Strong independent women are everywhere nowadays. Disney movies don’t provide a male romantic interest for their leading ladies anymore, women are fighting for equal pay, and movements are happening throughout the country providing females with a voice. In both The Thinking Past and Gilgamesh, women played an extremely paramount role in society. They were in the background of many crucial actions and decisions, and most of the time, tended to go more unnoticed than the men in the situations. Both books portrayed women as strong willed, but not necessarily equal to men.
In The Thinking Past, it first exemplifies women as docile, but they were crucial to sustaining their clan. For example, it was the “women [who] more frequently left the group to find mates, thus maintaining a healthy gene pool” (Cole and Ortega 52). They were the ones who were able to prolong their clans, and it depended on them to do so. Also, even though the men were the ones who hunted, the “women’s gathering probably produced the majority of the food as meat from hunting could not be relied upon” (Cole and Ortega 55). This meaning that meat was more of a delicacy and the food the women provided was …show more content…
She worked indirectly, but her actions still had consequences concerning the men in the story. She called upon the bull of heaven when Gilgamesh wouldn’t marry her, but in order to do so, she had to ask her father for it. Ishtar had to play the stereotypical womanly role, and go crying to a male figure to make things right. She was smart, and knew that if she wanted to hurt Gilgamesh, she needed to make it seem like she was weak, when in reality she was in fact the opposite. The consequences of the bull however were brutal, killing thousands in Gilgamesh’s domain. This also in turn leads to Enkidu’s death and Gilgamesh’s quest to find immortality. This is another character who made the story whole, and Ishtar sat in the background of many
In The Thinking Past, it first exemplifies women as docile, but they were crucial to sustaining their clan. For example, it was the “women [who] more frequently left the group to find mates, thus maintaining a healthy gene pool” (Cole and Ortega 52). They were the ones who were able to prolong their clans, and it depended on them to do so. Also, even though the men were the ones who hunted, the “women’s gathering probably produced the majority of the food as meat from hunting could not be relied upon” (Cole and Ortega 55). This meaning that meat was more of a delicacy and the food the women provided was …show more content…
She worked indirectly, but her actions still had consequences concerning the men in the story. She called upon the bull of heaven when Gilgamesh wouldn’t marry her, but in order to do so, she had to ask her father for it. Ishtar had to play the stereotypical womanly role, and go crying to a male figure to make things right. She was smart, and knew that if she wanted to hurt Gilgamesh, she needed to make it seem like she was weak, when in reality she was in fact the opposite. The consequences of the bull however were brutal, killing thousands in Gilgamesh’s domain. This also in turn leads to Enkidu’s death and Gilgamesh’s quest to find immortality. This is another character who made the story whole, and Ishtar sat in the background of many