When the dating app Bumble received backlash over the weekend for an ad campaign telling women that “a vow of celibacy is not the answer,” the anger came as no surprise.
Resisting sex for reasons personal, political or somewhere in between may feel as if it has been gaining steam recently, but it’s not a new concept. In Aristophanes’s classic Greek comedy “Lysistrata,” the title character sets off on a mission to end the Peloponnesian War through the strategic denial of sex. She also persuades women in other Greek cities to withhold physical intimacy from their husbands and lovers as a way to negotiate peace.
Today, abstaining from sex may not be a common strategy used to broker treaties, but sex is still a powerful tool. More recently, the trend of choosing to abstain from sex, decentering men or going “boy sober” has made inroads with women. Perhaps it’s one way women are searching for peace within themselves after one too many situationships, ghostings and other romantic hardships.
On Monday, Bumble said in a statement that it was in the process of removing the ads from its global campaign and would be making donations to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and other organizations, offering those groups the billboard spaces.
“We made a mistake,” the company said. “Our ads referencing celibacy were an attempt to lean into a community frustrated by modern dating, and instead of bringing joy and humor, we unintentionally did the opposite.”
