The Lioness on the Cheese Grater

I was recently checking out a synopsis of Lysistrata, the Greek comedy written by Aristophanes around 411 BCE. The women of Greece, sick of the wars on the Peloponnesis (431-404 BCE), took the dramatic step of denying men sex until they ceased the insanity. They also took over the acropolis which held the state treasury to hamper funding of the war. In a long, detailed oath the women abjure all their sexual pleasures, including the ever-popular ancient Greek position called "The Lioness on the Cheese Grater."

Well, I just had to know what this was. My research did not yield the answer, nor a picture, but I did come across an excellent blog on the more serious side of this topic. If you have time, check out the link below. It is about the steps that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female president of Liberia, is taking to heal the wounds of civil war brought on by the men. "Her leadership is helping to inspire her countrywomen to seize control of their nation’s destiny, pulling it from the whirlpool of civil war onto the solid ground of a functioning democracy," he writes.

She is not doing it by denying sex to bring about change but she is modeling what female leadership looks like. Our priorities are different and with more in power, it is entirely possible the world would be a gentler place.

http://wordinedgewise.org/?p=57