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AIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For my act of Reisitance Talor, Alyia and I decided to make shirts that displayed a chloroplethic map of Africa's AIDS concentration by country. In displaying this shirt we wished to convey to the public the large percentage of some African nations that are effected by this easily spread virus. The main point of our shirts was to highlight the dact that in the southern part of the continent(i.e.Zimbabwe) as much as twenty-five percent of the population is infected with the virus. We also,in our act were trying to raise awareness as to the effect that the virus has on the personal, economic, and social structure of these countries. All these sectors due to the large percentage of infected people feel the negative impact of each life lost.

I thought that our act of resistance was well executed and had many implicit demands of the reader. Not only did it show the country most devestated by the virus it also showed how dense and massive infection levels were in some parts instead of simply showing that there was infection. I felt that by showing the variation in the percentage of the population infected by using a chlorolethic map caused people to ask questions and inquire about the shirts as well as the situation. Being as that many people didn't understand the map by just lookig at it; they inadvertenly were forced to find out more about the problem and raise their awareness about the issue when they asked for further explaination. Also I think another adavantage of the chloropleth was that it wasn't like other AIDS Awareness shirts which simply presented AIDS as a problem that neeeded to be solved but presented it as a problem that is very real and that is/does effect millions of people internationally.
I think that aside from the obvious connection made by geography students when they saw the map their was a general amazement by those who saw the shirts and found out more about AIDS. I don't think that people were as willing to inquire about the shirts as we had liked them to be.
I think that if we were to do this again that an explanation or key explaining the map would be very helpful. Not that the map didn't speak volumes. I think that the shirts would speak volumes on an international level or maybe just when being viewed by people who understood chlpropleths but maybe not by the general public.
I think that the shirts did raise more awareness to the issue of AIDS infections. I think that the inferences that could be made about the impact that it has on all socio-economic sectors of a country were our chief sucess in that it really makes you think about AIDS Awareness as more of a "war against" instead of just the search for the cure.

If Arostophanes were Hades Lysistrata would be his proverbial pomegranate

This book to me was really deceptive. I guess I expected more from the characters.
So before I read the book in its entirety this is what I thought each character analysis would be like:
Lysistrata: a crazy, idependent, and self-sufficent character who through her vulgar language and revolutionary actions convinces the womyn of both Athens and Sparta to abstein from sex. Lysistrata also by "sticks it to the man" by lighting the akropolis on fire. Lysistrata is the Grecian epitome of "kicking ass and taking names later"
Lampito- the antagonist in this play constantly indermines Lysistrata's suggestions by constantly suggesting the brutality and rudeness of the Athenian army while secretly alluding to the jealousy that she feels toward Lysistrata.
Kelonike- the unlikely heroine in the story who brings peace to Greece.

But everyone turned out to be bffs and get along really well. I want more conflict!! If someone doesn't get stabbed in the Bluest eye I'll be quite disappointed. j/k...I think.

Too punny for words

Yes that was maybe the lamest title ever but IDC because it was so darn punny. (ha ha I make myself laugh) Anyway I was just reading some one's blog and they were talking about the end where the men and the women party. When the men talk about the drinking are they talking about drinking or is this part of the metaphor used by the womyn wherein their...I don't know what I should call it (We'll their vaginas )are the cup of fine wine that must not be diluted by the water/sperm of their men? If so is this drinking referring to Peace and their truce?
I was really confused on this part. It seems to me like they were actually drinking but them I'm not sure. I think this play has so many puns and metaphors that you don't know when things are literal and when they're being metaphorical.

Lysistrata- Stalin but better

I know... in truth no one is like Stalin or better. But I was just watching the YouTube clip Ms.D just posted and I relized that Lysistrata is very similar to Hedda in the fact that she manipulates the people around her to get what she wants even though they may not be happy in the situation.
Case in point: the womyn and the oath that she forces them to swear. They obviouslyly didn't want to abstain from sex nor did they want to deny their husbands an essential part of their relationship or but themselves in harm's way but somehow Lysistrata "convinved" them. I think the fact that she offers enternal comradory is just low and really manipulative that she has all these womyn thiniking that they're going to be friends for ever if tehy agree to this oath.

Also I don't think that Peace willing gave herself as much as she was "persuaded" by Lysistrata.
Can we really look at Lysistrata as a hero if she used manipulation as a means of achieving peace? Can we call this play revolutionary if it is about a manipulative woman? Does her manipulation make her any different from Hedda or Bernarda?

The Women

So this movie came out this year and it has Jada Pinkett Smith, Meg Ryan, and Debra Messing in it and it relates more to The House of Bernarda Alba than it does this play because the entire movie has no men in it and it is pretty much a story about womyn for womyn staring well...the subject. And while watching this movie I realized that most of the conflict while created by men is between the womyn and so I applied this to Lysistrata and I was like whooa!!
It got me thinking if the theme of The Battle of the Sexes is one that has two opossing sexes or if you could simply apply this theme to the womyn. You could just as easily classify the womyn in this play as warring factions as you could the two armies. Initially they have different opinions and fight over who is right and how they should handle the situation at hand. Also the older womyn who claim to be more experienced are afraid to some extent of the younger girls among them who many fear their husbands will settle for in their absence.
Yes their is an obvious conflict between the men and the womyn but their is obviously some in fighting which I think completely changes the nature of this undeclared battle

Obligation

I was just thinking about how necessary it was for the womyn in this play to fight against their husbands by abstaining from sex. I wonder if they could've achieved the same end using different means. Really, this is the only way you could get your husbands to listen to you is by denying them your body? Random : If Grecian society was so liberal in its expression of sexuality would these men have been so attached to their womyn if they could find sexual solice (sp) else where (in each other)?

Lysistrata w/out abstinence:
I think that the womyn would've gotten their husbands home a lot sooner if they had presented their husbands with the consequences of their actions. By this I mean bringing to their attention the harm and damage that they are doing to the lives of their children. Instead of Myrinne's son being a mere prop used by Kinesias why couldn't he be the force that ended the war.
Imagine how different and more powerful the play would've been if the womyn chose to take their children to the front lines and line the children of all nations in between the two armies and told the men to chose between their children or the war. Which would they have chosen? Would they have come to a truce sooner than they did with their womyn?