Lysistrata Gambit/Playing With
Basic Trope: A woman withholds sex from her man to get what she wants.
- Straight: Alice wants Bob to paint the garage so she refuses to have sex with him until he does so.
- Exaggerated: Alice and Bob haven't had sex in years because Bob hasn't painted the garage, despite it burning down and them moving to an apartment.
- Inverted: Bob withholds sex from Alice until she paints the garage.
- Alternatively, Alice has sex with Bob until he paints the garage. (In all fairness to Alice, Bob did paint it a particularly hideous shade of pea green.)
- Alternatively alternatively, Alice offers to have sex with Bob if he paints the garage.
- Justified: Alice and Bob are not exactly in a healthy relationship.
- Subverted: Bob does not mind masturbating.
- Double Subverted: ...but it isn't long before he wants sex with a real woman and caves.
- Parodied: There is a town down the road where all transactions are conducted with one party holding back a resource until the second party acquieses.
- Alice pulls this trope in an attempt to make Bob suffer. Turns out Alice suffers even more than Bob. Bob ends up painting the garage to take pity on Alice.
- Deconstructed: Bob starts treating Alice like a whore because she apparently treats sex like a commodity.
- Alice needs the sex more than Bob does.
- Bob goes and has sex with someone else.
- Reconstructed: The garage painting is just one part of an overly unsatisfying marriage, and this is part of Alice's attempt to get through to Bob.
- ...almost.
- Zig Zagged: Alice caves, but Bob stands firm. Two days later, Bob is weakening but Alice has strengthened her resolve. Eventually Alice is threatening to paint the garage herself unless Bob doesn't have sex with her.
- Alternatively, Alice only does this very, very, rarely, as a last resort. And only for something she really feels is important. Otherwise, she does not use this gambit.
- Averted: Alice considers the idea then decides it's demeaning for both parties.
- Or Alice never got this idea.
- Enforced: "There had to be a reason why the attractive, married Alice is a Celibate Hero."
- Lampshaded: "This is one of them Lysisses plots, isn't it?"
- Invoked: Alice reads the play and reasons that her self-control is strong enough to pull it off successfully.
- Defied: "If you want Bob to paint the garage, have you considered not having sex with him until he does it?" "What do I look like, a whore?"
- Discussed: "If my girlfriend didn't put out, there's no way I'd do whatever she said just to get some!"
- Conversed: "Women have the poon, so they have control. It's just like in that one Greek play."
You're not getting any until you go back to Lysistrata Gambit