Nika Chxartishvili: The Status Of Women In Western Culture

Throughout centuries, Greek mythology proved to be one of the most influential cultures in history, which is why we still see it in today’s media in Western modern culture. Exploring today’s media through Laura Mulvey’s lens of her theory of the Male Gaze, we were able to see how Greek culture affects the way women are portrayed in Western culture. Focusing on one specific female character of Greek mythology, we analyzed how Greek mythology is still present in modern culture. Additionally, we found evidence that female characters based on Greek characters are often objectified and sexualized for a male audience. Modern Western culture implements components of Greek culture which influences the way women are portrayed in the modern world.
Literature Review
Nika Chxartishvili focuses on how and in which ways Greek mythology influenced Western civilization.
The author argues that Greek mythology influences language, arts, culture, and even science. Chxartishvili goes into detail to prove how names of heroes, gods and monsters are everywhere today in modern culture. Nonetheless, the extent of his study goes as far as to provide several different examples of where this can be seen but fails to go into deeper analysis. Marilyn Katz explores women in Greek antiquity. More specifically, it focuses on the status of women during the time period. The question of status of women is traced back to the eighteenth-century and the author takes note of its continuing force. Katz argues that status, which consisted of leading separate lives from their husbands, not being able to attend certain events within the city, and not having the opportunity to participate in government, was derived from the eighteenth-century debate over women’s place in civil
society.
Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz examines the objectification of women in Greek tragedies, focusing on Polyxena from the Greek tragedy “Hecabe” by Euripides. The study explores the play by looking at the relationship between tragedy and the city, looking at the representation of women as to be looked at, examining female characters as looking, and analyzing how sacrificial heroines were represented as looked at and looking. This author specifically utilizes the gaze theory to do so. In the end, it was found that women, specifically in the play “Hecabe”, were simply the object of the gaze and did not have ownership of it as well.
Although these three studies contributed greatly to our research, our study will differ from them. Our study will go into more depth as to how Ancient Greek culture has influenced Western modern civilization. Unlike Katz, we will not be looking at the status of women in politics. Our focus is specifically the portrayal of women in mythology. We intend on analyzing the role of women in Greek mythology, specifically through the gaze, and then comparing that to modern western pop culture.

Theoretical or Conceptual Framework The Male Gaze Theory was created by Laura Mulvey, she argues that cinematography uses a hetersoxual man’s perspective, which causes that women only see females through the eyes of a man. The way in which this is achieved, is by sexualizing women’s bodies and objectifying them, consequently, dehumanizing women. This theory suggests that by the way women are portrayed in media, it denies women their human identity by turning them into objects to be admired by men. Furthermore, Mulvey argues that when women are included in a film, they have little importance and their main function is to be erotic characters for the audience or for the main male character. The Male Gaze theory provides a background to Greek mythology’s impact on Western modern culture because for decades women have been portrayed in media as sexual objects, going back in history Greek mythology is one of the first places where we found this objectification. Western culture adopted Greek mythology as a foundation and has ever since recycled Greek myths and basing characters off of Ancient Greek figures.

Methodology
In order to examine the thesis we will take a qualitative approach in examining data. This will be achieved by looking at a modern western television show that depicts Ancient Greek culture. Specifically we will look at a Tv show that contains Ariadne who was the daughter of King Minos of Crete and the wife of the god Dionysus . Our findings will come from the fourth episode of the 2015 Tv show entitled “Olympus”. We will examine the way in which the character Ariadne is dressed, and the way in which she not only carries herself, but her interaction with other characters. In doing so, we will be able to determine if the show or movie utilizes the heterosexual male’s perspective. Findings Greek mythology greatly influences media in modern Western culture, especially how women are portrayed, there are myriad TV shows that adopt Greek characters and merge them Western characteristics.
The TV series, Olympus, characters are based off of Greek heroes and goddesses, princess Ariadne provides a remarkable example of the depiction of women in Western culture influenced by Greek mythology. Ariadne’s myth is one of love and tragedy, but in this show, she is depicted as a sensual and trickster young woman.
Throughout the show, Ariadne, daughter of powerful King Minos of Crete, wears extravagant and revealing clothes that emphasizes her sexuality. In media, clothes can be used to convey a message, and in this case, the purpose of her clothes seems to be specifically for men’s enjoyment. Moreover, this is a way of sexualization that objectifies the powerful role that the heroine Ariadne could have been.
Furthermore, the fact that princess Ariadne does not have a single scene where she is not flirting with a man also provides additional evidence that her character solely serves the purpose of men’s pleasure. Consequently, the lack of importance of her character fulfills part of Laura Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze which states that when women appear in media, their roles are unimportant and their main function is to be erotic for the audience or male
characters.
Similarly, Ariadne’s interaction with other characters is purely sexual and seductive; most of her scenes is her sensually touching men, women and even her father. Likewise, when her character is in the presence of a man, she is often trying to seduce him by saying she is helpless and defenseless. According to the Male Gaze this method boosts the confidence and ego of a man which is what these scenes are trying to do, which proves that her character was created for a hetersexual male audience.
Moreover, the lack of real importance the character Ariadne has to the development of the storyline relates back to the role, or lack thereof, of women in Ancient Greece. Decisions in the governments of the different city-states in were left to be made by the men. Women were not permitted to even attend the Olympic Games, which held great importance in Ancient Greek culture, let alone participate in the games. If a women did attend she would receive the death penalty. If the man of the house had people over for dinner, his wife was not expected to make an appearance. There were no common places in which both men and women could assemble. For the most part they led very separate lives. In addition, the depiction Ariadne in the show Olympus is similar to that of her depiction in Ancient Greek art. After examining some of the art in which Ariadne is featured in, there was a realization that her portrayal in one piece was similar to her portrayal in other pieces. For the most part she was projected to be a ‘damsel in distress’ with one of her hands effortlessly resting behind her neck and cloth draped over her body. Her portrayal in the artwork indicates that she was painted through the lens of the male gaze.