What do Liberia, South Sudan, Kenya, Colombia, the Philippines, and
Ancient Greece have in common? All of these societies contain at least
one example in their history of Women going on sex strike
(i.e. withholding sex from men until their collective demands are met)
and typically achieving success as a result, often in a matter of weeks
or less. These actions were generally done to bring an end to
otherwise intractable and prolonged wars and violence, most notably the
Peloponnesian War in Ancient Greece as noted in the famous play Lysistrata.
In Liberia, a modern-day example, it brought an end to their country's
14-year long civil war and ushered in their first female president,
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
But what about the longest war in history,
i.e. the War on Women? Also known as "patriarchy" to make it sound
nicer, this system is currently self-destructing as we speak, but can
its demise be accelerated with a sex strike perhaps? Would Women be
able to take over the world more quickly and readily that way? Pat
Ravasio of Buckyworld seems to think so.
While I have long been rather skeptical of the idea myself, after
suspending my disbelief I began to realize that this probably would have
a chance at working wonders. As the aformentioned historical examples
have shown, men's demand for sex appears to be relatively "inelastic",
that is, even a large increase in the "cost" of sex (which by definition
would rise significantly during a massive shortage such as a sex
strike) would not affect demand very much, at least in the short run.
While men don't have a higher sex drive than Women (if anything, Women
have a higher sex drive), for men there is a much greater sense of urgency
thanks to all of that testosterone, and thus men will typically "cave"
first. Thus, men would do whatever it takes to end the shortage/strike
and regain easier access, including cleaning up their act and meeting
the demands of the Women on strike. (Women often forget just how much
power they really have!) And while the grand scale of the task of
ending patriarchy may be more daunting than the historical examples of
using sex strikes to end local conflicts, at this point in history it
certainly appears to be worth the old college try. Even with less than
100% participation, if enough Women go on strike (especially the wives
of powerful men in high places), the effects would nonetheless be huge.
So the answer to the question is most likely yes. That said, it usually
takes an enormous amount of provocation to get a critical mass of Women
on board for something like that, since Women clearly have needs as
well. But given how so many men are lashing out these days as the
patriarchy is now in its death throes, it probably won't take all that
much more provocation to end up crossing that critical threshold. Especially now that "President" Trump (!) has actually become a reality. Thus,
I would not be shocked if The Big One happens within a few years.
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