The inferior status of women in the Empire of Persia and Mede is even more noticeable in the Megillah's description of the selection of a new Queen. The King is advised to hold a sort of beauty contest, where the only requirement of the contestants is that they should be fair virgins.
Participation is to be compulsory.
Women are treated as a negotiable commodity - preferably esthetic, like food. The Megillah repeatedly brings to the fore, through the literary conventions at its disposal, to what extent there is a lack of personal and emotional relationship towards women and how much it is an external, functional one. The description in Genesis, however, refers to the preparation of Jacob's dead body - while that of the Megillah is of a live woman. The parallel in language intimates that the entire frame of reference to a woman was in terms of her body, without any consideration for her mind and soul. When Esther's turn approaches, there is emphasis on the gap between Esther's dignified stature and the humiliating situation into which she has fallen in the Persian Empire.