The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(September 2022) |
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]
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.
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]
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.
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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.
Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states by denying all the men of the land any sex, which was said to be the only thing they truly and deeply desired. Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace—a strategy that inflames the battle between the sexes.
The Second Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation of Liberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Gini Reticker and produced by Abigail Disney. The film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Documentary. The film had its theatrical release in New York City on November 7, 2008. It had cumulative gross worldwide of $90,066.
Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace is a peace movement started in 2003 by women in Monrovia, Liberia, Africa, that worked to end the Second Liberian Civil War. Organized by Crystal Roh Gawding and social workers Leymah Gbowee and Comfort Freeman, the movement began despite Liberia having extremely limited civil rights. Thousands of Muslim and Christian women from various classes mobilized their efforts, staged silent nonviolence protests that included a sex strike and the threat of a curse.
Leymah Roberta Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's non-violent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her efforts to end the war, along with her collaborator Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, helped usher in a period of peace and enabled a free election in 2005 that Sirleaf won. Gbowee and Sirleaf, along with Tawakkul Karman, were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."
Abigail Edna Disney is an American documentary film producer, philanthropist, social activist, and member of the Disney family. She produced the 2008 documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell. Disney and Kathleen Hughes are producers and directors of Outstanding Social Issue Documentary Emmy Award winning The Armor of Light (2015) and The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.
Aya Virginie Touré, born Aya Virginie Kouamé, is a peace activist and politician in Côte d'Ivoire. She became known for organizing women in nonviolent resistance against President Laurent Gbagbo who refused to step down since he lost the presidential election to Alassane Ouattara. Touré worked to mobilize women as the Deputy Director for Ouattara's 2010 Ivorian presidential election. In 2016, she was elected as a deputy in the 72nd circonscription which includes the cities of Guépahouo and Oumé. Since at least 2014, she has been the Executive Director of the Petroci Foundation, the caritative organization of the Ivorian oil and gas company.
The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to three female political activists. Two African and one Asian female were awarded for their persistence in obtaining equal rights for women.
Barbacoas is a town and municipality in Nariño Department, Colombia. The urban centre of Barbacoas is located at an altitude of 36 metres (118 ft) and the municipality borders Magüí Payán in the north, Magüí Payán, Cumbitara, Los Andes, La Llanada, Samaniego and Ricaurte in the east, Ricaurte and Ecuador in the south and Tumaco and Roberto Payán in the west.
The extent of gender inequalities varies throughout Liberia in regard to status, region, rural/urban areas, and traditional cultures. In general, women in Liberia have less access to education, health care, property, and justice when compared to men. Liberia suffered two devastating civil wars from 1989–1996 and 1999–2003. The wars left Liberia nearly destroyed with minimal infrastructure and thousands dead. Liberia has a Human Development Report ranking of 174 out of 187 and a Gender Inequality Index rank of 154 out of 159.
Samuel Gbaydee Doe is a conflict, peace, and development professional from Liberia. Doe was a cofounder, with Emmanuel Bombande, of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), based in Accra, Ghana. This organization focuses on collaborative approaches to conflict prevention and was founded in 1998 in response to the civil wars taking place in West Africa. The organization is known for their work with several regional partners such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union’s Economic, Social, and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC).
Chi-Raq is a 2015 American musical crime comedy drama film, directed and produced by Spike Lee and co-written by Lee and Kevin Willmott. Set in Chicago, the film focuses on the gang violence prevalent in neighborhoods on the city's south side, particularly the Englewood neighborhood.
A sex strike, a form of nonviolent protest, was held by Kenyan female activists in 2009 to end the deteriorating relationship between the country's President, Mwai Kibaki, and Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, who agreed to share leadership powers in Kenya. There was a seven-day sex strike, which involved thousands of women and the wives of both the Prime Minister and President, who vowed to withhold sex from their partner. This sex strike was aimed at forcing the leaders to reconcile as they had different views on how Kenya should be run as well as issued conflicting policies that did not focus on urgent issues that mattered in Kenya such as dealing with corruption and poverty.
Grace Beatrice Minor is an Americo-Liberian politician who served as the first female President Pro Tempore of the Senate from 2002 to 2003. She was senator for Montserrado County. Minor was a close ally of president Charles Taylor.
Women Wage Peace is an Israeli grassroots peace movement, formed shortly after the Gaza War in 2014. Its primary goal is to prevent future wars and promote a non-violent, respectful, and mutually accepted solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the active participation of women from diverse political and religious backgrounds through all stages of negotiations.
Asatu Bah Kenneth is a Liberian activist, former Deputy Inspector General of the Liberian police and founder of the Liberian Muslim Women's Organization whose protests helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003.
Ebenezer Norman is a Liberian philanthropist, humanitarian, public speaker, and founder of the education non-profit A New Dimension of Hope (NDHope). He is involved in humanitarian efforts in Liberia and throughout West Africa, notably for efforts to build schools in attenuated or war-torn communities after the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003 and the Ebola virus epidemic in Liberia in 2015.
Thelma Arimiebi Ekiyor is a Nigerian lawyer, social entrepreneur and impact investor who has served in authoritative positions within many organizations. Ekiyor has focused primarily on investing in women entrepreneurs. She started her career supporting women in peacebuilding and empowering women and youth through financial independence and educational access. She has experience with projects in more than 22 African countries. Ekiyor worked in post-conflict countries such as Liberia with the peace activist Leymah Gbowee.
Etweda Ambavi Gbenyon Cooper, known as Sugars, is a Liberian politician and peace activist. She has been described as "the doyenne" and "the godmother" of the Liberian women's movement.
Events in the year 2019 in Liberia.