Consider:
How is Vashti referenced in the different verses? How can this reflect the different ways that she is viewed and how she views herself?
(1) Queen Vashti refused. Our Rabbis said because leprosy broke out on her,24Ibid. Vashti did not refuse out of modesty. She was as lewd as her husband and would have attended had she not broken out with leprosy. Another opinion is that the angel Gavriel caused her to grow a tail. so that she should refuse and be executed. Because she would force Jewish girls to disrobe and make them do work on Shabbos, it was decreed upon her to be stripped naked on Shabbos.25This punishment was in the form of מדה כנגד מדה, just as she had done, so it was decreed upon her. (Maseches Megillah 12b)
(16) Thereupon Memucan declared in the presence of the king and the ministers: “Queen Vashti has committed an offense not only against Your Majesty but also against all the officials and against all the peoples in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. (17) For the queen’s behavior will make all wives despise their husbands, as they reflect that King Ahasuerus himself ordered Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come. (18) This very day the ladies of Persia and Media, who have heard of the queen’s behavior, will cite it to all Your Majesty’s officials, and there will be no end of scorn and provocation! (19) “If it please Your Majesty, let a royal edict be issued by you, and let it be written into the laws of Persia and Media, so that it cannot be abrogated, that Vashti shall never enter the presence of King Ahasuerus. And let Your Majesty bestow her royal state upon another who is more worthy than she. (20) Then will the judgment executed by Your Majesty resound throughout your realm, vast though it is; and all wives will treat their husbands with respect, high and low alike.”
The Jewish Study Bible commentary on Esther 1:19
Vashti refused to appear, and now she may never appear again. While the book is silent about what became of Vashti, many midrashim interpret her punishment as execution.
Cannot be abrogated, Generally understood to mean that a law cannot be revoked, but the Hebrew means "may not be broken" or "to which there is no exception...."
Selections from “Taking Back Purim” by Rabbi Tamara Cohen
We are also challenging ourselves to move beyond the dichotomy of bad queen/good queen (and good feminist/bad feminist) and embrace a wider spectrum of possibility for women's leadership. For much of Jewish interpretive tradition, Vashti was the bad queen and Esther the good one. Then, in the early days of Jewish feminism, Vashti was resurrected and celebrated for her open defiance of the king and her powerful defense of her body and sexuality. Not surprisingly, as Vashti's popularity grew, Esther fell out of favor. Feminists were not sure they could accept two different models of powerful women. For some, Esther suddenly became a negative symbol for all women who use their sexuality, enjoy their beauty, fear confrontation, and remain married to power. These interpretations of Esther minimized her courage in directly confronting both Ahasuerus and Haman, and in "coming out" as a Jew after years of hiding her identity. They also ignore Esther's powerful role as an innovator of communal ritual action in her calling for a public fast.
...It is time for us to make room in our myths and in our communities for more than one model of leadership. It is time for us to learn from both Esther and Vashti, from both the Jewish women in our texts and the non-Jewish women (and men). It is time to celebrate women's power and to question the ways we have wielded it over others.
Consider:
Do you think that other women were happy to be taken into the palace? Why?
Why do you think it is important that the women had to spend time beautifying themselves?
Why do many women today and in the past agree to sexual invitations by people in power positions?
The harem of violated women in Megillat Esther by Yedidah Koren
There are three women in the book of Esther that we all know: Esther, the heroine; Haman’s wife, the evil Zeresh; and Vashti, the first queen, who refuses Ahasuerus’s order to present her beauty in public. But these are not the women I want to write about. Rather, the king has a multitude of other, anonymous victims, extras to the main plot. After he does away with Vashti, Ahasuerus needs a new queen, and so his servants collect all the beautiful maidens from the entire empire
[...]
The king’s only basis for deciding whether a young woman suits him is by sleeping with her. Every single one. Once he decides that she is not fit to be queen, she is not released, but now belongs to him forever. He gets to decide if he ever wants to see her, that is, sleep with her, again. The premise for Esther’s selection is not only the objectification of Vashti, but the sexual abuse and exploitation of every single maiden from India to Ethiopia.
Who are Sex Workers? The Urban Justice Center
Sex Workers are Human Beings Whose Human Rights Must Be Respected
• Sex workers are individuals whose reasons for engaging in sex work – and leaving it − are personal, economic and social – as complex as anyone’s reasons for involvement in any type of work.
• Sex workers come from an array of backgrounds and life circumstances. Many sex workers do openly choose sex work from a variety of options available to them. Others live in situations that do not allow for such choice and these are the people most affected by harmful policies.
• Stigma and invisibility often lead to human rights violations. Studies of sex workers
worldwide show they suffer high rates of violence, often at the hands of authorities, who not only fail to protect sex workers’ human rights, but in many instances also are the abusers.
Me Too: A Jewish Response to Abuse By Devon Spier
I have a name but too often I have been rendered nameless.
Me too.
I have a voice but too often my voice has not been heeded.
Me too.
I have a shape but too often my body has been leered at or made invisible.
Me too.
All these acts.
To make a person.
This person
Disappear.
And yet.
I have a name
And a voice
And a body.
Together, in the midst of the others, I make myself present and available for all survivors and our collective surviving.
Me too.
Me too.
And
Me too.
Coming Out As Who You Are By Judy Lutz
Throw off your mask
Throw off your facade
I am with you to help you have the courage to be who you are
May you be like Esther and not be afraid to reveal who you are
May you be like Vashti and not be afraid to speak out
May you defeat all of your Hamans
May you be blessed in your coming out and in being who you are meant to be.