The Guardian

A sex strike is not enough: women need to down tools completely | Suzanne Moore

The idea proposed last week by Alyssa Milano won’t cut it. To assert their worth, women should refuse to fulfil the unpaid labour expected by society
‘What I really like is the strike bit, not the sex bit’ ... Suzanne Moore on Alyssa Milano’s proposal. Photograph: Owen Hoffmann/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images

Sex is the very least of our concerns, the last thing that has to be crossed off the to-do list. Or so I have heard from harassed women in the school playground. Yet sex is the very meaning of life, the cement that glues together every relationship, half our culture also tells us, while the remainder portrays women as a series of orifices to be penetrated.

Perhaps sex is all and none of, their problems inevitably boil down to: “I want more or less sex, or of a different kind, or with a different person from the one I am currently having sex with.”

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Guardian

The Guardian5 min read
Sara M Saleh: ‘I Want To Know The System And Its Flaws, So I Know How To Undo It, Transcend It’
Sara M Saleh is bright against the picture of a rather dreary day. The poet’s blue headwrap and coloured frock are stark beneath grey clouds rolling overhead as are her white sneakers stepping through freshly moistened mud. We meet after a night of i
The Guardian4 min read
‘Perfect Linearity’: Why Botticelli’s Drawing Abilities Remain One-of-a-kind
Throughout the Renaissance, drawings became an integral part of the massive paintings and frescoes that have long been associated with that period. Among other things, they were a way for artists to get a feel for how to arrange the space of a compos
The Guardian7 min read
Gwyneth Paltrow: Is Her Life A Work Of Performance Art?
Ripping to shreds Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop gift list has been a media preoccupation for years now, to the point that the website even titles it, “The ridiculous but awesome gift guide”. Still, even those not driven by well-documented animus towards Pal

Related Books & Audiobooks