When reading about contraception, it seems that men only have two options: coitus interrupts and condoms. In modern day, a vasectomy has also come to the surface, but is sometimes harmful in the undoing of the surgery. Recently, a woman took an Indian method and turned it into a male contraception called Vasalgel. This could be a start to get men to read more about sex and procreation. Most people have a general knowledge we've learned in grade school about how sex works, but it doesn't go into detail, nor does it answer many questions. If big media companies, like Forbes, were to write about new male contraception, it could open doors to get men to be more knowledgeable in aspects like this. Through out class readings, Garton talks about how sex started to be read about in pamphlets and magazines, but the main audience was women. The pamphlets had ads for abortions (obviously for women) and later feminists produced magazines asking questions about and discussing sex topics (also advertised towards women).
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2017/02/09/male-birth-control-could-finally-take-shape-as-a-gel/#1cfba1f81c2a
Contraception today is largely the woman’s responsibility. Men, like Ms. Venerich said, really only have the “pull-out method” or a condom. Female hormonal birth control has been stigmatized since its creation, according to Andrea Tone. Contraceptives were seen in the 1870s to promote promiscuity and take away “female sexual purity” by removing their ability to become mothers (Tone, 17). However, contraceptives were also a way for women to control their reproduction and gain agency though their choice to become mothers (57). Unfortunately, the idea of female agency and choice over their sexuality was not the pervading moral attitude of the time. Condoms and other contraceptives were seen as obscene and promoters of licentious behavior. The same can be seen with female hormonal birth control today.
ReplyDeleteWhere men are seen as responsible and are applauded for their masculinity when they purchase condoms at a drug store, women are shamed when they are seen carrying around a box of condoms. Like women in the 1800s, and even earlier, there is the stigma that their “female sexual purity” is at stake. Female hormonal birth control falls under the same criticism. Women are seen as being sexually promiscuous for being “on the pill” or getting shots to prevent pregnancy. What a lot of people don’t question is that a lot of women do not use hormonal birth control to prevent pregnancy, but use it for other menstrual related purposes; like the 1800s, women are viewed as having less agency over their sexuality than men and are criticized for taking their own reproductivity into their own hands.
Ms. Venerich made an excellent point to bring up new studies of male birth control. It seems like providing more possibilities for men to control reproduction would promote greater use of contraceptives by men, but it is not as simple as a magazine like Forbes to get the word out. A study done co-sponsored by the United Nations and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism created a hormonal birth control for males. The study was cut short because a large percentage of the male participants reported harsh side effects from the hormonal shots. A large number of the reported side effects were the same side effects that are currently reported by women who take hormonal birth control, yet women continue to take hormonal birth control despite the effects (see the CNN article for more information).
So why is it that women have to endure side effects that a scientific study deemed too harsh for male participants to endure; yet, women are stigmatized for using hormonal birth control to control their reproduction? Access to birth control and other contraceptive methods have become more available since the 1800s, but the stigmas surrounding female use and female sexuality remain. Where Ms. Venerich is correct that talking more about male responsibility for contraception would promote greater use, it will require more than just talk. Female agency over reproduction no longer needs to be stigmatized and more equal methods of contraception, like hormonal birth control, needs to be available for both sexes. I agree with Ms. Venerich that media targeting men, rather than a primary female audience, about reproductive responsibility would help destigmatize female responsibility for birth control and promote freer female sexuality.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/30/health/male-birth-control/