The Change Factor: A Sex Strike

Public relations thrives on change.  It focuses on communicating a client’s point of view, thereby creating a better understanding of the client or changing the targets’ behavior.  But communications, alone, is often not enough.  Many times an action is required to achieve the desired result.

For that reason, the story of what women in a violence-plagued area of the Philippines did to bring peace and restore commerce to their village is such a great one to illustrate the effectiveness of public relations.

According to CNN, many of the women in a sewing cooperative on the Filipino Island of Mindanao were fed up with not being able to deliver their products because of the violence that had closed down a main road between two villages.  Obviously, they had unsuccessfully tried to convince their husbands to stop the fighting, which had gone on for many years.  Finally, they came up with a new solution:  withholding sex until the violence stopped.  It worked.  Within weeks, CNN reports, the fighting was over and the road re-opened.  The newly opened thoroughfare enabled the women to deliver their goods and start to rebuild the economy.

The CNN story also notes that the idea of withholding sex is not a new one — the ancient Greek play, Lysistrata, tells the story of women who organized a sex strike to end a war between Athens and Sparta.  While public relations is often considered a post-World War II profession, it has its roots in Ancient Greece!