Navya Sahay

May 1, 2023 | brownpoliticalreview.org | Anusha Gupta |Hayden Deffarges |Ilektra Bampicha-Ninou |Navya Sahay

The first recorded instance of a political sex strike—when women actively withhold sex from men as a temporary means of political action—dates back to 411 BCE in Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata. The comedy displays an effort by Lysistrata to end the Peloponnesian War by convincing all the women of Greece to refuse sex with their soldier husbands until a peace treaty is signed.