Resisting A Rest

Get It?
On a more serious note, I'd like to tell you all a little tale. It begins about six days before this "Act Of Resistance" assignment was to be turned in. Prior to that day of epiphany, I had nop idea what to do, or for that matter, how to execute this. More than anything, I actually wanted to have a genuine connection to this. In other words, I didn't want to just fulfill this assignment to gain personal attention hwile feeling little for the true cause. I wanted the seriousness of my issue to truly be recognized, not only by the public, but by myself. Well, as I said before I rambled on and on, I came to an eye opening experience (epiphany). As I was (as I do every week) flipping through the pages of the Shepherd Expresss, I haply stumbled upon an article
about the epidemic of homeless teenagers. The article ("Milwaukee Teens Fight for Survival", written by Lisa Kaiser) certainly made me aware of the issue. According to Kaiser, "an estimated
400 teens are looking for a safe place to stay on any given night.." One would think that there would be safety at a local homeless shelter, right? Wrong. There are only two shelters with places specifically for teens in the city (Pathfinders and Walker's Point). More disturbing is the
presence of sex for survival, or, essentially, voluntary prostitution. Many of these 400 teens have also escaped the turmoil of a conflict-ridden, abusive household. For me, it especially hits hard. In middle school, I had a friend, whose name I won't mention, who had frequently run
away from home. Her older brother was in the army, while her mother managed the household
alone, getting by on money from the government, since she was disabled and incapable of work. While I do believe that getting a job would have helped my friend ( when she reached 16 of course) she resented the idea strongly. She and I had different goals. I am an insecure, naive, innocent scaredy-cat, while she was overly ambitious to seek recognition and acceptance, especially from boys.....and she was "willing and able", which scared her mother to death. It got to the point where my friend was locked in without a key-but she still managed to escape her house. She was sick of it. Sick of her mother's strict and blunt way of protecting her. Sick of mourning her father's death, which happened in her early childhood. Sick of the chaos and danger of living in a neighborhood blanketed with crime. Over the years, she called me less and less. I tried calling her. No luck. It was as if she had simply fallen off a cliff, slowly enough for me to witness it, yet too soon for me to intervene. I seriously regret my lack of action, but my parents tell me to let it go-I stopped hearing from her when I was thirteen. Like a bad breakup, I blame myself for everything. I hate myself-I absolutely despise every atom in my body and drop of blood composing me, which is why it was difficult for me to fulfill this assignment and face the past and present. This past weekend I worked up the guts to go to Bayshore and lie down on a bench, as if sleeping. I noticed, when my eyes were barely open, that people did practically nothing except stare. Nobody asked me why I was lying there. They just stared or laughed to their friends. It made me wonder: is this a reflection of society's view on the issue of teenage homelessness? If nobody did a thing when I was sprawled out on a bench, does society turn the other cheek when 400 teens are spending their nights on the streets, sleeping on concrete matresses?

the end

Odd. The ending, the "peace".
I'm uneasy about it. First of all, they were drunk. Second of all, everybody knows that
this impairs judgement. Its nice to think of a happy ending, but there's always the "what if they
wake up the next morning with a hangover?" Next, peace as a woman. I like the idea- not
only because it's revolutionary, but because it emphasizes the beauty of an end to war. It suggests that tradition can be broken, and that conflict can end through the power of desire.

wine

Its interesting. Wine and water. Let me take you back to the beginning- the oath.
Wine symbolizing the abstinence of the women and water symbolizing sex.
After thinking about it, it goes deeper. Wine-capable of causing one to become drunk, just as
a woman is capable of causing a man to become "drunk" with passion. Wine can also have a drawn out, laborious creation, just as it took real labor to muster up the determination to go through with the oath. Water- like sex- is capable of corrupting or diluting the wine. Its also quite common, yet quenches a type of biological thirst for a completely natural urge

draping vs weaving

So on page 64, the men refer to the women's rule over the city as a
shroud being draped over the city. I personally associate a shroud with
gloom-like what's draped over a coffin, as if the city has been "defeated".
Lysistrata essentailly says later on that the city was to be enveloped in a cloth
woven from all these bnevolent thing- it brings to mind an image of a mother
caring for a child, wrapping it in a handmade blanket and nurturung it.

page 64, the Chorus of men

I find it very clear that there is a meaning behind the capitalization of the words WOMEN and
DICTATORSHIP. The men claim that the women have placed a shroud over the city- this
reinforces their negative view of the rule of women, and how stubborn they are at this point in
accepting it until war ends. Its intersting how they connect the women with dictatorship, how the simple capitalization of the words makes their true power even more important. I saw it
pewrsonally, as an exclamation of female authority, how it is so revolutionary in this ancient society.

Lysistrata herself

what a gal! I admire her much more than other female authority figures so far.
Compared to Bernarda Alba, Lysyistrata is much more rational and realistic. Instead of
selfishly focusing on outward appearnances and maintaining a violent dictatorship, Lysistrata is a charismatic leader capable of instilling pride and unity, as opposed to fear.

the chorus

The chorus of men. In their first apprearance, they just sound
like kids to me. In fact, it almost brought me back to childhood. These
guys are singing about how disastrous and awful it is with Athens under female
control. It takes a complete shot at their manhood and that traditional male
model of power. Clearly, these men do not take female authority seriously.
Upon reading this for the first time, I wondered if they could even be convinced to
settle peace with the women.

this time... plot!

Gee. So I said earlier that I found this series of events quite interesting.
The end of a war brought on by abstinence certainly makes a statement.
Often, women are seen as objects, to their awareness (duh). Its amazing.
These women have been able to utilize this. Because they know this, they're
able to turn the tide: by using their bodies as objects, they're able to take them away,
causing not only peace, but showing possibly showing society that they're
capable taking the worst and turning it around.

el plot-o

the oath

I know that oaths are a big deal to the Greeks, and especially these women. The first time I read this, though, I felt a bit uneasy. It seems that Kleonike, in particular, was a bit hesitant to actually go through with this. Now this is a single woman, but I wonder.. In the masses of women participating in this, did all of them truly feel about this the way that Lysistrata did, or were they
merely following the crowd?

and so on

As I went along to the point of the oath, specifically the appearance of Lampito, I was a bit disgusted by the portrayal of the Spartans. I acknowlege the fact that Parker was trying to emphasize the extent of the paricipants of in the abstinence oath, that all of them were in this together, no matter where they're from, but its a bit too much. The accent screams HICK! the dialect implies a lack of intelligence. Personally, I would have preferred a portrayal less insulting.

some opening thoughts

to be honest, I was looking frward to this play primarily because of the heavy amount
of humor. Honestly, its wonderful to have a break from Bernarda Alba (suicide... ) and Hedda Gabler (hmm another suicide). there was a note of maturity, however, as I find it extremely interesting. I am particularly intrigued about the fact that Aristophanes wrote a play about
the power of a woman. I mean that he's totally ahead of his time-it went against what we'd normally consider the ancient Greeks to believe.