Desperate times call for desperate measures. So, when a gunfight broke out in a Toronto neighbourhood last July resulting in two deaths and 23 injuries, Nicole Osborne James decided to take action. She created Guns Get None.
This is the name of her new blog. She is reaching out to the wives and girlfriends of violent gang members who own guns, urging them to withhold sexual favours until their men turn in their guns and change their violent ways.
That should get their attention – it certainly got mine. It took me back to high school when we were supposed to be studying Greek mythology. Somebody discovered the story of Lysistrata, a woman who launched a similar protest around 400 BC to get the men to stay home from their endless wars and violence. It worked. A peace treaty was soon negotiated.
More recently, in 2006, this tactic was successful in Pereira, the most violent city in Colombia.
The lady friends of gang members in that city staged what was called the Strike of the Crossed Legs. No action for their men until they turned in their guns and registered for vocational training. One year later violent crime had dropped by 26.5 per cent.
Ms Osborne’s modern day sex boycott is well intentioned and I hope she also sees some positive results. B
ut the fact is, disgruntled protestors have been pulling outrageous stunts for millennia to gain recognition and support. It’s getting harder and harder to attract attention.
Maybe that’s why so many protests involve pleasures of the flesh.
Everybody knows the story of Lady Godiva who got naked and rode a horse through Coventry to protest high taxes. I’m not sure how successful she was but she is still an inspiration hundreds of years later. Alas, a poor fellow named Thomas took a peek as she rode by and has been known as Peeping Tom ever since.
Very often these tactics emerge from very serious issues (innocent bystanders being shot in the streets of Toronto) when it seems like nobody is listening and nobody cares. Other times, inspired protestors are poking fun at politicians to win public support. However, in this age of YouTube and iPhones it often takes skin to win.
Not long ago some inappropriate comments by the Toronto police chief suggested that women who dressed in a certain way were “asking for it.” The reaction to his insensitivity saw hundreds of provocatively dressed women bring the Slutwalk Protest to downtown streets of Canada’s biggest city. It was repeated in cities around the world. Well done, Chief.
In Sarnia in 2009 a group of concerned Canadian citizens gathered to protest a hovering U.S. surveillance balloon by giving it something to look at. They formed a long line, dropped their trousers, pressed their hams between the rails of a fence and collectively mooned the balloon.
The media was on hand to witness and record this spectacle but unfortunately the offending spy balloon was not airborne at the time.
I’m sure the protestors were satisfied anyway and they also got some lovely photos for the fridge.
Not all attention seeking protests involve sex or nudity. A lot of them are creative and funny and some weird stunts are just bizarre.
In 2009, angry dairy farmers in Brussels blocked major roads with tractors and burned piles of hay. When the riot squad arrived the farmers squirted milk straight from cow’s udders into the eyes of the oncoming police. One rambunctious Bessie chased a passerby down the street but no cows were arrested during the incident.
Greenpeace once erected a giant inflatable toilet on a beach in Pietro Vallarta, Mexico to protest the dumping of 40,000 cubic metres of waste directly into the ocean every day. There was no mention of any giant rolls of toilet paper.
Protestors in India are unhappy with the recent popularity of Valentine’s Day, claiming it goes against traditional values and promotes promiscuity. Any couple caught holding hands in public is swept up by this group and taken to a church to be married.
As for Ms Osborne’s proposed sex boycott, it may have some success. When it comes to things like this, male behaviour is quite predictable and if it gets a few guns off the streets we will all be better off. However, there will be resistance.
Getting gang members to give up one of their favourite activities by withholding one of their other favourite activities could have unintended consequences.
Good luck Nicole.
