Women at the Gymnasium and Consent for the Republic‘s City

Abstract

The workers in the Republic‘s city are expected to consent virtuously to its constitution, recognizing the governance as good. Yet working people will begin living under the regime unequipped to perceive its goodness; and the Republic says almost nothing about how they will change in this respect. Only one passage suggests a transformation among the workers. When Socrates describes women guardians exercising alongside men, he says that practice will arouse ridicule. The subsequent acceptance that he predicts, extending the Athenians‘ earlier acceptance of male gymnastic nudity, suggests a mechanism by which the city‘s workers will come to consent robustly.