Sex strike
A sex strike,
sometimes called a sex boycott, is a strike, a method of non-violent
resistance in which one or multiple persons refrain from sex with their
partner (s) to achieve certain goals. It is a form of temporary sexual abstinence. Sex strikes have been used to protest many issues, from water resources to employment equity
Historical
Ancient Greece
The most famous example of a sex strike in the arts is the Greek playwright Aristophanes' work Lysistrata, an anti-war comedy. The
female characters in the play, led by the eponymous Lysistrata,
withhold sex from their husbands as part of their strategy to secure
peace and end the Peloponnesian War.
Nigeria
Among
the Igbo people of Nigeria, in pre-colonial times, the community of
women periodically formed themselves into a Council, a kind of women's
trade union. This was headed by the Agba Ekwe, 'the favoured one of the goddess Idemili and her earthly manifestation'. She carried her staff of authority and had the final word in public gatherings and assemblies. Central among her tasks was to ensure men's good behaviour, punishing male attempts at harassment or abuse. What men most feared was the Council's power of strike action. According
to Ifi Amadiume, an Igbo anthropologist: 'The strongest weapon the
Council had and used against the men was the right to order mass strikes
and demonstrations by all women. When ordered
to strike, women refused to perform their expected duties and roles,
including all domestic, sexual and maternal services. They would leave the town en masse, carrying only suckling babies. If angry enough, they were known to attack any men they met '.
World history and prehistory
Citing similar examples of women's strike action in hunter-gatherer and other precolonial traditions around the world, some anthropologists argue that it was thanks to solidarity of this kind-especially collective resistance to the possibility of rape-that language, culture, and religion became established in our species in the first instance. This controversial hypothesis is known as the "Female Cosmetic Coalitions", "Lysistrata", or "sex strike" theory of human origins.
Modern times
Colombia
In
October 1997, the chief of the Military of Colombia, General Manuel
Bonnet publicly called for a sex strike among the wives and girlfriends
of the Colombian left-wing guerrillas, drug traffickers, and
paramilitaries as part of a strategy-along with diplomacy-to achieve a ceasefire. Also
the mayor of Bogota, Antanas Mockus, declared the capital a women-only
zone for one night, suggesting men to stay at home to reflect on
violence. The guerrillas ridiculed the initiatives, pointing at the fact that there were more than 2,000 women in their army. In the end the ceasefire was achieved, but lasted only a short time.
In September 2006 dozens of wives and girlfriends of gang members from Pereira, Colombia, started a sex strike called La huelga de las piernas cruzadas ("the strike of crossed legs") to curb gang violence, in response to 480 deaths due to gang violence in the coffee region. According to spokeswoman Jennifer Bayer, the specific target of the strike was to force gang members to turn in their weapons in compliance with the law. According to them, many gang members were involved in violent crime for status and sexual attractiveness, and the strike sent the message that refusing to turn in the guns was not sexy. In 2010 the city's murder rate saw the steepest decline in Colombia, down by 26.5%.
In June 2011, Barbacoas a secluded town in southwestern Colombia started a sex strike to pave a new, safe, functioning road connecting the Barbacoas to neighboring towns and cities. After a 112 days of the strike the women finally got what they wanted and work for the new road finally began.
In September 2006 dozens of wives and girlfriends of gang members from Pereira, Colombia, started a sex strike called La huelga de las piernas cruzadas ("the strike of crossed legs") to curb gang violence, in response to 480 deaths due to gang violence in the coffee region. According to spokeswoman Jennifer Bayer, the specific target of the strike was to force gang members to turn in their weapons in compliance with the law. According to them, many gang members were involved in violent crime for status and sexual attractiveness, and the strike sent the message that refusing to turn in the guns was not sexy. In 2010 the city's murder rate saw the steepest decline in Colombia, down by 26.5%.
In June 2011, Barbacoas a secluded town in southwestern Colombia started a sex strike to pave a new, safe, functioning road connecting the Barbacoas to neighboring towns and cities. After a 112 days of the strike the women finally got what they wanted and work for the new road finally began.
Kenya
In April 2009
a group of Kenyan women organised a week-long sex strike aimed at
politicians, encouraging the wives of the president and prime minister
to join in too, and offering to pay prostitutes for lost earnings if
they joined in.
Liberia
In 2003 Leymah Gbowee and the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace organized nonviolence protests that included a sex strike. Their
actions led to peace in Liberia after a 14-year civil war and the
election of the country's first female head of state, Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf.
Naples, Italy
In the
build-up to New Year's Eve in 2008, hundreds of Neapolitan women pledged
to make their husbands and lovers "sleep on the sofa" unless they took
action to prevent fireworks from causing serious injuries.]
The Philippines
During the summer of 2011, women in rural Mindanao imposed a several-week-long sex strike in an attempt to end fighting between their two villages.]
Togo
In 2012
inspired by the 2003 Liberian sex strike, the Togolese opposition
coalition "Let's Save Togo" asked women to abstain from sex for a week
as a protest against President Faure Gnassingbé, whose family has been
in power for more than 45 years. The strike
aimed to "motivate men who are not involved in the political movement to
pursue its goals". [Opposition leader Isabelle Ameganvi views it as a
possible "weapon of the battle" to achieve political change.]
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