Tags: birth control, campus life, culture arts, Health, politics, Sex culture
“Why has it taken so long to develop these methods for men? The challenge is twofold. The first lies in differences in biology. During pregnancy, the hormone progesterone naturally halts ovulation. Men, however, never stop producing sperm. There are other obstacles, such as funding for further research and a lack of pharmaceutical companies taking an interest in the field. But, as scientists tell me, we could be only a few years away from temporary, reversible, male contraceptives.”
I encourage you to investigate the scientific aspects of a birth control patch, pill or injection for men, but what interests me is the social aspect. It’s often taken for granted that womyn take birth control pills (or other hormonal supplements), and this modification of female hormone levels to achieve a desired outcome (inability to get pregnant or suppression of certain characteristics) is a medical and social norm.
I don’t have strong opinions about whether or not womyn should be on birth control (for whatever reason), but I think the historical overemphasis on manipulating womyn’s bodies to ease intra-social interaction between the sexes is telling of a greater medical and cultural attitude towards manipulating the female body. This came to my attention when MSNBC interviewed one older bachelor about similar male birth control options. He responded:
“I would rather rely on a solution that doesn’t involving medicating myself, and the problems women have had with hormone therapy doesn’t make me anxious to want to sign on to taking a hormone-type therapy.”
His aversions are justified, however, “the problems” womyn have experienced that he refers to do not receive this same stigma within groups of younger American womyn (yes, I know a big generalization). I posit that this stigma is produced by the attitude that females have a primary responsibility to manage birth control and that changing, injecting, contorting and disfiguring the female body is something American culture enjoys (see: pornography, modeling, Kanye West’s leaked video “Monsters,” etc.).
I think this is why there is going to be resistance to male forms of birth control, as it will compromise the body our society has left comparatively untouched. I’m very interested (from a sociological perspective) to see how this option will be marketed once it’s out of trials. Will it play with stereotypes of psychotic girlfriends secretly trying to get pregnant? Will it masculinize the drug, claiming to enlarge certain organs? Either way, we will surely be seeing more discourse before birth control for men becomes mainstream in our society.
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17 Comments
would a woman really trust a guy to keep up with birth control stuff? I agree that guys should be willing/need to take more responsibility for the causes and effects of pregnancy, but until the guy has to deal with the nine months and delivery, my feeling is the urgency to actually follow through with a program will be hard for a lot of dudes.
If men’s penises grew like women’s breasts do on birth control then men would be lining up at CVS pharmacies across the nation.
It’s about time for men to take responsibility for getting women pregnant. Women have had to worry about it long enough; we’ve fucked up our bodies more than we’ve helped them in my opinion, and I’m really glad there is some improvement in the birth control industry in making the benefits and consequences of fucking with hormones more equal. Before this was mentioned, I never even thought of the possibility of men taking birth control. Why? Because I and many others have been conditioned to think that it’s the women’s responsibility to worry about pregnancy, and the methods she uses to prevent it are her burden. I can’t wait for birth control for men to be implemented. It’s going to cause a huge uproar, and I know many people won’t like the idea, but it really is men’s turn.
Death to the Patriarchy, sister! I, too, am excited about the possibility of these male birth control options. I like what you say about it being men’s “turn” to take on this responsibility; honestly, I think that this idea has the potential to reshape a lot of other debates (namely, abortion) that primarily ask “why didn’t you (speaking to the female) plan ahead?” It will also be men’s “turn” to start taking on other responsibilities and realizing actions, once taken for granted, have consequences.
Let’s do an issue about this.
Many women benefit a lot from the use of birth control. Many use it to serve functions besides reducing the likelihood of pregnancy.
I’m not sure I think its fair for you to compare the use of birth control to porn, modeling or Kanye West’s video – as if its sole purpose is to contort the body of a female for the sick pleasure of some men in society.
I think you could take a more balanced approach to this topic by addressing how birth control can have a positive impact on a woman’s life.
Perhaps the variety of benefits that women obtain from the use of birth control beyond reducing the likelihood of pregnancy are not attainable or applicable for men. If this is the case, it seems entirely reasonable that males would be more averse to using it than females, on average.
Alex,
I don’t think the point of Lexie’s post was to address how birth control can have a positive impact on a woman’s life. I believe (correct me if I’m wrong, Lexie) that she attempts to address how our society might respond to the option of male birth control, and through that investigation, why our society relies so much on birth control for women.
You’re right, Alex, in that many take birth control for reasons besides preventing pregnancy. I disagree with you, though, that it would be “entirely reasonable that males would be more adverse to using it than females”. I do not believe that getting or not getting pregnant should be the complete responsibility of the woman. I do think that Americans often take for granted that a woman will “handle” this responsibility, and they market women, in ways in which Lexie referred to, without imagining the possibility that she could become pregnant if a man does not use a contraceptive.
Suppose that women obtain dramatically more benefits than men would from the use of birth control. I don’t know if this is true, but it seems at least plausible. If this is the case, then men may well be more averse to use of birth control than women. This could be true not only because men shirk the responsibility of preventing pregnancy, but because the lesser benefits associated with birth control do not outweigh the costs. This might help explain why males would be more averse. I disagree with the assumption that if men are more averse to the use of birth control, then it must be the case that those men believe that “getting or not getting pregnant should be complete responsibility of the woman.”
Even if it is the case that women are capable of deriving many more benefits from birth control than men, that doesn’t mean that men should be _averse_ to using it, simply that women would be more inclined to use it. But given the existence of such aversion on the part of men, we might start to think there’s something fishy going on, that the reasons for such aversion aren’t entirely kosher. Women certainly don’t bear 100% responsibility in _all_ cases for pregnancy – that’s obviously an exaggeration – but I think it’s not hard to argue that, due to the way birth control as it exists now structures sexual encounters, much more responsibility falls on the woman more of the time. Male birth control could help to redress this imbalance.
“Even if it is the case that women are capable of deriving many more benefits from birth control than men, that doesn’t mean that men should be _averse_ to using it, simply that women would be more inclined to use it.” – I agree that women would be more inclined to use it under this assumption. But this is really semantics. I say “men are more averse to its use than women, on average.” You say “women are more inclined to use it than men, on average.” Both these statements communicate the idea I was going for.
I actually think there’s a substantial difference. If women are more inclined, men could still be indifferent about male birth control. But if men are averse to using it, they really don’t want to. They would go out of their way not to use it. I think that’s the key distinction here: we expect women to use these body-altering technologies no matter how they feel about it, whereas men get a free pass – they’re not even asked to shoulder the burden of responsibility of preventing a pregnancy (and thereby altering their bodies). As Lexie points out below, it’s a scary prospect to do something like that, but there’s no way to justify giving one sex special privileges in a situation that can provoke anxiety for both.
The majority of women do not take birth control for its health benefits; they take it to prevent pregnancy…While it’s interesting to compare benefits of birth control between men and women, I don’t think it’s a valid argument since birth control comes with a lot greater risk than benefit. Benefits seem like something to throw at the end to say “well at least your chance of cancer might be reduced even though you’re likely to really fuck up your body!” Therefore, I think this is a hugely important step in the feminist movement. Women will not the sole bearers of risk, men will have to take some responsibility too. In addition, the reason men will not want to take birth control will have very little to do with the fact that there aren’t as many benefits for them as there are for women, it will do with the fact that they don’t want to fuck up their bodies and they never have been expected to by society. The assumption that birth control is the burden of women is extremely prevalent in our society, and this is such a interesting way of combating this injustice.
Alex – you’ve really started a great discussion, thank you! This debate really excites me because often womyn’s health issues are only discussed amongst womyn – now a larger audience is forced to weigh in and evaluate several gendered issues and implications.
Later in the Alternet article, Dr. Blithe gives some reasons about why male birth control may actually be more effective in how long it lasts and what happens if you “miss a day.” There are a lot of perspectives to this issue, and I think the points you brought up are very important to consider.
However, I disagree. I think Debbie, Aaron and Kira make good points about why birth control should/is a male issue, and I think “male aversion” to birth control is derived from fear (of unknown consequences, both health-related and social). Moreover, this “fear” (a totally justified one) is something womyn are conditioned NOT to experience; it’s totally normal (at times, expected) to be “on the pill.”
I think this normalization happens through dominant medical discourses. A lot of medical models are based off the male body, and that means that when females receive treatment its rarely specific to their physiology. Because of this, treatments are often tested out on womyn’s bodies without special concern to what could go wrong (see: hormone therapy for menopausal womyn). Male bodies are not subjected to this uncertainty; it makes sense men would fear altering their biological chemistry. BUT WAKE UP – womyn are expected to do this often with more consequences. Birth control seems to be something society values, so why not _carefully_ create means for the desired alteration of male bodies?
You all bring up good points – and I’m fairly well swayed by your arguments. I don’t pretend to know whether birth control would confer greater benefits on men than it does on women. And I agree that a large part of the (likely) aversion to the use of birth control on the part of men can be explained as you have. Perhaps my intuition for the matter is not as far removed from the consensus here as it might seem.
But I also think it might be useful to consider the differences in physical costs and benefits associated with its use by women and men. Suppose, for example, that birth control is dramatically safer and more reliable for men than it is for women. Does that change how we think we should distribute the responsibility for controlling pregnancy across the sexes? In particular, would that change how we should address legal issues associated with pregnancy?
Cool hypothetical questions!
I definitely think that how we conceptualize the responsibility of pregnancy will change with the impetus of these discussions/inventions. “Responsibility of pregnancy” has changed over time, and it varies between many cultures already. You could theoretically place responsibility on MTV for romanticizing pregnant 16 year-olds, while conservatives in the House of Representatives (HOR) seem to enjoy making Rep. Gwen Moore (see this Youtube clip) an emblem for unplanned pregnancy (regardless of systems of poverty or education inequalities). Personally, I think men do shoulder the responsibility of pregnancy (whether realized or not), and I see bringing this issue to political settings as very socially progressive – changing how we thinking about families, maternity/paternity leave, abortion and sex. I think this vaguely answers your second question.
With the HOR’s current hostility toward Planned Parenthood and other abortion issues, I wonder if the discussion of male birth control would force more people to reflexively evaluate how these decisions (made by the HOR) affect themselves. Would this spur men’s pregnancy-related advocacy groups? Would men demand subsidized funding of birth control by the government? How would other institutions (one: the Catholic Church) react?
On a semi-related note, anyone interested in these issues should consider taking Women’s Studies 220: Perspectives in Women’s Health at U-M.