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Sex strike

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Ukrainian activist group Femen calling for a sex strike to protest against sexual exploitation of women.

A sex strike (sex boycott), or more formally known as Lysistratic nonaction,[1] is a method of nonviolent resistance in which one or more persons refrain from or refuse sex with partners until policy or social demands are met. It is a form of temporary sexual abstinence. Sex strikes have been used to protest many issues, from war to gang violence to policies.

The effectiveness of sex strikes is contested.[2]

History

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Marble stele of Lysistrate

Ancient Greece

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The most famous example of a sex strike in the arts is the Greek playwright Aristophanes' work Lysistrata, an anti-war comedy.[3] The female characters in the play, led by the eponymous Lysistrata, withhold sex from their husbands as part of their strategy to end the Peloponnesian War.

Nigeria

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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."[4]

World history and prehistory

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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",[5] or "sex strike"[6][7][8][9] theory of human origins.

Modern times

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Africa

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Kenya

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Main article: 2009 Kenya sex strike

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.[10]

Liberia

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Leymah Gbowee, awarded with 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

In 2003 Leymah Gbowee and the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace organized nonviolence protests that included suggesting a sex strike, though this was not actually carried out.[11] Their actions led to peace in Liberia after a 14‑year civil war and the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, country's first female head of state.[12] Leymah Gbowee was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize "for her non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."[13][14]

South Sudan

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In October 2014, Pricilla Nanyang, a politician in South Sudan, coordinated a meeting of women peace activists in Juba "to advance the cause of peace, healing and reconciliation." Attendees issued a statement which called on women of South Sudan "to deny their husbands conjugal rights until they ensure that peace returns."[15]

Togo

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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".[16] Opposition leader Isabelle Ameganvi views it as a possible "weapon of the battle" to achieve political change.[17]

Elsewhere

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Colombia

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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.[18] In 2010 the city's murder rate saw the steepest decline in Colombia, down by 26.5%.[2]

In June 2011, women organized in the so-called Crossed Legs Movement in the secluded town of Barbacoas in southwestern Colombia, started a sex strike to pressure the government to repair the road connecting Barbacoas and its neighboring towns and cities.[19] They declared that if the men of the town were not going to demand action, they would refuse to have sex with them. The men of Barbacoas showed no support at the beginning of the campaign, but they soon joined in the protest campaign.[20] After 112 days strike in October 2011, the Colombian government promised action on road repairs. Construction ensued[21] and the strike ended.[22][23]

Naples, Italy

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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.[24]

The Philippines

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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.[25][26]

United States of America

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In 2019, Georgia governor, Brian Kemp (R), signed House Bill (HB) 481 into law. It was immediately blocked by a lawsuit. HB 481 criminalizes most abortions after six weeks and adds a “fetal personhood” language. This language changes the definition of a “natural person” to include an unborn child at any stage of development in the womb.[27] This law has been nicknamed a “heartbeat bill” because HB 481 states that no abortion will be performed if the physician determines that they detect a human heartbeat.

In response to this bill's passage, actress and #MeToo activist, Alyssa Milano and Waleisah Wilson wrote an opinion editorial for CNN and went to Twitter to call for a sex strike until the policy was repealed. In the tweet, Milano calls on women to join her sex strike until women “have legal control over [their] own bodies” because women cannot risk a pregnancy under this new bill. In her CNN opinion piece, Milano states that there are similar bills to the one in Georgia and that the single purpose of them is to make it up to the Supreme Court, forcing them reconsider Roe v. Wade (1973). In this opinion piece, Milano discusses the history of Lysistratic protest,[1] calls on people who can become pregnant to conduct a sex strike, and pay attention to current events. Milano encourages a sex strike in addition to other efforts.

In entertainment

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "057. Lysistratic nonaction". Global Nonviolent Action Database. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  2. ^ a b "Do sex strikes ever work?". The Guardian. 2011-02-09. Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2011-02-10.
  3. ^ "Lucy Burns, sex-strikes through the ages". Archived from the original on 2015-07-10. Retrieved 2015-07-09.
  4. ^ Amadiume, I. 1987. Male Daughters, Female Husbands. Gender and sex in an African society. London and New Jersey: Zed Books, pp. 66-67.
  5. ^ Camilla Power, 1990. Lysistrata, the ritual logic of the sex strike. Archived 2011-10-12 at the Wayback Machine University of East London (Anthropology) Occasional Papers.
  6. ^ Knight, C. 1991. "The Sex Strike". Archived 2013-11-09 at the Wayback Machine In Blood Relations. Menstruation and the origins of culture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp. 122-153.
  7. ^ Power, C. and I. Watts 1996. Female strategies and collective behaviour: the archaeology of earliest Homo sapiens sapiens. In J. Steele and S. Shennan (eds), The Archaeology of Human Ancestry. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 306-330.
  8. ^ Power, C. and L. C. Aiello 1997. "Female Proto-symbolic Strategies". In L. D. Hager (ed.), Women in Human Evolution. New York and London: Routledge, pp. 153-171.
  9. ^ Power, C. 1999. "Beauty magic: the origins of art". In R. Dunbar, C. Knight and C. Power (eds), The Evolution of Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 92-112.
  10. ^ "Kenyan women hit men with sex ban". BBC News. 29 April 2009. Archived from the original on 14 July 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  11. ^ "Profile: Leymah Gbowee - Liberia's 'peace warrior'". BBC News. 2011-10-07. Retrieved 2022-05-04.
  12. ^ Bill Moyers Journal Archived 2017-10-26 at the Wayback Machine, PBS. June 19, 2009
  13. ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 2011 – Press Release". Nobelprize.org. 2011-10-07. Archived from the original on 2018-07-28. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  14. ^ "Kevin Conley, "The Rabble Rousers" in O, the Oprah Magazine, Dec. 2008, posted at www.oprah.com/omagazine/Leymah-Gbowee-and-Abigail-Disney-Shoot-for-Peace-in-Liberia/2#ixzz1bTSs28cd. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  15. ^ "South Sudan women propose sex ban until peace restored". Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan. 2014-10-23. Archived from the original on 2014-10-26. Retrieved 2014-10-26.
  16. ^ "Togo women call sex strike against President Gnassingbe Archived 2018-07-13 at the Wayback Machine", BBC, 27 August 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
  17. ^ Stanglin, Douglas (27 August 2012). "Togo Women Call Sex Strike to Force President's Resignation". USA Today. Archived from the original on 13 October 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  18. ^ "Colombian gangsters face sex ban". BBC News. 2006-09-13. Archived from the original on 2018-05-21. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
  19. ^ "Colombian women use sex strike to pressure government to repair road (Huelga de piernas cruzadas), 2011". Global Nonviolent Action Database. Swarthmore College. Archived from the original on March 26, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  20. ^ Montes, Euclides. "The "Crossed Legs" Movement: How a Sex Strike Got Things Done". AlterNet. Archived from the original on April 28, 2016. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  21. ^ Otis, John (November 5, 2013). "Colombian women on 'crossed legs' sex strike over crumbling highway". NBC News. Archived from the original on August 4, 2016. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  22. ^ Mannon, Travis (11 October 2011). "Colombian men relieved as 112-day sex strike ends". Colombia Reports. Archived from the original on 13 October 2011.
  23. ^ Garlow, Stephanie (13 October 2011). "Women end sex strike in Colombia". Global Post. Archived from the original on 14 October 2011.
  24. ^ Naples sex strike over fireworks Archived 2009-02-07 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, Wednesday 31 Dec 2008.
  25. ^ "Philippines: Sex Strike Brings Peace" Archived 2011-11-05 at the Wayback Machine, UNHCR.
  26. ^ Karen Smith, "Sex strike brings peace to Filipino village" Archived 2017-10-13 at the Wayback Machine. CNN. September 19, 2011.
  27. ^ Fowler, Stephen (30 June 2022). "What does Georgia's 2019 abortion law HB 481 do?". Georgia Public Broadcasting. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
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