Gendering the Mythic World - Term Paper Example

Gendering the Mythic World Myths are typically traditional and ancient stories that are about supernatural beings, legends or ancestors that in the worldview of people serves as a type that is fundamental. Their purpose is normally to give an account of origins of certain things, give explanation to build an understanding of the natural world as well as define ideas, customs and psychology of societies (Cameron, 5). Additionally, myths give legendary stories about certain events or beings either having or lacking natural explanations or facts that can be determined. They explain certain rites, or natural phenomena. They also include false beliefs that certain societies use in order to give justifications to certain social institutions. Additionally they could be some sort of invented stories or ideas and concepts since they are about imaginary things or fictitious events and persons. Gendering on the other hand can be understood as socially defining certain sets of norms that are behavior related within certain cultures and are considered appropriate to a given sex. They include attitudes, personality traits, and actions related to particular sex in a society. Therefore gender differs in behavior and personality in accordance to the societal and cultural factors. Gendering myths is therefore deciding the gender roles of the characters depicted in the mythical tales based on the society and culture that the myth seeks to explain. This paper therefore seeks to discuss how: the mythic world has defined roles for men and women based on how the given societies and cultures deemed appropriate. The mythic world has defined roles for men and women based on how the given societies and cultures deemed appropriate. (Ferranti, 17 -21) outlines: in the ancient Greek women are depicted by many of the mythical stories as having strong feminine power which were mysterious and un-understood by men. Women gave life to people in this ancient age when the mystery of birth was just beyond man’s conception. The process of fertility, conception and birth were barely understood by the society. Consequently, males are depicted to so anxious about this mysterious feminine power to give life. Thus women were meant to raise and guard children. The roles that women played in the mythic stories are depicted as ladies of marriage and guardians of children, they thus were expected to give birth, raise and guard children. Similarly the myth of ancient Egyptian goddess, Isis talks of the same role that women played in giving life from what was in existent as will be explained later in this text. In the myth: “The Sacred Wedding of Zeus and Hera” (Dodd, David, & Christopher, 5) explains: women are playing subordinate roles. They served as maids to the royals. The femaleness in the women according to this old Greek myth was responsible for their traits. These traits included loyalty, patience and faithfulness. This defined the role of the female gender to be service to the male gender and the society in general. The female gender is thus one that the Greek culture through the myth “The Sacred Wedding of Zeus and Hera” was considered a servant to the society through the roles of service allocated to them as deemed appropriate by this society. This servant hood role thus can be pointed as a defining role for female gender. With an understanding of gendering as allocating roles discriminately on certain genders, the role of service to men and to the society is thus gendered to female. As female the society of this ancient Greek expected of a woman to be a person who provides service to people. As such the role of servant hood was gendered to women. The women genders were designed to bear the responsibility of raising children, protecting them and also correcting them to ensure they grew up well. This is why the not only served to bear and protect but also thwart to correct. (Kerényi, 9) discusses: Demeter epitomized the love of a mother to a daughter in “The Sacred Wedding of Zeus and Hera”. The women goddess bore a motherly and nurturing figure revealing the role of raising a society as allocated to the female gender. Thus character traits and responsibility explain the ancient Greek expectations of a woman and consequently the roles played as were deemed appropriate by this culture. From the ancient times based on this Egyptian myth, the roles played by different genders were defined by the society differently. This depicts how this myth is gendered in a manner that it displays the woman as a gender that is expected to bear children. Further r the female is that which rears children and is responsible for the upbringing of those children. As such the myth is gendered in its depiction of the reproductive roles of women, domestic roles that it allocate women which including shoeing the children love and nurturing them to become people of substance in the society. Thus from this we can deduce that upbringing, care and rearing of children is a role gendered on females. Therefore in understanding females in the ancient Greek we can look at the assigned roles. Additionally, women’s were depicted with traits of people expected to do service to others. As such the traits clearly explain how the women in this myth were regarded an inferior gender expected to be subordinates to men. Women were the maids in the royal kingdoms and served the others. They were weaker gender that was given the subordinate roles in the society. The understanding of this society of the female gender was thus that of subordinate roles. This ancient Greek myth is gendered in the manner that it paints the picture of the ancient geek society. It defines the women based on certain roles and positions in the society much a kin to what can be seen in the today’s world. The gendered approach in the manner the women of this society are depicted is evident is by the roles assigned to them in the society they lived. As such we can understand a woman in the perspective explained by the myth as what defines a woman in that culture or society. Women were considered an inferior gender that was subdued at all cost. (Harrison) explains: in the myth “The Sacred Wedding of Zeus and Hera” where the characters like Circe, the Sirens, Calypso, and Penelope were subordinate to men, Penelope for instance is depicted as a patient and faithful wife to her husband. Being faithful to a husband implies being committed to serve your husband without reservations. The gendered perceptions in this myth that give the roles played by each individual gender is seen by the manner in which the different characters have been described. The expectations of the society or culture in the myth about each individual from the two genders of male and female that have been portrayed in this myth can give an understanding of the gendered perception of this myth. It designed the roles of the women gender to make them subservient to the male counterparts serving them and being loyal to them. As such the society of the ancient Egyptians in this myth can be understood using the gendered approach in the myth that will explain how each gender carried out herself and the activities they engaged in including the expectation as the one given out from women. In the mythic story “Isis, Egyptian goddess of magic and giver of life” the roles were gendered in the manner that women’s role were to raise a society. (Al-Sudairy & Hend, 13) describes; Isis was an Egyptian goddess of rebirth. The myth is about the daughter of Geb (god of the earth) Isis who was born on the first day of creation and adored immensely by the human followers. Her mother was the goddess of the sky and was referred to as Nut. In this mythic story, (Al-Sudairy& Hend 17) adds that, women gender was depicted as grinding corn, making bread, and weaving clothes. As such the role of making food and clothing the society was appropriated to the female gender. As such feeding and raising a population was a gendered role of women. This illustrates how the women in the Egyptians land in the ancient days were perceived and the expectations that the society had from them. Therefore women in the ancient Egypt were to feed the society through farming as their role. This is evident by the agriculture skills that the Goddess gave the women of this land. As such we can deduce that farming and food production in general was a role designed for the female gender among the ancient Egyptian society. The role of teaching the society was also gendered as can be seen in the myth “Isis, Egyptian goddess of magic and giver of life”. This goddess engages in training the society how to read and also on agricultural skills. This can be held as a pointer to the claim that female genders were responsible for educating and developing the society. The perception of the myth on the different genders in the society can be used to understand how gendered it is as well as how it has defined or depicted the woman. This is evident in the manner that it paints the picture of the females as the giver of life or rather the ones who give birth and as such are expected by the society to bear children and raise them. This myth is gendered because it outlines the roles through the events that it gives accounts of among them the birth of the goddess. Further it explains that both genders are necessary in the formation of life. Additionally, women were the savors of people in this ancient Egyptian society. The role of providing solution to societal issues of concern was left for the female gender. In this myth, Isis and Horus were saviors of the people in this society and created all lives as well as sustaining them. When the god of sun was uncaring and mistreating the people of this ancient Egyptian times, Isis can be seen to coming to their rescue through poisoning Ra (Nakamura& Konoyu, 59). This relives the society in this ancient myth from the sufferings of Ra. The role of bringing forth life was gendered to the females. This is evident when the goddess Isis possesses the power over life (Nakamura& Konoyu, 25). This is symbolically delineating the deep mystery that the female gender has in so far as creating and bringing to life what was inexistent is concerned, Giving birth. The role of giving birth was thus of female gender in this mythic tale. Mythic story of the Kojiki and Nihongi as a kingship myth explains how the male gender roles were appropriated. This myth is titled “alone among women” is of countries around Japan. In this mythic tale, men have their roles that they played in this ancient Japanese society. As it seeks to explain the political design of this ancient generations men’s role can be identified from the activities they engaged in and what was expected of them within their culture and society in general. Men in this myth had the responsibility of occupying the positions of power and even that of administration. The social power in these societies were thus directed or controlled and administered by men(Atsushi, 9). The males had self-legitimacy in social power control and as such the power to control the societal administration was gendered in favor of the male side. The woman is depicted through the goddess and virgin mother Amaterasu. The men installed this female king as a means of getting their own power structure legitimized. This explains the dominance of male gender in the society where women are used to as a means to achieving certain ends while the control and decision making roles are the reserve of men. Women on the other end were do weaving of clothes as evident in this myth when the clothe presented the messenger by En’o is described to have been woven by his wife Saio. A woman’s place was also in the farm and food production. This ancient society gendered the roles that were considered superior like the birth of a goddess to men. The power of male to produce offspring’s is explained through the various examples among them when the Amaturasu was born (Atsushi, 27). This society genders the roles in form of superiority where the roles that are of superior nature were allocated to man while those that are inferior are allocated to women. The villain traits and witch characters have been gendered as well in the ancient myths. As the gender in the ancient societies are understood based on the traits of particular type of gender and their behavior. The Egyptian myth of Pandora the woman who is depicted to be equivalent with the Biblical eve explains how certain gender roles are delineated using traits. In most cases the female gender is depicted with roles that create catastrophes to the human society. Pandora lifted the lid of the box that was forbidden and as such caused the release of all earthly evils. This is just one manner in which the evil roles are gendered to the females. Helen of Troy is yet another female villain whose mythical story depicts the evil roles on the female gender. This is evidenced when her mythical story depicts her as the cause of the Trojan War (Blondell, 5). Further, there is the woman, Medea, who I depicted to have caused the death of all her children (Vazhynska, 7). The female gender is depicted as villains in the society and as such we can deduce that the role disastrous traits form a part of woman’s roles in the society. In a nut shell they are trouble makers. In the story of the Pandora woman, the myth is gendered in the manner that men’s role was depicted. The myth explains the predicament of man after the release of the evils through the opening of the box by Pandora and as such the men were now expected to toil and fend for their wives as well as offspring (Alexander, 51). This myth delineates the roles played by the male gender as the family bread winner who is to fend for the family including his wife. The female gender on the other end is depicted as that who is expecting to be fended for by the man who toils the fields for food. Finally, the ancient myths of different societies and culture are gendered just like the today societies. The manner in which they depict the social interactions amongst the ancient societies and the activities or roles they paint each gender as involving in can be used to understand such societies and their cultures. The norms set by the given societies as depicted by the myths thus can tell as how gendered the myths are. Each society depicted in this myths had different gender assigned different roles depending on what the given society deemed appropriate. In some instances the female gender was expected to feed the society, provide advice to their husbands be loyal and faithful to them, raise and protect children among other roles. The men on the other end made the society more patriarchal by dominating areas of societal influence. In conclusion, Myths as traditional and ancient stories that are about supernatural beings, legends or ancestors that in the worldview of people serves as a type that is fundamental have purpose: to give an account of origins of certain things; give explanation to build an understanding of the natural world as well as define ideas; customs and psychology of societies. Additionally; give legendary stories about certain events or beings either having or lacking natural explanations or facts that can be determined. in explaining certain rites, or natural phenomena which include false beliefs that certain societies use in order to give justifications to certain social institutions they paint a picture of an ancient society. This could be in the sort of invented stories or ideas and concepts that they are about. This paper has thus found out that all the myths about different societies are gendered. This is because, they depict the social definitions and sets of norms that are behavior related within certain cultures which considered appropriate to a given sex. These have been found to include attitudes, personality traits, and actions related to particular sex in a society. Through an analysis of the four myths: “alone among women”, “The Sacred Wedding of Zeus and Hera”, Isis, Egyptian goddess of magic and giver of life” and the Pandora woman, the paper has found out that all these ancient myths are gendered. This is due to their mannerism of assigning roles to the different societies and culture that they are about in their attempt to explain the accounts of events. Works cited Cameron, Alan. "Greek mythography in the Roman world." (2004). Ferranti, D., et al. "Groupbased inequalities: the roles of race, ethnicity and gender." Advance Conference Edition of Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean breaking with History. 2003. Dodd, David, and Christopher A. Faraone, eds. 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"The sources of the myth of Medea in the positive light of the Pre-Euripidian interpretations and their evolution in the negative shade." Studia linguistica 7 (2013): 142-147. Atsushi, Kadoya. "11 Myths, rites, and icons." The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion (2013): 269. Read More