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Medea’s Grip on Feminism
In college, I managed to get my math major self into a 300 level English class on this specific classic. It was a special favor given me by one of the professors teaching the class because I love books and she liked the way I think.
There were three professors of this upper-level course – one woman and two men… with 12 female students and maybe one male student.
I knew the story of Medea, and had formed my views and opinions of the tale in a vacuum of my own moral upbringing and found whatever Jason had done, murdering her children was unacceptable and vile.
It was a shock to discover I was the only student in the class that shared the male professors’ views on the story.
I ended up dropping the class because I had a lot going on and I think one of my major-specific professors wanted me to pick up something else, but my several weeks in that class were eye-opening on how depraved the feminist mindset was in the early ’00s.
What reminded me of this? Well, a mobile game with historical biographies of commanders recently added interactions with those commanders for rewards. And I clicked on Cleopatra to be regaled with how Medea was justified because men had oppressed them and she had been poorly treated. I was catapulted back 18 years to that classroom listening to young women justify infanticide with far more boldness and ferocity than any decent human being could possibly approve of. I was kind of surprised to see that view so innocently presented in a mainstream game instead of solidly ensconced in the depths of academic obscurity. Surely, if any “normie” knew that feminists justify the killing of their children as reasonable punishment for a man cheating on her, they’d run as far away from feminism as their poor feet could go?
And yet, feminists don’t even require that much to justify murdering their children. To them, children are a byproduct of an oppressive, patriarchal universe. They do not see them as desired blessings that bring beauty to a mother’s heart. Rather, they are tools to be used to suit one’s purpose or to dispose of if they wish.
I hardly think Euripides was providing an anthem to the oppressed women of his day. Far more likely, he was engaging in his own misogyny in portraying a woman capable of such villainy. For them to take it up as a defense more than vindicates him.
Published in General
Ahh … one of those.
I’m not so sure. IIRC, the play ends with Medea floating slowly up into the sky and away on a golden chariot provided by Helios, the Sun God–spitting bile and venom until she’s out of hearing range–while Jason is the one left in the rubble with his life in ruins. It could be argued, plausibly, I think, that Euripides thought Medea had the favor of the gods and that her actions were acceptable to them.
I agree it’s a horrible proposition. But the Greeks didn’t do tragedy and revenge in small measures, and were nothing if not over-the-top in almost everything.
Thank goodness my own college experience of it was nothing like yours.
I’ve been observing the reactions of the British press to the Lucy Letby infanticide case. They seem to be at a loss. How could anyone, especially a woman, be so callous, so unfeeling, as to kill newborn babies?
Gee, guys. I don’t know. Could you have cheapened human life past some tipping point? Could the bright red line you’ve drawn in your minds be a little hazier to some than others?
Nah. Can’t be that.
The babies this monster–a neonatal unit nurse–murdered were preemies. From the Guardian:
(The babies were assigned letters of the alphabet, starting with “A,” and went, for the purposes of the crimes she was charged with, up to “O” or thereabouts. She was found guilty of murdering seven, and of attempting to murder six more, of which “Child G” above, was one.)
There’s an investigation being launched now into something like a total of 4,000 babies Letby had charge of during her several years as a neonatal nurse, to see what other suspicious deaths might have coincided with her shifts on duty. The mind boggles at the possible outcome.
Meanwhile, the several obstetric and other clinicians who raised doubts and suspicions about Letby and the excessive number of infant deaths that seemed to surround her rotas on duty were forced, by NHS managers, to write her letters of apology for doing so, out of fears that they might be seen as “bullies,” and give her cause to take them to court.
So far (and this is a good thing) I haven’t heard anyone call Letby a feminist hero, or say that these tiny, and very physically challenged, victims would have been better off aborted just before, or just after, birth. But I can’t help feelings of cognitive dissonance at some of what I know to be the entrenched Leftist positions on the matter. If anything good is to come from this awful, awful story, perhaps it might be a dawning respect for life among those who don’t seem to have gotten the message.
My observation has been that most mothers believe that whatever is good for them is good for their children even when it is obvious to most reasonable people that it is not good for the children. Medea is just an example of that.
About ten years ago or so, I was heavily involved in the theater scene in Seattle, and I attended a production of Medea put on by a tiny fringe theater group. The venue seated perhaps 35 people, so we were all up close and personal, so when the title character came on stage after the murders (thankfully off stage), 5 feet away, blood-soaked and wailing, it was one of the most shocking and affecting theatrical moments of my life. Such innocence. So despicable an act of vengeance and hate. One can be all the feminist wacko possible but still, how can anyone live with and justify the irredeemable evil of such acts?
I think this clip explains abortion pretty well in one minute.
https://ricochet.com/614009/the-all-importance-of-abortion-explained/
Women are tied to a child in a way men are not. There is no way to remove that fundamental inequality in among the sexes. Medea breaks the limits of her feminine weakness and gains power equal to a man. Why wouldn’t the left love the story of a woman killing her children to attain that equality?
I guess that I have a different take on Medea. I’m not particularly interested in judging her actions. Sure, murder is evil. We don’t need a complex story to understand that.
It seems to me that the story presents the horrible consequences of Jason’s infidelity. The lesson is that this is the sort of terrible thing that can happen when a man betrays your wife. Adultery is evil, too.
As it’s a myth, the consequences are extreme, to make the point.
I guess that I see your point about the feminists, if they’re actually taking Medea’s side. Justifying the murder of children is the wrong lesson to draw from the story, I think. But I think that the message of the story is about the consequences of Jason’s wrongdoing.
Considering Medea was a fratricidal demi-goddess with magical murder skillz, her child-whacking wasn’t especially out of character. Jason got what he had coming to him – the divine giveth and the divine taketh away.
Judged as a woman, Medea is a monster. Judged as an agent of vengeance and dramatic horror, she’s…awesome.
Are we still talking about Tyler Perry?
…of course!
Good. Just keeping up.
You and Jerry bring an interesting perspective, but I think you provide a lynchpin in that we are never supposed to see Medea as a heroine to emulate.
My spirit is still very much repelled by this form of vengeance. And I don’t think Jerry’s point wins the day when Medea is the center of the conversation and not Jason. Men are not engaging and seeing the wrong of Jason. They are engaging seeing the horror of Medea (or agreeing with feminists).
Jason and Medea deserved each other. Jason got a head start, so Medea was catching up.
There is that. And, as is so often the case in these situations, the kids paid the price.