having too many drinks, or even blaming her for putting herself in the environment in the first place.

What is our solution to this? How can we stop this misogyny towards woman when it has been around since the Greeks and Romans? D. Todd Christopherson says, ““The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.” If women respect themselves enough and hold themselves to a higher standard we can break this Misogyny.

Unfortunately life isn’t as romantic as a Jane Austin book, is not as thrilling as an Alfred Hitchcock film, and is not as epic as a Marvel series. Because of this we must not celebrate real rape victims by acting them out in haunted houses. If women adapt this as apart of their entertainment and become as “independent” as the media describes us to be then we become the mythological monsters like Scylla, Calypso, Hera, the Furies, and the Sirens who were the start of this misogyny in Greek and Roman mythology.