Let's Talk About Sex

Now that I have your attention, let's talk about Lysistrata.

There's already been some excellent analysis done on the Moodle comparing Aristophanes's Lysistrata to The Play by Nellie McClung. I don't know what else I can contribute in that vein. Yes, they're both representative of specific times in history and both examine forms of female power. However, only The Play attempts to examines female power as being human power, free from gender and sexual differences. Lysistrata still constructs male and female power as separate and opposite to one another. 

In terms of women's right, these texts are important to note, but they lack any contemporary critical relevance.  After the publication of Judith Butler's Gender Trouble and Bodies that Matter, both of which owe their existence to Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, it was generally understood that it was impossible to consider the disenfranchisement of women as a unified and consistently oppressive force.  Due to the differences of class, race, age, society, culture, ability, sexuality, and gender performance, every individual's particular circumstance had to be read as independent of everyone else's, subject to a cultural context but not defined by it or representative of a whole. 

Despite Butler's influence, society still tends to construct men and women as opposites, similar to the sexual politics displayed in Lysistrata, though for the sake of political correctness, many people would try to purport McClung's belief that everyone is human rather than gendered.  Even contemporary romantic comedies use the plot of Lysistrata to create humour, with women exerting power over the one domain they have power over - their bodies - in order to take charge of men who have power over everything else.  Feminist criticism still notes the delineation between males and females in textual representation  as well, though interpretations have been complicated by the various branches of criticism that are now available. 

Lysistrata and The Play offer two avenues to female empowerment.  Neither of them are perfect.  There's even an argument to be made about whether or not they're successful.  Like everything else, it seems, both plays have to be judged on a basis of personal fulfillment.  McClung's play worked to secure women a place in forums they were previously not allowed to enter.  Lysistrata and its explicitly, unabashed use of sexual imagery, continues to entertain people through recent productions.  Female power remains a matter of individual circumstance.