Guys and gals, I consider myself a feminist. I declare this with a bit of reluctance, because I have read so many grouchy, man-hating feminists; but I cannot deny it.
I believe in equality of the sexes. I believe that women can (and should) be teachers, prophets, scholars, preachers, engineers, police officers, doctors, CEO’s, and everything else that men can be, although I submit that men probably make better firefighters and bodybuilders on account of their superior muscle mass.* I think there are major problems with the way the church has traditionally understand man’s “headship” over woman in marriage, and I think it’s about time women had more influence in the church.
I just thought I’d clear that up after my recent posts about why I’m anti-Pill. I worry sometimes that readers will think that I am anti-feminist for having such “conservative” ideas about birth control. The Pill is generally seen as having been integral to the feminist movement and the key to sexual equality. Anyone opposed to birth control is opposed to equality, some folks assume. You can’t be pro-woman and anti-Pill. But I don’t think that’s true at all.
The thing is, I think the Pill works against women’s freedom and equality in a lot of ways.
Here are some reasons why:
1) Like I’ve discussed before, I think the Pill takes away a woman’s reproductive freedom by making her dependent on (usually male) doctors.
The medical community seems to assume that women are generally too stupid/ lazy/wimpy to keep track of their own cycles and control their own fertility, and that’s why they have to prescribe the Pill. Since women are too incompetent to take care of it themselves, they need experts to prescribe them easy-to-swallow drugs, so that they don’t have to think about their cycles at all.
The contraceptive mindset devalues education about our own bodies. It encourages us to put everything into our doctors’ hands. It encourages the “Listen to Doctor, Doctor knows best” approach to health. Knowledge about our cycles becomes irrelevant in the contraceptive climate, because Doctor can take care of everything for us. It encourages ignorance, which I think is dangerous.
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: we don’t need doctors to control our fertility for us. It’s not beyond our capacity. For the most part, we can take care of it ourselves. We are competent and brave, and our bodies (for the most part) are perfectly healthy without hormonal contraceptives, and we should not fear our fertility. We should feel free to embrace our cycles and understand our bodies.
2) The Pill encourages the idea that a woman’s fertile body is dangerous and needs to be subdued.
With the Pill, the woman has to have her body unnaturally altered to prevent pregnancy while the man’s body can keep doing what it was built to do. As a consequence, she has to deal with the side effects of the Pill (like decreased libido and all kinds of health risks) while he gets off scott-free. His fertility is just fine the way it is.
My question is, why doesn’t the man have to take a drug to make him temporarily impotent until he’s ready to be a father? Why aren’t doctors working hard to develop a drug like that? After all, as Toni Weschler points out in Taking Charge of Your Fertility
If you ask me, the current situation is unfair and goes against everything that feminists stand for. Why is my fertility considered a threat whereas a man’s is not? Why must my fertility be restrained while his is encouraged?
3. The Pill saddles women with the full responsibility of birth control.
When the Pill is used for birth control, the woman has to do everything: she pays for the drug and makes all the doctor’s appointments. She makes sure she fills her prescriptions on time. And then, if she gets pregnant, she gets the blame – it’s her fault for not taking the Pill correctly.
Toni Weschler says is best:
While the Pill was originally designed to sexually emancipate women, what also transpired was burdening the woman with the sole responsibility of birth control.
Unlike most other methods, FAM [by contrast] affords men the opportunity to lovingly and actively share in the responsibility of contraception (pp 16-17).
With FAM, yes, the woman has to keep track of her cervical fluids and whatnot, but the man takes equal responsibility in abstaining during fertile periods. It is a decision that the couple must continually make together. He becomes actively involved in the family-planning process.
This sounds to me like a much fairer arrangement.
So it is as a feminist that I reject the Pill — not as an opponent.
What are your thoughts? Does the Pill emancipate women or does it burden them — or both?
*I must clarify: I do believe that there are inherent differences between the sexes, meaning each gender has its particular strengths and weaknesses. But gender is another topic for another blog post.
** Yup, that’s an affiliate link. Meaning I get about 53 cents if you buy the book from the link.
Photo courtesy of blmurch.
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Oh I completely agree. The Pill is not freedom for women, it’s a terrible move for feminism and it really does objectify women and their sexuality. As a fellow feminist (a men-loving feminist, well, sometimes…
) I find it hard to believe that something as dangerous as an oral contraceptive could be empowering. On the contrary, by monitoring my cycle and being informed about what’s going on, by taking care of my health and my body, I’m in control.
Also love your idea of the male contraceptive. No man would ever take that, LoL. They’d forget, be insulted or be afraid of anything that could hurt their sperm count. It’s okay for women, but not men. Great article, Kathleen. Hopefully we’re at the beginning of a new era for feminism that includes FAM or NFP!
Heh — thanks Katherine, but I can’t take credit for the male contraceptive idea: I originally got it from Toni Weschler. You’re so right, though — I’m sure very few men would be willing to take such a drug. Thanks for the support!
I really like this and definitely agree with on the point that you can be anti-pill and still regard yourself as a feminist. I think some of the anti-pill = anti-feminist stuff stems has more to do with contraceptives as a whole, though; to be considered as equal to men under capitalism, women must have control over their reproduction. I’m not saying that theory doesn’t come with a host of its own problems, but I do believe that’s where it comes from.
Also, I’d love it if men were the ones responsible for taking the Pill. However, I’m not sure if I could entrust the future of my body (and my life) to someone else in that way. Ideally, yes. It has the potential to be very empowering, but it might also turn out to be disempowering if a woman were straddled with a child she couldn’t financially/emotionally/etc. care for. I also don’t know how I would feel if the status of my reproductive health were placed in the hands of someone else other than a doctor (my physician and gynecologist are both female — which I love.) I’m not saying all women are responsible when it comes to this subject — that’s certainly not the case — but I can’t say all the men I’ve dated have been, either.
This is a really interesting question and I appreciate your take on it.
Good stuff! You know, when they first designed the oral contraceptive, they were trying one for men and one for women. In the trials, a few men experienced testicular shrinkage and the entire thing was immediately scrapped. In the women’s trials, a couple of women DIED and the only thing they did was change the dosage. That should tell us something, huh?
And as my husband says, I dare you to find a bunch of men who would embrace having their virility discontinued.
(By the way, I really need to find the actual source about the trials to back it up, so people don’t dismiss it as an urban legend. If you see it somewhere, please let me know!)
@ Sarah — I definitely see your point that it’s something different to entrust the man with responsibility of contraceptive since ultimately the pregnancy takes place in the woman’s body. So the analogy breaks down at some points. There’s just no perfect solution to all this. But I’m glad we both seem to agree that the Pill is problematic on some points, too. (And I think you point to some interesting issues when you say that women must have control over their reproduction under capitalism specifically . . . Lots to think about there).
@Elizabeth — I haven’t come across that information about the trials, but it totally doesn’t surprise me! I love the way your husband puts it. EXACTLY.
Thanks, ladies, for contributing to this interesting discussion!
I’d be very curious to hear more about your “alleged” feminism. The vast majority of popular feminism is obsessed with using governmental controls and social programs to re-mold society into an androgynous image. Somehow, I doubt you truly identify with what is popularly known as feminism. Maybe I’m wrong.
There’s a great short essay on the tyranny of equality that I read some years ago, that upon reading your post today, I found again. I think you would find it interesting. http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/alexion4.html
And since you are as big a C.S. Lewis fan as I am, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what he had to say about the tyranny of egalitarianism. I don’t have his book (Present Concerns), but have read his essay from it, entitled “Equality”, which is available online.
Great writing, as usual.
Terry — good question(s). Feminism is complicated. I never identified with any of the feminists I had to read in university, and I still bristle at the mention of most of them. But I know that there are many different, often violently opposing, perspectives within feminism — it is not at all homogeneous. I still need to learn much more about where exactly I fit in.
The two things I can tell you is that my “brand” of feminism, if you will, is mostly just a sense that something is terribly wrong with the way men and women have related to one another throughout history, especially within the church. The other thing is that I absolutely am not interested in governmental controls to create equality, nor am I interested in an androgynous image.
Thanks for the articles — I will read them right now — and the mention of Lewis’ article. I will have to dig it up from my library. Again, lots to think about.
Like you, Kathleen, I have considered myself a feminist, even though I oppose all forms of contraception. I’m not as well-versed in the different “waves” of feminism as I once was, but as a Catholic I’ve tended to relate most with the “new feminism” espoused by thinkers such as John Paul II and Edith Stein. This version of feminism affirms the differences between the sexes while upholding the equal dignity of both men and women. It doesn’t tend to take issue with “patriarchy,” though, as the inherent differences in men and women make women more fulfilled in certain areas of human endeavor and men in others.
I’ve been thinking about feminism and contraception recently while reading some of the celebratory articles for the 50th anniversary of the Pill. Many of the foremost feminists of the last 50 years have openly admitted the connection between the wide availability of the Pill and the movement of women into the workforce, the delay of marriage and childbirth, and the higher levels of education now being achieved by women. These are the feminist accomplishments so many of us “alternative” feminists have cheered, without finding out how and why they’ve been accomplished. And now I’m starting to re-think that these really are such positive developments. Is it really so great that every young woman is encouraged to go to college and seek a career these days? Is that really what is going to be in every woman’s best interests? Will it lead to true fulfillment? How else have so many women been able to go to college and have careers, besides using contraception of some kind?
The reason I ask these questions is because I look around at so many of my 20-something friends, college and grad students or recent grads, who are getting married or are in relationships and who feel *compelled* to use contraception of some kind. It is just necessary, they think, for what they’ve set themselves up for their whole lives, necessary so that they can start their career, necessary so that they don’t “waste” their education. And while they hate it, they’ve come to the point where they are terrified of pregnancy and they resent their bodies and their fertility. The fruit of feminism seems to be that women hate who they are–their healthily functioning selves and the longings of their hearts for fulfillment, rather than what they are told they need.
I think it is great that more mainstream feminists are jumping onto the NFP/FAM bandwagon, as the Pill is just shoddy medicine, but as an NFP user I must say that my experience with NFP has been more than just “green birth control”. There is a harmony with it, between spouses and between nature and a woman’s body, but there is also a point at which NFP is geared towards finding harmony with God’s plan for your life, and seeking true fulfillment by carefully weighing all of these decisions. Fundamentally, too, NFP in my experience is based on the idea that we are not in total control of our fertility (though I doubt Toni Wechsler would agree!). Perhaps this is because of my Catholic background and understanding of marriage and sex, but I’ve found that I’m unable to make sense of why I’m unable to conceive and why friends are conceiving without even intending to, if I use a strictly secular/feminist approach. Fertility is not to be “taken charge of”–it is to be safeguarded and cared for in a spirit of stewardship, a healthy part of a woman’s life.
Sorry for the long comment…Great post!
No need to apologize, Rachel — I really appreciate all your wisdom! Fabulous thoughts. I’m very interested in delving deeper into New Feminism — it seems to be quite in tune with my own values.
I agree with you that NFP embraces the fact that we are not in total control of our fertility, which is a healthier approach. I think of Weschler’s “Taking Control” mentality as meaning something more along the lines of “taking control back from doctors who stole it from us.” My experience, like yours, has been that there is still very little one can do to control one’s fertility — the way our bodies behave is still largely out of our hands. But awareness of how our bodies work is still very powerful, and that’s what Weschler is offering us.
I also agree that acknowledging this fact is much healthier than trying to wrest control of our bodies through medication. Great thoughts, all!
Great post! And I’m totally enthralled by That Married Couple’s comments.
Agreed that it’s dumb that all of the concern is around keeping women infertile. But I have to say that the pill does a lot of good as a backup to breaking condoms for teen couples and young adults, especially for those that get frisky when drunk. We can be lazy/stupid/unattentive in those years and having an easy pill to take keeps future upstanding citizens safe from their own misjudgements. I know that’s not the pretty side of love making–drunken groping teens–but it is a very good use for the pill. On the otherhand, I feel like if we were all taught better about our bodies and there was less fear around controling our fertility, the world would be a better place.
Mrs. Levine — unfortunately, you are so right. I am glad that birth control exists for those people who make poor sexual choices. It’s a good thing that because of the Pill, not every drunken teen who has sex ends up pregnant. A very good thing.
I just don’t think it’s necessarily as empowering as many feminists make it out to be, and I would love for committed, responsible couples to consider healthier options.
Another issue is the growing body of evidence that the pill harms a woman’s sex drive, and her ability to enjoy sex. The definitive study on this is in the works and will take a couple of decades, but we already have proof that the pill changes a woman’s hormones in a way that reduces her sex drive. What is even more scary is that going off the pill does not fully reverse this. After a couple of years off the pill women are halfway between those on the pill and those who have never taken it. This is still being studied, but some researchers and doctors are saying it’s possible that the anti-sex effects of the pill are long term or permanent.
Of course if you don’t want sex, you probably won’t get pregnant …
Paul
I don’t believe that ‘the pill’ is necessarily the best method of ‘birth control’. I put birth control in quotes because pregnancy prevention is a more fitting description, unless you are including abortion as a method of birth control, of course. It is only appropriate in a monogamous relationship as it does not prevent STDs. It does have side effects which can be quite serious for some women. Thankfully, the amount of hormones in them have decreased, and progesterone-only pill, which has fewer side ehttp://projectmonline.com/2010/05/12/the-pill-and-feminism/ffects, is now available. The pill does have certain medical benefits, such as being effective for regulating an unpredictable menstrual cycle, can be helpful for heavy bleeders, and also for women with PMDD, dysmennorrhea, and for acne. The pill has an 8% failure rate in the first year of use (http://www.4parents.gov/sexrisky/birthcontrol/birthcontrol_chart/birthcontrol_chart.html#sterile). Natural Family Planning/Family Awareness Method has a 12 – 25% failure rate. Compare with no method, which has a 85% ‘failure’ rate (http://healthcenter.ucdavis.edu/topics/contraception/efficacy.html). So I agree that being on the pill gives you a false sense of control since it is not 100% perfect. The only method that truly is, is abstinence. So that is the only method that gives us absolute control over our fertility. As for being dependent on the doctor, the only thing he or she does is write a prescription (after a pregnancy test and possibly a gynecological exam to confirm). After that, all the responsibility is up to her. Depending on the description, she either starts on the first day of her period or on the first Sunday after (http://www.estronaut.com/a/pill_how_to_take.htm). She needs to take it at the same time every day. If she gets sick, however, and has to take an antibiotic, the pill becomes completely ineffective. She is saddled with the full responsibility for pregnancy control. She is also taking personal responsibility, though, when she insists that he wear a condom before they have sex. I don’t agree that the contraceptive mindset, which provides the means for us to separate intercourse from procreation as we have the right and responsibility to do (seeing as how we are not purely instinctual animals but rationally-minded humans), devalues education about our own bodies. It is abstinence-only education that does that. Abstinence-emphasized education that still teaches the real information about our reproductive biology and contraceptive methods would be more effective. You didn’t really support your argument that the pill encourages the idea that a woman’s fertile body is dangerous and needs to be subdued despite your statement that it artificially alters the woman’s body but not the man’s. I would appreciate it if you would include more information or sources to support all your arguments. I would enjoy reading more. As for your statement/question: why doesn’t the man have to take a drug to make him temporarily impotent until he’s ready to be a father?, impotent is the wrong word to use since it means a sexual dysfunction that prevents a man from developing or maintaining an erection so that he cannot perform sexually. A woman, on the other hand, can still have sex while on the pill, even if it does reduce libido and sexual enjoyment (www.epigee.org/guide/pill_sex.html), it does not totally stop her from performing. I think what you meant was infertile or sterile. There absolutely are men who would that the male contraceptive pill if it were available and safe (http://news.discovery.com/human/male-birth-control-pill.html), my husband for one, and who has also expressed willingness to have a vasectomy if we so choose rather than I having my tubes tied. I have no doubt about your so called “alleged” feminism. Feminism, after all, is a movement for increasing legal protection and rights for women, including the ability to control their own bodies, fertility, and family sizes. Most feminists are not ball-busting, man-hating, big-government loving radicals, despite the ‘popular’ disparaging beliefs. There is a lot of diversity in the thought systems of feminists, today and historically. Most feminists do not men and women to become androgynous super-careful politically-correct gender-hiding people. That is ridiculous. It is great that women are able to continue their education through college and take on jobs and career without dealing with people who believe they are oh so willing to stay home barefoot and pregnant as soon as the opportunity presents itself. There is nothing wrong with ‘traditional’ womanhood, though, where the woman stays home and raises her family, although I believe that tradition really became popular in the industrial age. Proverbs 31, which describes the perfect virtuous woman, clearly describes her both taking care of her home and children and earning money by making and selling linen garments. She really does it all.
Wow. I’ve never thought of it from such a feminist angle before, rather I’ve been avoiding the pill for it’s possible negative health effects. I’ve been worried about recent studies on the effects of the pill and I think that using the pill is yes, almost completely baby-proof, but then on the other hand I feel that it’s a lazy kind of birth control. I have been sexually active with my husband for more than two years without the pill and just by relying on my cycle and counting days I have avoided pregnancy (my doctor said I’m just lucky). Sometimes we use condoms, but most of the time we haven’t and I think that by counting the days I am more in touch with my body and internal cycle. As a result I know my body well, I “feel” my period coming, I feel lust, and I feel the little changes that come with the ups and downs of my cycle. I think counting the days is the better option.
Wow, Jessu, you ARE lucky! The counting or “rhythm” method works for very few women, because few women are so regular! The way that you describe feeling in tune with your body is, in my opinion, enhanced with Fertility Awareness Method.
A male contraceptive pill is in the works and more and more effective with every trial. If it were ever released, I’d absolutely ask my husband if he were interested in using it – but unmarried, I don’t think I’d trust a man who told me he was on The Pill. (Just as I’m sure was said about women in the beginning too – can flighty, vapid women be trusted to remember to take a pill daily? And then tell the truth if they didn’t?) But men just don’t have the investment in a baby that women do, so I still think they’d be a lie/flight risk and I’d rather have that control on my own hands.