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Sex Strike Over Neapolitan Fireworks

From the wet blankets at BBC News:

Naples sex strike over fireworks

Wednesday, 31 December 2008

New Year’s Eve could prove to be something of a damp squib for some men in the Italian city of Naples.

Hundreds of Neapolitan women have pledged to go without sex unless their men promise to refrain from setting off dangerous illegal fireworks.

Local authorities are backing the women and have sent out text messages urging the men to "make love, not explosions".

The women say it is the only way to persuade their partners that they are serious about their concerns.

"Setting off illegal fireworks isn’t celebrating, it’s dangerous," Carolina Staiano, a founder of the campaign, told La Stampa newspaper.

She told women that if their man did not understand the dangers they should "take action and make him sleep on the sofa".

”If a sex strike is what it takes in order to get the attention of our men, husbands, partners and sons, then we’re ready for it," Mrs Staiano, 44, told Italy’s Ansa news agency.

Mrs Staiano, who has the support of local churches, speaks from personal experience when warning of the dangers of fireworks.

She has spent her life caring for her father, who was left partially paralysed and with epilepsy after a firework exploded next to him at New Year’s Eve party before she was born.

But the campaign, which started as a small-scale pledge in her home town of Lettere, about 40km (25 miles) from Naples, now has hundreds of supporters and has generated massive media interest.

”I’m receiving phone calls all the time from people who want to join. To be honest, I really wasn’t expecting this level of interest,’ said Mrs Staiano…

Doctor and local councillor Vincenzo Sorrentino, who has long campaigned against the illegal fireworks, said a sex ban was "an issue that men are particularly sensitive to”.

”The idea of no sex is not exactly popular and polls among local men have suggested they plan to make much greater efforts this year to prevent illegal fireworks being let off," he said…

A “damp squib”?

That does sound pretty awful.

 

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 2:51 pm. You can leave a response.

16 Responses to “Sex Strike Over Neapolitan Fireworks”

  1. U NO HOO
    December 31, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    This is a really important story.

  2. Colonel1961
    December 31, 2008 at 3:28 pm

    I think my wife hates fireworks, too.

    • Gila Monster
      December 31, 2008 at 4:42 pm

      Colonel, make sure you duck after a comment like that, or at least keep an eye out for flying cookware, heh. ;o)

    • pinandpuller
      January 1, 2009 at 3:04 am

      I think you took the statement “keep your powder dry” way too literally.

    • sheehanjihad
      January 1, 2009 at 9:00 am

      Dont think that’s bad….. Ten years ago, I was feeling my oats on returning from a trip, I told the cabbie to take me where I can get some action cheap…he took me home! There were naked and half clothed guys running down the street, I asked one what the hell was going on, he said “you got home early!”…..ah, the days of my dear ex wife. Fireworks had a different meaning then.

  3. 1sttofight
    December 31, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    “make love, not explosions”.

    Uh, What is “love” without the , Uh, Um “explosion”?

  4. CGardner
    December 31, 2008 at 5:34 pm

    Maybe some of our upstanding inner-city women will take a hint from this and use their feminine influence next year to keep their men from firing their guns into the air at the stroke of the New Year.

  5. Kilmeny
    December 31, 2008 at 5:52 pm

    ”The idea of no sex is not exactly popular…”

    The man is a master of understatement.

    • 1sttofight
      December 31, 2008 at 6:37 pm

      As you get older it is not near as popular as it used to be, but still necessary from time to time.

    • JohnMG
      December 31, 2008 at 7:29 pm

      Tomorrow’s my 62nd birthday. I guess I’m not too old ’cause it’s just as popular for me as ever. :-}

      I do remember a joke about fireworks and a “redneck vasectomy”, though.

  6. joeblough
    December 31, 2008 at 7:44 pm

    This is perhaps not an optimal moment in Italy’s history to be castrating the Italian men.

    If the Italian women had two cents worth of brains among them, they’d be doing whatever is necessary to get their men as pumped up and macho as possible. And if lighting off some fireworks helps that along it is well worth the risk.

    There is a crowd of guys right outside the gates, hell, inside the gates of the city that think nothing of taking what they want from Italian women by force — and what they have in mind for Italy is a good deal unhealthier than a few fireworks.

    The only thing standing between the Italian girls and the incoming brutes is, well … the Italian men.

    So wise up girls. Catch a high hard one for your daughters’ sakes.

    The fate of the nation may depend on it.

  7. Liberals Demise
    December 31, 2008 at 8:43 pm

    Oh man, if the Arab camels could do the same thing with Arab men…..then we would be onto something!!

  8. Landshark
    December 31, 2008 at 10:38 pm

    I thought getting the squib damp was pretty much the whole idea.

    I apologize in advance to everyone I have offended with that comment.

    • Gila Monster
      January 1, 2009 at 1:20 am

      Hey, I’m still trying to figure out just WTF a “damp squib” is?

      As SG said, it sounds a tad bit awful, but for the life of me, I’m definitely missing the intended metaphor here.

      Perhaps Artboy can hook us up on this one, being our resident ex-pat over in the UK and all.

      Sir?

  9. Kytross
    January 1, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    A squib is british slang for a small, cheap explosive, often a firework, like a bottle rocket. If you get a squib wet it won’t fire. So the phrase “Damp squib” has come to mean a ruined event or a good time gone bad. All-in-all a clever turn of phrase.

  10. Steve
    January 2, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    Yes, the OED says:

    squib, n. [Of obscure origin; perh. intended as imitative of an explosive sound.]

    1. a. A common species of firework, in which the burning of the composition is usually terminated by a slight explosion.

    ‘Squibs are straight cylindrical cases about 6 inches long, firmly closed at one end, tightly packed with a strong composition, and capped with touch-paper’ …

    d. fig. or in fig. contexts. damp squib, something that fails ignominiously to satisfy the expectations aroused by it; an anti-climax, a disappointment.

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