Gender In The Odyssey

The Odyssey is a classic tale filled with monsters, heroes, gods, and perhaps the most shocking, poor gender representation. It follows Odysseus’s journey home to Ithaca and his wife, Penelope. Penelope is an interesting character in this story, especially in the third part of Simon Armitage’s translation. In the first two parts of the translation, readers get to know Penelope through her performance of a woman: poised, graceful, and caring. She shows a different side to her character that requires more analysis to grasp a better understanding of how gender is portrayed in The Odyssey. Despite the fact that Penelope performs male in her encounter with the suitors, they do not take her seriously because she is biologically female.
Before discussing Penelope’s gender representation, performance, and flexibility, gender has to be defined first with biological sex in mind. Sex is a biological truth, whereas gender is the cultural interpretation or signification of …show more content…
Get out of this house. Get out. GET OUT. GET OUT’” (Armitage 221). Here, she yells at all the suitors and demands that they get out. In other words, she is breaking her gender stereotype because the behaviors of the suitors have caused her to perform like a male. And yet, in actuality, the suitors do not listen to her and continue to stay at the palace. Even though Penelope acts male, the dominance her performance exerts is not enough to sway the suitors. It is hard for her to get the suitors to listen to her male performance because she is female. The physical boundaries of her sex is what makes Penelope’s wishes forgotten. This inconsideration towards women because of their sex is what prevents Penelope from becoming a strong female figure in The Odyssey. Women can change their gender all they want, but some people will not look past their physical appearances, as seen in Penelope’s