The spirit of Lysistrata lives!

Literate Boomers and maybe a few other people who read this blog will know that Lysistrata was the lead character in an ancient Greek comedy of that name written by Aristophanes and performed in Athens around 1,600 years ago (more details at Wikipedia here). In brief, Lysistrata persuaded a critical mass of Greek women of her time to agree to stop having sex with their husbands until the men negotiated an end to the Peloponnesian War. As a strategy, it proved itself not without annoying side effects — but it worked for those women, in that play, back then.

On the other hand, I seriously doubt whether, in our time, in the two countries in which I have lived my life, the US and Israel, a copy-cat Lysistratan movement could emerge, let alone succeed. There is no lack of influential women who could try to lead one. But a mass movement? No. I just don’t think today’s women would go for it. And anyway, Aristophanes’ play was a comedy.

What we can reclaim successfully, however, is the spirit of Lysistrata — by ceasing to wait around for the men in power to fix things. Time to stand up now, sisters.

Reclaiming our agency

Sometime during the last few decades, too many women of our era seem to have lost their grip on that quality called agency: a sense of control over our own lives. We have PMD (pervasive male domination) living rent-free in our heads. Too many educated, economically empowered, enfranchised women seem to have regressed gradually into spineless passivity when it comes to wielding power for the good of ourselves, our children, our society, and beyond. True, we form organizations, we march, we protest, yet somehow a bunch of (mostly old and mostly white) men are still running things. There are too many men in government, both in Israel and in the US, who genuinely believe themselves better qualified to run women’s lives for us than we are, ourselves. And for too long, we have failed to adequately resist. We have caved, psychologically.

And yet… Maybe the long-delayed awakening is finally upon us, at least in the United States. After the US Supreme Court Dobbs decision of two years ago, reversing 50 years of relative reproductive freedom for America’s women, something has happened to the larger picture. An upwelling of women’s rage has begun to manifest. Anti-abortion MAGA Republicans and ballot initiatives aimed at limiting access to abortion began to encounter emphatic voter rejection at the polls, even in traditionally Republican-dominated areas. More importantly, grassroots political organizing to reclaim women’s rights to control our own bodies has expanded exponentially on the local, state, and national level in the US.

Heads up, American women! Biden in a coma would be far better than Trump

There has been a lot of drama lately about Joe Biden’s possible unfitness for office due to age and infirmity (while most major US media all but ignore the other guy’s age, malignant narcissism, and gross unfitness for office). At this writing, no one knows how that will play out. Meanwhile, I think it is a mistake to focus mainly on the top of the national Democratic ticket this November. We know who is heading the Republican ticket, and their think tank guys have published their Republican version of Mein Kampf, so what matters now is that US women rise up in their multitudes, organize, canvass, fundraise, network, and energize — and then go to the polls and vote for Democrats up and down the ballot. No matter who heads the ticket! Even if you never voted for Democrats before. Even if you are a registered Republican yourself. Because if America’s women understand the stakes for themselves, their mothers and sisters and daughters and granddaughters, they will answer the call to get to their polling place and vote for the saner agenda, dammit. It is past time to reclaim our agency. There are far, far too many PRICs (Pompous Republicans in Congress) in office already, and our job this fall is to ensure that unprecedented multitudes of women will vote as many PRICs out of office as possible, and reclaim our agency not just over our own reproductive healthcare, but in general.

There are more women than men in the United States. More women than men register to vote and turn out to vote. But still, in recent US national elections, around 30% of eligible US women did not register and did not vote. Among younger women, it’s more like 60%. Some of them are your neighbors, friends, or family. Right now is when we gotta reach out to those women and sign them on to this campaign: Evict the PRICs from Congress and from local and statewide offices, too. Stop letting PMD (pervasive male domination) live in our heads rent-free. Enough is enough.

It’s the spirit of Lysistrata reinterpreted for this particular moment in our history. Never mind a recycled fictional campaign to withhold sex – it’s never gonna work for us, and the original was a comedy, remember? Just get off your butt and go vote for Democrats all up and down the ballot, and take all the women you know along with you. Let’s evict the PRICs from the US Congress and deny the orange guy and his merry band of fascists the White House one last time… and reclaim our agency and our future.

We could use some good slogans, too. Start with these:

Avenge the Dobbs decision!
Evict the PRICs from Congress!
The spirit of Lysistrata lives!