I step around a cluster of women at the gym, each trying to gain attention by wearing as little as possible.
It’s the latest thing at my gym. I wonder what happened to focusing on increasing strength and endurance, not gathering looks from others.
Cleopatra ruled Egypt for 21 years. She knew how to build a fleet, quell an insurrection, and control the money. Despite the male-dominated world, a Roman general praised her political smarts.
Yet our memory of her is largely based on her romance with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. When Shakespeare wrote his play about her relationship with Marc Anthony, he depicted her as scholar Harold Bloom says “the most seductive woman in all of Shakespeare.”
Today her name is associated with a strip club and a slot machine, both portraying her as a sexual vamp, not a political power. When I searched the words “Cleopatra” and “sex kitten,” plenty of websites came up with that combination.
It’s okay that women want to show off their bodies. But should this be all those women in my gym focus on?