The Lysistrata Strategy could be an effective tool for promoting the rights of women in today’s world. Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. It is an account of a woman’s extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states by denying all the men of the land any sex.
I have written several blogs on why learning about history is of fundamental importance to any society – my blog on the contributions of the Sumerians was published only last week. Maybe the Me-Too movement should look into Greek history for inspiration, and potential results! The Lysistrata Strategy is an example of the classic, most successful, ploy of all time. USE THE ADVANTAGE YOU’VE GOT.
Today we seem to classify women with “minorities”, which is demeaning and incorrect. In 2021, the world’s population was made up of 50.42% men and 49.58% women. However, such a generalized statistic is an example of the term “lying with statistics” because those percentages, although correct, are practically meaningless. It takes a much more detailed analysis to determine the real picture.
In virtually the whole of the Americas, north and south, Europe, Northern Asia, sub-Sahara Africa and Australasia, women are a higher percentage of the population than men. It’s only in the countries comprising the fairly narrow swath from Libya, through India, to China that there are more men than women. The fact that the population density in those countries is higher than those in the other areas skews the statistics to produce the worldwide figures.
I should add here that the higher percentage of men, particularly in India and China, is also a function of societal prejudice, and selection, rather than normal birthrates.
With these statistics in mind, I have often wondered why women have apparently been content with their incorrect classification as a minority. In most countries, they are in the majority, and therefore, at least statistically, dominant. In the U.S., women have been used/incorporated into minority statistics, when they should have a statistic all of their own. For example, the Me-Too movement has tended to be lumped together with the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which makes no sense.
The female population in the U.S, is 50.52% (2020) of the total population, the Black population is 12% of the total population. If anything, the lumping together should be the other way around. However, there is absolutely no reason why female statistics shouldn’t stand on their own.
I am reminded of an old Bob Hope joke, perhaps closer to the truth than even he thought. When he was asked what he thought about the “Equal Rights for Women” movement, he answered with, “I don’t understand it, why would they want to give up all that power?”
Things are changing, albeit slowly. The head of General Motors is currently a woman. The Prime Minister of Finland is a 36 year-old woman. New Zealand is run by a woman and, today, the United Kingdom selected a female Prime Minister. More and more women are being elected to high office across the world. Maggie Thatcher stands out a major beacon of the movement. However, there are still many “glass ceilings” in many professions. Maybe it’s time for more decisive action: the Lysistrata Strategy, perhaps?
There are those who would say that the “slowly, slowly” strategy actually works to women’s advantage, in the long run. They would contend that successes achieved by that strategy are more sustainable, more accepted, and allow society time to change without revolution. I would suggest that such sentiments are generally proposed by men who are threatened by more aggressive actions.
