Lysistrata Is Not Feminist
By Did you ever think to yourself “I sure wish someone would remake Lysistrata and set it in modern-day Chicago.” ? You did? Well, YOU’RE WEIRD. But you’re also in luck, because Spike Lee is doing just that with his latest offering, Chi-raq. I’m nervous about this for a couple reasons 1.) I’ve seen a snippet of it and it made it cringe. 2.) I read Lysistrata as a teen, and I seem to recall the idea of it being feminist being out there in the ether somewhere.
I want this on the record: Lysistrata is not feminist. Any time you cast women as the givers and taker-awayers of sex, anytime you cast women as people who manipulate others using sex, you are creating a narrative that is explicitly not feminist. And it’s not my fucking responsibility to stop gang wars by withholding my glorious vagina-powers.