“Of all creatures that can feel and think, we women are the worst treated things alive”.
This given quote from Euripides’ tragic play Medea stays relevant to this date. Often like Medea who is villainized for taking revenge on her husband after he abandoned her and his kids, women are always at a high risk of being ridiculed and blamed when defending themselves against the wrongs they’ve dealt with. They are continuously put on trial and taught to be the one who willingly sacrifices for the betterment and longevity of the marriage. The extreme bias towards men is evident, despite his betrayal and infidelity Jason (her husband) is valorized as a hero and great warrior while Medea is shown as the mad woman who in reality had no one but herself to bring justice her way. It is society’s idea of a “normal” functioning family that gaslights them into thinking whether or not they’ve been contemplating their situation. They are expected to be subservient and loyal no matter how they are treated by the society.
Our history and contemporary past are imbued with mythology and folklore which we grow up listening to or are introduced and intrigued by at the first listen. We often are unable to look at them from a perspective other than that intended by the writer and the storyteller. However, these tales hold within them, hidden contexts and interpretations that need to be decoded and bared. It is a critical mindset which is able to look beyond the intended characterization of a situation or a person.
We’ve all heard about the Hindu epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, lets also add the Greek epic of the trojan war and look at how all these narratives involve women of high stature, who were treated in the same manner as Medea and also used as mediums to instigate wars which clearly held ulterior male motives. These women were often overlooked and even though their existence was sacred and equivalent to that of goddesses, were left at the mercy of the mortal stereotypes.
In Ramayana, it was expected of Sita to tag along with her husband during his exile but as her husband, he wasn’t expected to accept her without doubting her purity and loyalty. Despite her holy status as an avatar of goddess Laxmi, she was humiliated and questioned after her involuntary stay at Lanka. Followers insist that it was Rama’s dharma as the king first to clarify the misunderstanding regarding her fidelity before defending as her husband. But, why does the text provide such a hypocritical nature on his part? Not long ago, he had reinstated the filial status of Ahilya who had been turned to stone by her husband upon learning how Indra had wronged her in his guise. Yet again, she as a woman was blamed for accepting her own husband’s advances when divine intervention was at play. Rama, understanding the whole picture allowed her to be purified and de-petrified but failed to protect his own wife from the accusations of his subjects which led to the agni pariksha.
Another infamous dharma abiding king, Yudhishthira loses his kingdom, wealth, brothers and even his own wife in a game of Chaucer. This excerpt is from the Mahabharata, where the clash between the Pandavas and the Kurus led to such discords on a more than occasional basis which ultimately led to the Kurukshetra War. As every epic oversees the humiliation of its women in a way or the other, this one targets Draupadi, the wife of the Pandavas; she is involved in an attempted disrobement by one of the Kurus, Dushasana. Neither her husbands, nor the elders present at the scene were able to intervene or prevent this evil except for the divine Krishna. Many believe that this inhumane and indecent act was the main reason that led to the war but even without it happening, the two clans had the war coming for quite a while.
Now, this type of representation devoid of appreciation and respect for women isn’t just limited to the east, but the western epics too have their fair share of commodification, abuse, subordination and bashing of women. In the Greek epics, the gods intervened within the lives of the mortals and played an important part in the mythological tales. The God of the Olympians, Zeus becomes the biggest perpetrator as it was his non-consensual activities which gave us many notable Greek figures. One of them being Helen, she was conceived when he forced himself upon her mother, Leda. Later on, Helen becomes the core of the war which was fought between the Achaeans and the Trojans. The whole idea was her elopement with Paris (the prince of Troy), leaving her post as the queen of Sparta. Her husband, gathered up armies and sieged the city of Troy. One would assume his immense love for his wife to challenge a whole city to get her back, when in reality it actually was for the power and status; he got the title of the king of Sparta after his marriage to the heir, Helen and her absence would definitely question his rule and rights over the city. Using her as the scapegoat, he started the journey towards expanding his reign. How is it possible that when a woman is not so much as given the right to make decisions for herself, somehow becomes the sole reason for a political conflict and causes a full-fledged war?
Why are the people so oblivious of the misogyny and rebrand it in the name of destiny or fate? Is it so difficult and revolting to accept the hardships of women, who, despite their godly nature were treated harshly as the mortal women were and still are. Why did Sita have to go through the whole ordeal of proving her purity when all she had been doing was wait for Ram to rescue her. She had enough divinity to escape all by herself, but would that bring glory to her husband? Keeping his image and respect for him in mind, she stayed meditating and waiting only to be met with contempt.
Draupadi was commodified as she was put on stake by her own husband, later being exploited through attempted disrobement amongst an assembly of men who were believed to be the mighty kings and saints adhering to dharma. No matter how high the status of a woman is, whether she’s a queen or a goddess, mankind has found ways to humiliate even them.
In the case of Helen, divine intervention had already predicted the Trojan war but she continues to be blamed and pressed in between the jealousy of the goddesses and the power politics of men. Not many blame Zeus for raping Leda which led to her (Helen’s) birth, all because of its preordained nature; but was it not this specific crime that caused a shift in the future events of Troy?
Be it women of the current times or women of the epics, they continue to be undermined by the society which constantly shuns them. A woman’s identity ceases to exist once she enters the pact of marriage, this generalized idea should make us realise the plight of women and also be the contributing factor in making amends for the same.
Anushka Senwal
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