Esther and Judith

Esther is a woman who can be admired for being a heroine, but her way of going about it was not exactly the idea women would today. Yes, her people were in danger of being killed, and yes, she managed to save them, but the morals of the story are not exactly relevant to women of today.

First, she was basically told what to do by her adopted guardian and cousin, Mordecai. He told her that the Jews were in danger of being killed, and he formulated the entire plan. Esther did what she was told without question. That can be a good thing in most situations, but the story almost seems like if Esther had not listened to Mordecai, then the Jews would have perished. The moral there is that women need to rely on men to get things done. Yes, Esther did go through with the plan, but because Mordecai told her to.

Another moral of the story is that women must be manipulative to get what they want. Esther basically uses her charms as the queen to get King Ahaserus to issue a decree saying that the Jews will be allowed to defend themselves in the event of an invasion of their lands in order to stop his advisor, Haman, from killing them all. This idea of manipulation does not really have to apply to women nowadays. Women do not have to manipulate in order to get what they want; they can work for it.

Judith can be seen as a heroine, as well, but she also used manipulation in order to get what she wanted.

Being a widow, Judith had nobody to answer to. When she heard of Nebuchadnezzar's plan to invade all of Egypt, she decided to take matters into her own hands and save the Israelites, since nobody else wanted to do it. She met with Holofernes (advisor to Nebuchadnezzar who was to lead the Assyrians to invade), seduced him (but did not sleep with him), and cut his head off. She brought his head back home with her, and the Assyrians did not invade the town.

Both of these stories hold women highly, but also show that women need to have a man's approval before they go out and do something, as was the case with Esther, and that manipulation is the way to go about getting what you want. Women should not be seen as manipulative as a whole unit. This idea puts all women in a negative light, and not all of us are that way.