Strike for Peace

Everything old is new again. Some women in Kenya are going on a one-week sex strike--withholding sex from their husbands or boyfriends as a means of making them stop their violent male behavior. The idea of using sex to motivate men is not new.

In Aristophanes' ancient Greek comedy, Lysistrata, the Trojan women attempt to tame their men by such a work action. Or, I guess, by giving them no action. In the 1960s there was a poster with Joan Baez in a seductive pose and the line, "Girls say 'Yes' to boys who say 'No.'" The clear meaning of which was that boys would be rewarded sexually for avoiding the draft. Presumably the opposite was also true, "Girls would say 'No' to boys who said 'Yes.''

This open use of sex as reward or punishment was later renounced by Joan and other feminists who didn't want to be as open in manipulating their men as a strike implied. Yet, in the real world women do civilize men and make us behave better than our boy testosterone-driven instincts urge. We do "act" civilized and wash, dress, open doors and try to be (or pretend to be) what our women want. You want Alan Alda? I can do that. You prefer Clint Eastwood? Okay on that too. Whatever we call, we all do it--men, women, gay and straight.

But does it work? Not so far. But the experiment has only been going on 2,300 years.
©2009 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.org