Blog 2 When All Else Fails, Women Choose To...

I read an article about a protest movement taking place in Togo that involves women denying their husband sex to get them to take active roles in politics. The article started out by citing a play called Lysistrata (named for the main character) written in Athens 411 BC. In this play the main character entreated the women in our community to deny their husbands “any depth of love” to promote peace in war. This is the same attitude women in Togo are taking so that their husbands will vote against President Faure Gnassingbé. This method is not uncommon in todays society. The article mentions Noble Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee as another woman who has initiated this action in her home country, Liberia. In reading this article I recognized Ms. Gbowee from a previous class in which I watched her give a speech on Ted Talks. She and the women in her nation were able to make political changes using sex as an instrument to get their husband’s and partner’s attention. Some critics say that this method is unsound because it promotes using sex as a tool. In relation to that, Jen Thorpe a feminist activist says that using sex as an instrument allows for some to use arguments of “justifiable rape” as means to control or subdue women. I see both sides of the arguments on this issue. For example, some African women who identify as lesbians are raped as an attempt to “turn them straight” or “correct” their sexuality (Liz Hazleton). This is one example that shows how some use sex as a harmful instrument to women.  On the other hand withholding sex from partner’s and husband’s has proved to be effective not only in Liberia but in South American countries like Columbia.

Initial Article:  http://allafrica.com/stories/201208290473.html

Citation Article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2055289/Corrective-rape-South-Africa-women-attcked-cure-lesbians.html