Medusa, her story brings about fury....

Medusa was a ravishing beauty.  So irresistible, that the Lord of the sea, Poseidon, raped her.  Athena, who was in love with Poseidon, was insanely jealous and cursed Medusa, turning her hair to snakes and made her face so hideous that any man who laid eyes on her would turn to stone.

Many modern women have accepted Medusa as the image of feminine rage personified.  Starting in the 1960's, women's magazines suggested that through the study of the myth of Medusa women "can travel through their fears and anger and arrive at a place of acceptance of their female empowerment."

WTF??!!

I don't agree at all with this concept.

 She is the opposite of romantic idealism.   Man will not look her in the eye.  There is a denial here.  There is no whimsy or happy ending.  There is no justice for Medusa.  Raped, her beauty stripped from her, and then made to live out her existence in isolation.  While I can understand completely why this would make her crazy with rage, I cannot see how it would be a symbol of empowerment.  Then there is the matter of Athena.  Athena was also supposed to be a beautiful goddess, yet was reduced by her actions in this story to being a spiteful bitch.  Medusa was RAPED.  She didn't ask for it.  Why punish her?  Why be jealous over a rapist?  I see nothing redeemable or feminist in this story at all.

It is a tragedy.

To me it seems like more of the same old bullshit- the cautionary tale of men being tempted by beauty.  Keep it in your pants boys.  Don't appreciate a pretty woman- because we know what road that leads you down.  Everything is a beautiful woman's fault.  God forbid men own up to their own shortcomings, weaknesses, and indiscretions.  I didn't mean to get a hard on....she made me!  Women are objectified, or portrayed as simple and vindictive- fighting over a man, a rapist at that, as though he is worth everything.  Fuck all that noise!!!

If you ask me, Poseidon's dick should have been what turned to stone , and then to dust.  Never to be able to rape another woman again- much less derive any pleasure from it.