Alyssa Milano is calling for women to abstain from sex to protest abortion law in the United States.
The 46-year-old Charmed actress and activist has called for a sex strike to stand up for women’s reproductive rights after the state of Georgia passed one of the US’s most restrictive abortion laws, banning terminations as soon as a doctor can detect a foetal heartbeat. This can occur as early as six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.
Other states including Mississippi and Ohio have passed similar “heartbeat” laws. Such a law that was planned to come into place immediately has been blocked in Kentucky as it could be unconstitutional.
“Our reproductive rights are being erased,” Milano wrote on Twitter. “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.”
“We can LOVE sex and fight for our bodily autonomy,” she said in a follow-up tweet. “There are lots of alternatives to cis men. Protect your vaginas, ladies. Men in positions of power are trying to legislate them.”
Her call has received both praise and criticism, with #SexStrike trending on Twitter over the weekend.
Supporters said that a sex strike reminded men that women have control over their bodies and how they use them.
However, opponents argued that a sex strike only serves to perpetuate the stereotype that women 'provide' sex to men who 'need' sex, as opposed to both enjoying it equally with consent. Others also claimed that Milano's call presumes all women are straight and cisgendered.
In addition it should be said that women should not have to resort to sex in exchange for power and being heard.
Still, sex strikes have worked historically.
A sex strike is the basis of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata, which portrays women joining together in a strike to end the Peloponnesian War.
In the 1600s women from Native American confederacy refused to have sex to stop unregulated warfare.
In 2003, Liberian woman Leymah Gbowee called for a sex strike to end the country's brutal civil war. It worked - warlords agreed to end the violence that same year and in 2011 Gbowee was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Gbowee said a sex strike worked because it highlighted the issue and got men thinking.
"The percentage of men who wage war is very small. Good men outnumber evil men, but why are they silent? Our strategy helps the good men because it gives them a reason to take action. They start talking to their colleagues and beer buddies, saying 'this war is wrong.'"
Sex strikes have also helped to lower homicide rates in Colombia and end political infighting in Kenya, according to a report from Quartz.
Milano told the Associated Press she is not worried about the criticism as her tweet was doing what she hoped it would - getting people to talk about the "war on women".
She said she feared one of the state laws could reach the US Supreme Court, which has a conservative-majority and could overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalising abortion.
The sex strike is not Milano's only protest against Georgia's restrictive abortion law.
Georgia makes close to US$3 billion from film and television each year. Movies including Black Panther and The Hunger Games and TV shows Ozark and The Walking Dead are filmed in the state.
Milano has stated she will fight to move her Netflix show Insatiable from filming in Georgia if it returns for a third season.
In March 50 actors, including Milano, Amy Schumer, Christina Applegate, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn and Laverne Cox signed a letter proposing a boycott of film and television production in the state.
The Writers Guild of America strongly criticised the legislation before it passed and said it would make Georgia "an inhospitable place for those in the film and television industry to work, including our members" in a statement.
Top Comments
So dumb. Sex isn't a reward for hetero men. Sex is also enjoyed by women and non binary people. Many women support the abortion ban, so I'm sure conservative men will still get laid. Many men support women's rights to abortion. The problem isn't just men, it's the idea that women's bodies are open to debate, that once a woman becomes pregnant, she loses all rights to bodily autonomy and that she has no say over who uses her body for their benefit, rendering her with less rights than a dead body. This attitude, although patriarchal, is rooted in religious ideology. A sex ban will literally do nothing.
I don't think any of us have true bodily autonomy.
There are many laws which say what we can and can't do with our body.
For example, can't take drugs, have to wear a seatbelt, no euthanasia.
Women can argue about their level of autonomy post conception, it’s a fair debate to be had. But I might point men have absolutely zero rights post conception and no legal protection even if they were deliberately deceived. To some point this limits men’s empathy on the issue, whatever limit is placed on abortion, women still have all the choices men do not within that framework.
Not offering this as a me tooism, but to agree with your point that our autonomy is limited in so many ways already.
But in no other instance can one be forced to use their body for the benefit of another, that is what I mean here by bodily autonomy. So why should a pregnant woman suddenly lose what everyone else takes for granted? Even a dead body has a say over how their body is used for the benefit of another. And we should be able to take drugs and euthanase ourselves, but those are separate issues to this.
It's not limited when it comes to using it for the benefit of another. Everyone has the right to not use their body so that another can live.
And, it is hard for men to have a say, because at the end of the day, they aren't the ones having to go through pregnancy or an abortion. That decision needs to solely be up to the woman who is pregnant, because of the stress and trauma both pregnancy and abortion can have. However, I do think that there is some scope for men to essentially "abort" their right to fatherhood, if they wish. But the kids of these men will need a safety net of some sort, too many kids are already growing up in single parent households in poverty.
Also, men already get away with not providing for children they have fathered far too often, and there are women who spend the money on themselves and not the kids (I know such a woman) so child support laws really need looking at, as well. But these are all separate issues to women accessing fully legal abortion services with privacy.
I'm not for this, as it perpetuates that women's commodity, their value - is sex. That's what we have to offer. But strictly practically speaking, it would only work if all the women 'strike' - not just some.
Agreed. It won’t work because anti abortion or centrist women will feel no need to join. In any event, sex as a commodity has never been lower in value. It used to cost a wedding ring, then a steady relationship with deep commitment, down, down, through 3 dates, one date and now one swipe on an app. It’s value as a bargaining chip is now near zero.