Saturday, October 27, 2018
Comparison: Madea and a Documentary I Watched
The other day I was looking on Netflix for something kind of random to watch, and I happened upon a documentary about a community of people living on a large plot of land in houses carved into a ginormous rock. Here, polygamy was celebrated and common. The men were allowed to have multiple wives, but the women couldn't have multiple partners and were expected to do the housework and have lots of children. It was easy to see that the wives were miserable and oppressed; when the husband wanted another wife, he said it was for the good of the family, but it really broke each of the wives hearts even more. I so wanted them to leave and find happiness elsewhere; they didn't feel loved and they were being used. Aspects of this documentary reminded me of Madea. Jason stated that marrying the princess was for the good of the family as a whole, but in reality he didn't care about Madea's feelings and he viewed her as lower than him. I was also reminded of the power dynamics in Greek culture between the men and women; I remembered how the women were supposed to stay home and be loyal to only their husband while the men could go out and be with other people if they got bored. Lastly, the members of this community were not easily able to leave or see much of the world outside of the community beliefs, and this is similar to how Greek women were taught to stay contained and were kept from equal power.
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Natalia, I totally agree that programs highlighting polygamy can be uncomfortable to watch. Especially in our lifestyle in the suburbs of New Orleans, it's very uneasy to see something so abnormal and strange to us. The interesting thing that there is to address here, however, is that all women that are akin to polygamy know no other way. That philosophy as well, is comparable to Medea. She, as a woman in Ancient Greece, knew no other than to follow Jason and pity herself until she finally comprised a plan to destroy him. Jason happily left her bed to join with the princess, thinking really, only of himself although he did make excuses. If Medea had done something so disloyal, she'd have been banished before she even got to Corinth. In this discussion, I'd like to bring up how strange it would seem for a woman to have multiple husbands. Even in today's society, the news would blow up, so in Ancient Greece, I could imagine a woman with such a thought being lynched.
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