Socialist senator Marleen Temmerman said after a week of a similar sex ban in Kenya in 2009, a government was formed. Previous attempts to pressure Belgian negotiators into agreement have included a "grow a beard" campaign.
It is now 241 days since the elections, and Belgium is fast approaching an unofficial world record. Apart from Somalia, it is reported that only Iraq has taken longer (249 days) to form a government.
"I call on the spouses of all negotiators to withold sex until a deal is reached," said Ms Temmerman. "Have no more sex until the new administration is posing on the steps of the Palace." She said if politicians' partners followed her suggestion, the "palaver" of coalition-forming would be resolved quite quickly.
4 comments:
Isn't this more than just a bit sexist? I mean, the core assumption behind the sex strike is of course that women don't like and/or require sex as much as men and can go on longer without it than men. And that politicians are men and their spouses are women. I kind of resent both assumptions.
My right hand says, 'No problem. I'll take care of business.'
Insolitus, that is not the assumption at all, since quite a few of the senior negotiators are women and the senator who proposed it is a woman herself.
Tsitsi, if there are no gender stereotypes at play here, what grounds does this senator have to suggest the negotiators' spouses could use abstinence as a thumb screw of sorts? Does a politician's spouse automatically have a markedly lower libido than the politician?
The gender of the senator makes no difference, the assumption that women can go on without sex just fine while men are horn dogs who'll suffer and cave in after a while of abstinence is insulting both ways. Also, I'm fairly confident in assuming most of the negotiators are men.
To be fair, this could be my own gender biases talking. I find it difficult to believe someone would genuinely suggest a man to pressure his wife to do something by wittholding sex.
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