{"id":3316,"date":"2015-11-28T21:49:30","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T03:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3316"},"modified":"2015-11-28T21:49:30","modified_gmt":"2015-11-29T03:49:30","slug":"spike-lees-sex-strike-right-solution-wrong-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/spike-lees-sex-strike-right-solution-wrong-problem.html","title":{"rendered":"Spike Lee’s sex strike: right solution, wrong problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Spike Lee\u2019s new movie, Chi-Raq, models itself after Lysistrata and its \u201csex strike\u201d plotline, except that instead of ancient Greek women trying to put an end to the Peloponesian War, it\u2019s inner-city black Chicago women trying to end a gang war. \u00a0And in that context, Lee said, in an interview, \u201cI think that a sex-strike could really work on college campuses where there\u2019s an abundance of sexual harassment and date rape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an article from The Atlantic<\/a>, by who else but Ta-Nehisi Coates,\u00a0that cites Lee\u2019s comments and then points out that a sex-strike wouldn\u2019t really do anything to penalize or change the behavior of sexual harassers and, especially date rapists, because they are, after all, committing acts of violence. \u00a0Yeah, he then goes on to throw in all the usual social justice buzzwords, but never mind that. \u00a0And also never mind that we\u2019re learning that those who claim that date rape is epidemic on campus derive their unchanging 1 in 5 statistic from self-selected surveys which cast a wide net in their definition of Sex-Related Bad Stuff.<\/p>\n

But there is a\u00a0problem for which a \u201csex strike\u201d seems like a pretty good solution: \u00a0the hook-up culture at universities. \u00a0It\u2019s been suggested, credibly I think, that the hook-up culture at universities is a result of the growing imbalance of men vs. women at universities. \u00a0For example, Time.com says<\/a>, based on the author\u2019s research,<\/p>\n

when men are in oversupply, the dating culture emphasizes courtship and monogamy. But when women are in oversupply\u2014as they are today at most U.S. colleges and universities\u2014men play the field and women are more likely to be treated as sex objects.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, the oversupply of women means that they\u2019re willing to accept hook-ups and other uncommitted sexual interactions with men, in order to have any kind of approximation of a relationship at all. \u00a0If an individual woman decides not to \u201cput out\u201d she loses to all her competitors for male affection who are willing to do so, in a culture in which women are more likely to prefer relationships, and men, the sex.<\/p>\n

When there\u2019s an oversupply of workers bidding their wages down, to get the job, is when a union, and a strike, can be an effective tactic. \u00a0Looks pretty analogous to me.<\/p>\n

And this is a solution that is, in the end, far better than that being proposed by the Experts during Sex Weeks, that is, that women should be \u201csex-positive\u201d and be just as happy with hook-ups as men, though following tightly-prescribed consent rules.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, there\u2019s another group who would do well to go \u201con strike\u201d \u2014 that is, to reject the \u201chook-up\u201d culture. \u00a0I\u2019m speaking, of course, of the men themselves, who are at risk of having their own lives turned upside-down, both through the age-old risk of getting a girl pregnant (the consequence no longer being a shotgun wedding, but the risk of paying 18 years\u2019 worth of child support), and the modern risk of being accused of sexual assault, and being expelled, and publicly branded a rapist, without due process, much less a criminal trial. \u00a0I applied the favorite instapundit.com phrase to this a while back, writing \u201cOn campus sexual assault: I\u2019ll believe there\u2019s a due-process crisis when . . .<\/a>\u201d \u2014 that is, when the people who say it\u2019s a crisis act like it\u2019s a crisis; in this case, when the men at risk of accusations stop seeking out casual sex, and when those protesting the unfairness of it all, advise them not to. \u00a0At the time I griped that I didn\u2019t seem to be seeing this counsel anywhere, though lately Robert Stacy McCain of theothermccain.com<\/a>, has off and on been promoting the idea that male college students simply shouldn\u2019t date on-campus at all. \u00a0But strictly speaking this doesn\u2019t fit the concept of a \u201cstrike\u201d: \u00a0any individual man can decide, \u201cenough of casual sex, I want a girlfriend with whom I go out on dates,\u201d and will, from all reports, have no trouble finding a willing partner. \u00a0He is not dependent on other men to act in concert with him.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spike Lee\u2019s new movie, Chi-Raq, models itself after Lysistrata and its \u201csex strike\u201d plotline, except that instead of ancient Greek women trying to put an end to the Peloponesian War, it\u2019s inner-city black Chicago women trying to end a gang war. \u00a0And in that context, Lee said, in an interview, \u201cI think that a sex-strike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSpike Lee's sex strike: right solution, wrong problem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Spike Lee's new movie, Chi-Raq, models itself after Lysistrata and its "sex strike" plotline, except that instead of ancient Greek women trying to put an\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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