Lysistrata - Kaleb Babb

To be honest, before reading the play I was very apprehensive that the play was going to be anywhere near excellent. What I did, and what I highly suggest before reading these types of classical plays is to read a short synopsis of the play before reading. This may give away the ending but it doesn’t give away most of the details and helps you follow along with the story.
As I read this play I began to enjoy it more and more surprisingly enough. I understood that they were trying to stop the Peloponnesian War but as I read I couldn’t help but think how relevant this play could be during any time period. Perhaps during the American Revolution, World War II, or even the War on Terror. Imagine if the simple way to end any war was for all women to make a pact to stop having sex with their husbands. I specifically kept imagining Lysistrata as the strong and confident “Rosie the Riveter” type of character putting her foot down and stopping war but with just a different cause.
Something I found very interesting was that the women came off strong cool calm and confident, but that is easier said than done. As soon as they are in the presence of the men hostility arises. It just goes to show that it cannot be one sex winning over the other but a give and take of both. Recently, funny enough, I read an article in Cosmopolitan magazine about couples who were having more successful relationships because they returned sex for favors. The husband asks the wife to cook a fancy dinner and she returns with sexual favors and vice versa. Simple enough right.
One last thing I found amusing was when the women referred to not having men but having marble consolation. Maybe all the women had a perfect statue of David waiting in their homes waiting to please them instead.