Sex strikes have always been about patriarchal power, not women’s rights
Alyssa Milano recently proposed a tactic famously depicted in the Greek play ‘Lysistrata.’
By Donna Zuckerberg
May 17, 2019
Actress Alyssa Milano this month called for an unusual response to the surge in state-level efforts to restrict abortion rights: Withhold sex to exert political leverage. Milano tweeted : “Until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy. JOIN ME by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back. I’m calling for a #SexStrike.” An accompanying graphic said, “If our choices are denied, so are yours.” She followed this up with an earnest opinion article on CNN.com calling sex strikes “a longstanding, effective and empowering method to fight for change,” pointing back to the most famous literary depiction of such an effort, Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata,” a comedy first performed in Athens in 411 B.C.
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