Stiffing Lysistrata

One of the more inventive anti-war protest activities was yesterday's coordination of public readings of Aristophane's Lysistrata, a play in which the women of Athens and Sparta refuse to sleep with their husbands until the men stop fighting the Pelopennesian War.

From New York City to Los Angeles, supporters of The Lysistrata Project, including glitterati such as Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Julie Christie and Eric Stoltz, got in on the action. The organizers say that readings took place yesterday in all 50 states. Overall, some 919 readings in 56 countries have been done so far, a number they say will continue to climb.

Which leads to the question: How many readings have taken place in Iraq? One of the moral and dramatic underpinnings of the play is that the men on both sides of the conflict need to be punished for their bellicose ways; both armies need to get stiffed, as it were. Otherwise, the strategy's just not particularly funny--or effective.

Comments

[Jim]

Suppose for a second that these ninnies actually mean for American women to do this. Who is actually going to do so, and what effect would it have? Do they really think the wives of the (mostly) men in power that are pushing a war with Iraq disagree with their husband's position? How about the military brides of our men in uniform? If they were the peacenik type they wouldn't have married a soldier. Even if they did it, for example because they feared for their mate's life in combat, last time I checked there's pretty severe penalties imposed by the military for disobeying orders and refusing to fight. Again, the type of woman to marry a soldier would also be the type that knows those are risks she has to accept. For the rest of us, it makes no difference. In my case, my wife is pro-war but I'm kind of somewhere between anti and on the fence. I suppose she could refuse to sleep with me to 'punish' me for my incorrect thoughts but I'm certainly not in a position right now to influence whether we go to war or not - about the only thing I could do is vote against Bush in 2004 but by then we will be in it for better or worse.

This all begs one to question the feminist assumption that women are anti-war, peace-loving folks and men are vicious warmongers. There might be some minor trends here but I doubt a true division of opinion exists between the sexes.

[Chris Howell]

Remember that Aristophane's Lysistrata is a PLAY. Reading plays and refusing sex never actually prevented wars.

[Steve]

Nick, you've missed the big picture here. According to the glitterati, we are the bad guys, not Iraq. They were just mindin' there own business, building Weapons of Mass Destruction, that surely they would never use on, say, Iran or...oh, lets just say The Kurds. Hey, the UN inspectors can handle this. No way can the Iraqis hide from the all-knowing, all-seeing Hans Blix (sounds like a 007 villan). So OF COURSE they're only reading Lysistrata here.

[Anonymous]

>>How many readings have taken place in Iraq?

[david F]

another question:
would the women over in Iraq or Pakistan or wherever actually have the choice not to, errr, extend such favor to their men?

and, does the six degrees of kevin bacon now apply to various peace movements, protest actions, and other acts of social action?

WMD should now stand for "Wanting to Masturbate, Dammit!"

spritely,
drf

[c A]

I've seen references to one underground reading in Bagdad.

[Ig]

Kind of jams up that whole "women in combat" idea then doesn't it? What these peacenik nits fail to understand is that we only have the freedom for such high-minded nonsense because we as a nation HAVE been willing to go to war to defend their right to do so!!! I say all of the women who are actually considering such assanine musings should go the full ticket. Leave your war-mongering American Imperialist husband/lover and take up bridal duties in the middle east with one of those loving caring sensitive and peace-minded Iraqi men. I anxiously await the TV movie version on the Lifetime network!!

Ig

[Ig]

Kind of jams up that whole "women in combat" idea then doesn't it? What these peacenik nits fail to understand is that we only have the freedom for such high-minded nonsense because we as a nation HAVE been willing to go to war to defend their right to do so!!! I say all of the women who are actually considering such assanine musings should go the full ticket. Leave your war-mongering American Imperialist husband/lover and take up bridal duties in the middle east with one of those loving caring sensitive and peace-minded Iraqi men. I anxiously await the TV movie version on the Lifetime network!!

Ig

[Evilcor]

Iraqi soldiers being denied access to Iraqi women? Whoa, THERE'S a hardship.