Sex vs. Fireworks

Some headlines just can't be resisted.

Naples women threaten sex strike over fireworks

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

The woman behind the protest has a serious motivation, and classic inspiration.

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.

The move was inspired by the ancient Greek play Lysistrata, in which the women of Athens refuse to have sex unless their men folk forge a truce with their rivals from Sparta.

According to a local politician with a gift for understatement, it seems to be having an effect.

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.

Depending on the domestic situation, I can imagine a few men choosing the fireworks.