Last month, the German chapter of animal-rights charity Peta called on women to refrain from sex with “meat-eating men”. Sex strikes have their roots in an ancient Greek play, Lysistrata, where women from both sides of a war withhold sex in dissent – but as a modern tool of protest, do they work? I asked cultural critic and classicist Helen Morales.
I laughed when I heard about the Peta strike. I suppose you could say I’m on a lifelong sex strike from climate deniers and anti-abortionists. Isn’t that just called “not sleeping with people you don’t like”?
Or “lifelong marriage”.
Also, shouldn’t a strike have a societal aim, not just lobbying your partner?
Sex strikes are usually called by women in straight relationships to get men on side against or for government action. Part of Peta’s action is pushing the government to introduce a hefty meat tax, so it isn’t just, “I won’t have sex with you until you stop eating meat.” That would sound like manipulation.
Pretty big relationship red flag right there. So have recent sex strikes been successful?
Yes and no. There’s no evidence that they work at persuading people, but they’re gold for gaining publicity. Sex sells. Leymah Gbowee, who won the Nobel peace prize for her work in stopping the second Liberian civil war, spoke about this. Many in the west heard about the war because of the sex strike she led. But what stopped it was the gruelling day-to-day activism.
Alongside Liberia, successful sex strikes have taken place in Colombia, Kenya and the Philippines – countries where women have less economic autonomy. Does this factor?
Sex strikes in the west tend to be met with laughter, and we treat reports of them in the developing world as though they might just be a way those countries do business. We should be careful not to patronise. Women tend to protest with their bodies when they don’t have a voice. But look at the Florida teen athletes being asked to give details of their periods – some fear the information could be used in prosecutions over abortion. Women don’t always have a voice in the west.
I was surprised that in 2022 Peta seems to be buying into the narrative that only men enjoy sex.
It’s the worst caricature: men are horny and will do anything for a shag, but, for women, sex is work and nothing to do with love, intimacy or desire. Also the term “sex strike” is bogus. This goes back to Lysistrata: there is sex, there’s a lot of teasing going on. It’s more a climax strike.
Aristophanes’ play gets mentioned in relation to sex strikes – but has it got anything to do with them?
I’ve spoken to Gbowee, and she didn’t know about Lysistrata. She was appalled that the serious women’s action in Liberia was being put in this frame. Lysistrata is a comedy.
I’m assuming that after 2,000 years this won’t be a spoiler – but in the play, do the women win?
They do – through the sex strike and the warring factions literally agreeing to divide up a beautiful woman, like: “I like the hills”; “I like the valley”.
Yeesh! OK, I’m calling it. Aristophanes: cancelled. (Joking!)
But also in the play there are elder women seizing control of the treasury and the younger women withdraw their unpaid labour at home. They’re much more a model for effecting political change.
