how seriously would you take this comment when coming from a man?

[TheMastersNemesis]

22. Mores In Context

If you have any questions on this subject you can contact TheMastersNemesis on the DU mailbox.

What is interesting about what is going on today is how much has changed for women and also how little has changed. The attitude of your co worker most likely reflects the same attitudes men have had throughout human history when it comes to how women are treated. Your friend fundamentally has the same attitude as a male might have had during the Dark Ages or at any time in history. Women were just lesser beings whose only purpose was to serve the interests of men.

Women have made great strides in the modern era in more developed countries and they have actually are very far behind in less developed countries. In very conservative Islamic countries and countries dominated by tribal societies women are barely visible in that political arena. They are only slaves basically and expendable on the one hand, yet they are also protected like male elks protecting their harems. Women are valued and devalued at the same time. Actually you can see elements of that even in the modern society.

In theater it is important to understand the make up of the society when the play was written. The Greek character Cassandra was a prophetress who foretold about bad future events. She was a scary and threatening enigma. Greek males of that era saw women as mysterious even threatening beings. Women's intuition was little understood and seen as almost godlike. Greek men probably did not understand how women could know certain things that seemed to come from thin air. There was no psychology then. Attitudes were colored by logic and speculation and myth. Back then women were portrayed as having this foreboding insight. s

When you get to Shakespeare women have all sorts of roles. One of the most notable quotes from Shakespeare is "There is nothing worse than a woman scorned." Women today need to make that quote come true in the context fighting for their rights in all aspects of the 21st century.

Finally based on your post I assume that you are still fairly young and work in a diverse work place. I have very little sense of where the men of your generation are. In many ways I see younger men as moving backward in time when it comes to their attitude toward women.

I apologize for being so scattered. We simply had to study all aspects of every society where a play was written before we could understand the characters in a play or the play itself. It is only now as I am older just turning 68 that I really understand how immense the challenge was cover all the material we had to cover. Things pop up now in this latest brouhaha over womens' rights.
As I said earlier from my perspective it is absolutely amazing how much has changed in relation to how women are being treated and how little things have changed even over 3000 years of knowable human history.



Good luck.