Women's Roles in Antigone
...erlining fear that men had of becoming vulnerable themselves. After Antigone admits to the crime of burying Polynices, Creon speaks to the chorus claiming, “if she is not punished for taking the upper hand, then I am not a man. She would be a man!” (484-5) He is adamant that he “will not be ruled by a woman”, and that was (and is) the general fear of men. (525) Vulnerability is commonly associated with female characteristics, and no influential man in society could be viewed by his peers in such a way resembling that of a woman. Women were expected to be caretakers, passionate lovers, cooks, maids, and entertainers. In today’s society, a woman is free be educated in a university and even to choose which one she would like to attend when only a few years ago, they had no higher education possibilities. Today, at Temple University for example, men create 41.9 percent of the undergraduate population while women make up 58.1 percent of it. In the graduate school, men make up 44.1 percent of the population while woman make up 55.9 percent. (www.temple.edu) These numbers show that woman truly dominate the education system, but outside of the university, men usually tend to have higher salaries. The media has evolved and changed many old slogans and commercials to be on par with many modern ideas. Most media, in order to maintain political correctness has been intergrating the advertisements to be less one-sex ortiented, for example the image for State Farm. The caretaker which is rocking the newborn child to sleep is a paternal figure, unlike most traditional generalizations of women being the caretakers of the family. When addressing public affairs, Creon, the king of Thebes directs his speech to the men of his society stating, “Gentlemen, the city is safe again.” (162) Since a woman’s job was to be in the home and far away from the polis, he only speaks to the dominating gender since they are the ones that make up the public’s voice. In search for the committer of the crime of burying Polynices, there is a misconseption as to who could have done such a thing. For a woman to have so candidly “buried” the corpse was inconceivable to both Creon and the watcher. Creon says, “You’d better catch the man who did this thing” and the watchman replies, “We’ll find him.” (325-327) It would be more so disrespectful for a woman to have done such a thing, especially since that would mean that a woman disobeyed an enforced law. Considering that there was little for women to participate in politically and socially, excluding that of wailing mourning for the dead, it is understandable that Antigone feels so strongly about giving Polynices a proper burial. He is her brother, family, and a woman’s role was to exude maternal qualities, but here she has been denied her small role in the polis and is deeply offended for the injustice to her own blood. As for Creon, he will not stand to “surrender to a woman. No! If we fall, better a man should take us down.” (679) There is a battle being fought from both sexes, but it seems that Antigone is fighting over the respect of a loved one, while Creon focuses on not being portrayed as a girl. While Antigone seems bold and daring, many women have also stepped away from the traditional roles that women are supposed to maintain. In the “Inhale, Exhale With Our Flow” advertisement, there is a woman mechanic working on car parts, but the argument that she is not there only for sex appeal and to sell more products is undeniable. It is irrefutable in the advertisme...