Confusing Convention:

Aristophanes and the Household

In his comic portrayal of Athenian life in Lysistrata and Assemblywomen, Aristophanes exaggerates the domestic power wielded by women in order to extend the institution of the household onto the entire polis. This comedic tool highlights the gender stereotypes accorded to men and women in this period, while concurrently displaying the lack of voice given to women. In his essay, Gonzalez-Crane asserts that in Assemblywomen, this "re-ordering" of the Greek household occurs, but "gender roles are reinforced." However, similarly to the comedic tool used in Lysistrata, I argue that gender roles are not reinforced. Rather, Assemblywomen is characterized by a role reversal in which men and women assume gender roles stereotypically associated with the opposite sex.

The role-reversal that occurs in Assemblywomen is first exemplified by the conventionally male attributes that the females assume in order to usurp the male political system. In order to convince the entire Assembly of the practical nature of their plan, the women must overcome their stereotypical shortcomings in order to adequately rule; essentially they must shed some of their female characteristics and take on those of the men. This parallels the sex-obsessed women in Lysistrata who use their domestic agency to put the men in the characteristically female role of being sexually insatiable. Similarly, Praxagora is characterized by her rhetorical skills and showing leadership qualities, traits typically associated with men:

These kinds of leadership and problem-solving skills are undeniably male characteristics for this period, exemplified by the traditional male role as ruler.

Aristophanes further incorporates a role-reversal after the women re-structure the polis. Gonzalez-Crane writes that in Assemblywomen, after the women take control of the polis, "they do not assume the civic duties once carried out by the men but rather try ‘remodeling it into one big household’" (730) and that "despite the female entrance into public society, there remains a strong division of labor." This division of labor, however, is opposite to its former nature in all aspects except composition, paralleling the exchange of gender roles. While the women do retain the logistical functions of the household in the new polis, their rule is decidedly male in nature as they command the men and make new rules. Blepyros himself says, "Say I’d like to tag along, right at your side, and share the spotlight, with people saying, ‘Look, that’s none other than the Lady Commander’s husband!’" (780-782). This kind of passive "tag along" behavior refutes any sort of stereotype of masculinity and reinforces Praxagora’s male attributes.

While these examples merely offer a suggestion of the gender role reversal that takes place in Assemblywomen and Lysistrata, they illustrate several of the ways in which Aristophanes reverses grounded stereotypes to add to the comic element. Due to this, I do not feel that Assemblywomen reinforces gender roles as Gonzalez-Crane asserts, but rather, delineates them in a manner that overturns the traditional spheres accorded to each gender.