why we're still having this )*()&! conversation

[anotheranon]

Any of you who have been reading me for awhile knows that I'm a firm believer in better living through science and therefore the whole current (and recurrent) debate in the U.S. political scene about birth control is on the face of it a non-starter for me. I've been saying for years that it's the 20th (21st!) century, get with the program already!

Turns out I've been naively optimistic. Sara Robinson's article Why Patriarchal Men Are Utterly Petrified of Birth Control -- And Why We'll Still Be Fighting About it 100 Years From Now is a sobering reminder of how slowly the wheels of progress turn.

Given that it's been available my entire life, it's easy for me to forget that the existence of safe, effective birth control has created huge changes in the roles of women, of family, of sex, and in the power dynamic between men and women. We're only 50 years into this huge change so while I think resistance is ridiculous, I shouldn't be surprised that conservatives are still trying desperately to put this genie back in the bottle and will be for [sigh] hundreds of years to come.

I like to marvel at how far people have come in just my lifetime, and it's dispiriting to be reminded how much further there is to go.

Comments

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, I'll just say that recent "debate" about birth control, availability and coverage is very much a US phenomena. Most Europeans, particularly from my neck of the woods are scratching their heads when they hear of this. I mean, we take it for granted and have for decades.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I suspect many if not most Americans take it for granted as well. As I said, until I read this article and thought about the broader scope of history I couldn't think of any reason to explain why this wasn't a done deal in everyone's mind already!

I am HOPING that this is just something for conservatives to use to whip up their base so they'll think about all those slutty, slutty women instead of the economy.

[maehymn.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting article, thanks for posting! And SO TRUE.
It makes me RAAAAAAGE when I hear conservatives in this country start in on this issue. OMG. We are not going back in the bottle. Sorry. Not.

Is that icon a Joss Whedon quote?

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

That is a Whedon quote, from his address to Equality Now a few years back :)

See my reply to sealwhiskers: I'm hoping that the kerfluffle over birth control is a cheap political ploy to deflect voter attention from more immediate and IMHO important issues, but if this is the case it's jarring that people are falling for it.

[maehymn.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. It plays on conservative titillation. So. Lame.

And yay! I so love him.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Not an issue up here either, to my knowledge (mind, when our ultra-conservatives climb on a bandwagon these days their preference is the get-rid-of-same-sex marriage jalopy ... and that has the blind staggers)

The essay's estimated timeline for all the variants of put-the-wimminfolk-back-in-their-place mentalities to truly fade away doesn't surprise me though ... consider how many allegedly-educated people still freak over the concept of evolution and we've had that around for centuries (remember that it long predates Darwin ... all he did was figure out a logical mechanism for the thing)