Become Lysistratas!

Gabriel García Márquez, being depressed by the wars, revolutions and egotistical, ambitious rulers in South America, tirelessly repeated to one of those self-confident presidents a few years ago, that he would be extremely happy if women occupied high-ranking political positions in most countries of the world in the near future: the more female political leaders there are, the more rational, humane and effective political governance will become.

Something strange happens to men when they go into politics; politics is a place for them to compensate for their various personal issues and complexes. This is exactly as Aristophanes described it - before Márquez - and did so twenty-five centuries ago in his masterpiece Lysistrata. In Lysistrata, a clever Athenian woman, who is tired of the meaningless wars of men and the absurd, cruel methods they use to establish themselves, gathers other female citizens and gets them to promise that they will not share a bed with their husbands unless the men end their meaningless wars. The women refuse to make love to their men and, as instructed by Lysistrata, are sheltered within the walls of the Acropolis. Lysistrata’s experiment is successful: the long-sought peace is achieved in Athens and the wise women become leaders.

It is no accident that Lysistrata was often banned by totalitarian, militaristic-masculine regimes and dictatorships; on the one hand because of the pacifism of the play, and on the other, because of its very strong and effective feminism. Here we need to remember how Nazi (sexist) Germany, endeavored to create pseudo-heroes, neo-Siegfrieds; and conversely had to rid itself of humane, peaceful and firm Lysistrata. In an environment where Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, spoke incessantly about the importance of a production-line for healthy machine-like men, fit for war, nobody would ever listen to Lysistratas.

However, this was only for short time. Apparently, it was impossible to keep the Lysistratas silent forever.

Lysistrata can be patient for a long time, but some day she will of necessity speak out; it may take a long while for her to figure out why men can be inadequate and cruel; she can compromise, forgive, do this many times, a thousand times, forgive a hundred-thousand times – as did a present-day tragic character; a lecturer murdered in the hall of her University, who asked the police not to issue an arrest warrant for her abusive husband, because at the last moment she gave him one more chance, not wanting him to go to prison – but it will not go on like this endlessly…

"Domestic despots", those who raise their hand to a woman, those who think that by having an advantage of ten, twenty or thirty extra kilos, they can overpower those with less physical strength, are in reality feeble and cowardly; and it is not difficult to frighten these "domestic despots" away. The important thing is that the victim does not submit (and decides instead to become Lysistrata) - then it is easy to find a way to tame and stop the despot.

However, there is a difference between a woman who tries to resist her despot alone, and society “Athens”, or us, other men and women, those people walking the street, neighbors, those who would support us but are ignorant, those who may be hearing a woman crying and a drunk man swearing inside "their apartment" for years; for although such sounds indicate there is violence against the woman, they may be deaf to the clues and say: "it is not our business, why should we interfere?", or even worse, they may follow shameful traditions and justify the fury of the man, while looking for causes of disorder or any "offence" that may have been given to the ‘domestic despot’, like some of our politicians do.

Well, why is it a man can have so many reasons to so easily take a woman’s life: depression and the dysfunction of the 90s, irritation because of current socio-economic events, a lack of money, defeat in endless wars… It was Simone de Beauvoir who wrote in her cult book “The Second Sex” that if men return victorious from wars, they are not able to overcome their "winner’s euphoria" and it would eventually become a problem for women – the men have a lust for new victories and apparently it is their wives who hinder them in that respect. However, if men come home defeated, they will take revenge on their wives who are doomed to carry the burden of their men’s failure for the rest of their lives.

It is strange that it is almost normal for us to talk about the endless causes of cruelty of the ‘domestic despots’ – as if these women are not killed without a cause. However, those same women - unlike the ranting men, angry at the universe - have never had any time to let themselves express their depression socially, because it would be harmful to the health of others; even during the post-Soviet 90s.

Now is the time when nobody should remain silent and the victims of violence should not be left alone, face to face with a despot.

We should stop perpetrators together.

We should help the Lysistratas.

Lasha Bugadze

Source: Radio Liberty