  The best reason for doubting Plato’s feminism is provided by those  disparaging remarks about women. We might try to distinguish between  Plato’s rather harsh view of the women around him and his more  optimistic view of women as they would be in more favorable  circumstances (Vlastos 1989). It is also possible to distinguish between the  traditional sexist tropes as they feature in Plato’s drama and the  rejection of sexism in Plato’s ideas. But it is not clear that these  distinctions will remove all of the tension, especially when Socrates and Glaucon are saying that men are stronger or better than women in  just about every endeavor (455c).