Sex in the Acropolis

Sex and the Acropolis

Aristophanes’ play, “Lysistrata,” is primarily based on one singular motif, the idea of sex as power. The women of Ancient Greece are resentful that their male counterparts are never home due to the Pelopponesian War, and so they, led by the main character Lysistrata, decide to go on a sex-strike. They have finally discovered that while men fight the battles, bring home the food, and make all the money, they are in charge of the bedroom. This idea that men are weak without sex is incredibly feminist, but also incredibly amusing.

A contemporary HBO show which hardly needs an introduction, “Sex and the City,” is built upon the same fundamental idea: that women have power over men through sex. The four characters, Carrie Bradshaw (Lysistrata); Samantha Jones, Charlotte York, and Miranda Hobbs, all have sexual relationships throughout the six seasons of the show. Some of these relationships are casual, while some are serious. Despite the nature of the relationship, one fact seems to be true: that the women can ultimately control a man by either having sex with him or not.

Take for instance Carrie’s famed relationship with Mr. Big. She starts out having a sexual relationship with him, which quickly escalates to a more serious one. They see each other on-again, off-again throughout many of the seasons of the show, and eventually he marries another woman. Carrie is broken-hearted by this, and subconsciously decides to start-up their relationship again. This time, it is purely sexual, but she has Mr. Big begging for her by the end of the affair, so much so that he offers to leave his wife to be with Carrie. This demonstrates the magnitude of the power women have over men when it comes to sex.

Throughout the show, however, it seems that women only maintain this power when the relationship is purely sexual. It is when the women start wanting an emotional partnership as well as a physical one that the men regain their control. For instance, the show is built upon the fact that these four women are all thirty- and forty-something, but without husbands or families. They are incessantly stressing out about how they have passed their