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Gender In The Bacchae

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In recent years, gender has become a hot topic of discussion. Gender is defined as “the state of being male or female”, however, some gender theorists suggest that gender is a social construction that was not founded on sex. According to gender theory, the term gender is not expressing the state of being feminine or masculine. Many suggest that the separation between gender and sex has to deal with dominance being associated with gender as opposed to physical characteristics being associated with sex. Until the rise of industry in the West, the strong divide of gender was not prevalent. To support this factor, many ancient texts reveal evidence of gender bending, such as during the story of ‘Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas’ when Perpetua faces death as a man. Furthermore, evidence of the breaking of gender roles can also be found within the Bacchae.
To begin, the Bacchae is a story of Dionysus, the god of wine in Greek mythology and was written around 400 BC by Euripides. The story begins with the back-story of Dionysus and how his mother’s family believes he is not the son of Zeus. Pentheus, the cousin of Dionysus and King of Thebes, refuses to accept Dionysus as a god. Dionysus decides to …show more content…

Evidence proves more prevalent that gender was not a clear distinction until the 20th century as ancient texts often used gender bending to describe the trait of a male or female. The Bacchae holds several instances of breaking gender roles, through the emasculation of Dionysus to the portrayal of women as fierce, men-like warriors. In addition to the breaking of gender roles, the story provides the story of how Dionysus exerts his power by proving that although wine may cause people to be happy and rejoice, it can also cause people to become pained and violent, and thus he is not to be

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