Sex and the Second-Best City

Sex and the Second-Best City deals with the topics of sex and society in the Laws of Plato with recourse to historical context and modern critical theory. It examines reconstructions of ancient sexuality with a view to increased clarification. The text of the Laws is considered, along with many of its literary qualities, its influences and the utopian plan that it proposes. Plato’s narrator has outlined a theory by which sexuality can be controlled through the manipulation of people’s thoughts. A significant portion of this inquiry deals with education in the hypothetical polis (Magnesia) and the part that this is designed to play specifically in terms of sex-role stereotyping. The Laws spins manliness as the ideal model for citizens to imitate in their mandatory pursuit of virtue. The reformulation of the Magnesian oikos entails a brave new femininity in which women must become more like (idealised) men in terms of manly enkrateia. Men must become less like women are perceived to be. A law is drafted to ban same-sex activities, considered womanish, but there is uncertainty over whether or not it will be enforced. Psychology and propaganda, religion, education, the family and government all work together to shape the moral hygiene of Magnesia.