Life Imitates Aristophanes in Colombia

Norman Lindsay, “Lysistrata”

Sometimes life imitates art.  In Aristophanes’ great anti-war comedy, the women of Greece, led by Lysistrata, stage a sex strike, which gives them the leverage they need to end the Peloponnesian War. Currently there is a sex strike underway in a remote village in Colombia.

The episode is described in this article on AlterNet,

Since 22 June, the women of the small town of Barbacoas in the Nariño province of Colombia have foregone all sexual activity. After years of fruitless pressure on the central government to pave a road linking their town with the rest of the province, they finally reached breaking point and organized what has come to be known as the “crossed legs movement” in protest. The failure by previous administrations to take action has left Barbacoas virtually unreachable by car, leading to scores of deaths.

Meanwhile, an article at Global Post informs us that this is not the first time the women of Columbia have resorted to these tactics.  A previous incident matches Aristophanes’ play even more closely:

In 1997, the country’s military chief called for a sex strike among the wives of paramilitaries, guerrillas and drug lords to work for peace. In 2006, wives and girlfriends of gang members in the town of Pereira reportedly withheld sex from gangsters who failed to turn in their arms.

In Aristophanes’ play, the forces of life war with the forces of death and life carries the day.  It also appears to have carried the day in Barbacoas.  Apparently the women have been promised that the road will now be built.

The strike will not end until they actually see the road, but things look good.  Soon, in other words, they may be able to proclaim, as Lysistrata does,

Earth is delighted now, peace is the voice of earth.
Spartans, sort out your wives: Athenians, yours.
Let each catch hands with his wife and dance his joy,
Dance out his thanks, be grateful in music,
And promise reformation with his heels.

 

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