Anytime people exercise their right to assemble and bring their grievances to their government, I am generally pleased. But this story has me troubled.
A coalition of Kenyan women's advocacy groups, dubbed "G10," are engaging in a seven-day sex boycott to push for reform and Constitutional review. Escalating violence and hunger is disproportionately affecting Kenyan women, and the hope is that this will bring attention to the issue.
I'd be interested to hear other people's impressions of this approach, but I seriously wonder if it might make things worse in Kenya. I know how crabby I get when.....ummm.....never mind.
But, in other contexts, I could see this working, though no man would ever admit it. For example, such an approach might improve women candidates' chances of getting slated by their respective political parties. If "behind closed doors" action stopped until "behind closed doors" conversations put more women on the ballot, it would happen.
But this would require ladies to stand together, and, curiously, gender has never unified American women in the same ways race, party identification, and socioeconomic status have. This might be why ladies comprise 52% of the overall population, and at least 3% more of them vote in every election, but they still only have 18% of the seats in the U.S. Congress (18 of 100 in the Senate, 77 of 435 in the U.S. House of Representatives), and they've never had a President.
I know women who say they won't use sex as a weapon. Politics is a contact (or in this case a "non-contact" sport), ladies. If it's in the arsenal...
(Gentleman, you may direct your hate mail to me at this blogsite).
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