Women withholding sex as a political tactic is part of the bigger picture of women’s rights and bodily autonomy, says cultural critic and classicist Helen Morales
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”.
