With all the focus on the Middle East, the continuing economic crisis in the Eurozone has taken a back seat, but the recession is still taking its toll. Now the women of Greece are rising up, which is apparently more than their men are.More and more of my female friends increasingly complain about the deceasing performance of their husbands and boy friends. These women, whether married, in relationship or singles, they all unanimously blame the economic crisis and the austerity measures for the poor libido performances.The solution? Sue the IMF and various assorted politicians for the "physical and emotional stress" of "limitations on activity". And they should beware. As far as politics and sex are concerned, Greek women have form.
The serious point is that as the Arab peoples risk all for political freedom and the sort of life we take for granted, there is another struggle going on. This may be more about subsistence and security in prosperous societies, rather than the desperate courage being shown to bring down regimes built on systematic torture and murder, but it is none the less significant - a challenge to the economic consensus that should be the counterpart of the fight for political liberty.
In the meantime, there seems to be a problem with the celebrated Greek male machismo. You have to worry that the economic crisis isn't making them a little bit, well, English.
3 comments:
Apropos Lysistrata, no point having form if what you have had form against is what is now lacking to have form against.
I do realise the words of the above sentence can be arranged in almost any order but you'll see what I mean.
I see exactly what you mean and I agree they are different, mirror images of each other, this is Aristophanes through the looking glass.
Memories: in 1966 I was privileged, though it didn't seem like it at the time, to read 'The Frogs' in the original [hard work when you are the only pupil in the class]. They wouldn't let me loose on 'Lysistrata' [pun on the Greek verb 'luein' to loose: her name means 'Dismisser of Armies'] largely because, as the Oxford Companion to Classical Literature says, 'As results from part of the theme of the comedy, there are passages of gross indecency.' See the Beardsley illustrations....
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