In the MSNBC article, “Male Birth Control Pill Soon A Reality”, John Schieszer discusses the new options of male contraception. Since the 1960’s, women have been offered birth control pills taken orally as a form of contraception. Researchers and scientists have been exploring the possibility of creating either a daily pill taken orally, a patch or gel that is applied to the skin, an injection every three months, or an implant that is positioned under the skin every year. Although funding has been an issue in more recent months, scientists believe that within the next 5-7 years a form of male birth control besides the run of the mill condom will be available. Although the prospect of this is exciting for women, as condoms are not always the most trustworthy form of contraception, I have my doubts that men will initially be open to an option like this. After examining some of the works we have read in class, such as Ariel Levy’s “Female Chauvinist Pigs”, Allan G. Johnson’s “Patriarchy, The System”, and Adrienne Rich’s “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”, I have decided that many men may look at this new form of birth control as a means of demoting them from their dominant role in our patriarchal society.
Schieszer reports that many men fear the act of taking hormones because of the possible side effects involved. A vast majority of men do not wish to medicate themselves like women already have to do on the pill. An interviewee, Scott Hardin, stated “I would rather rely on a solution that doesn’t involve 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” (Schieszer). Although many “guinea pigs” have experienced very little side effects besides some weight gain and some sweaty, sleepless nights, men still seem to focus on the fact that they would be ‘unnecessarily’ medicating themselves while women are already doing that. Is it fair that women must take on this burden and men do not need to? Although most of the articles & books discussed in class do not directly discuss birth control and the pressures that women feel to take it, resulting in men not feeling a sense of responsibility, various themes presented relate to the sense of patriarchy present in today’s society and how men dominate most aspects of life, especially sex.
I take issue with a portion of Schieszer’s article, and that is the way that certain statements were phrased. “Finally, it is the man’s turn” is a phrase picked out from the article referring to the fact that men have not been offered such an opportunity before (Schieszer). While I agree with the idea that a male birth control pill should have been developed years ago, it seems unfair the way they phrase it. “It is time for men to have some control, I think it would empower men and deter some women out there from their nefarious plans”, says Quentin Brown, a 45 year old volunteer to test out MHCs. Brown goes on to say, “Some women are out there to use men to get pregnant. This could deter women from doing this. An athlete or a singer is someone who could be a target and they could put a stop to that” (Scieszer). This seems like an absolutely ridiculous statement to me. Since when have men had a limited amount of power in this beloved patriarchal society of ours?
Although at one point birth control for women was a huge breakthrough that provided females with more control and power, in more modern times it seems a bit unfair that women are the only ones who must take on this responsibility. In Ariel Levy’s “Female Chauvinist Pigs”, she discusses the history of birth control. In 1960, the FDA approved the birth control pill, and in 1972 the Supreme Court allowed unmarried women to have access to the pill. This “had a tremendous impact on the reshaping of American womanhood: women’s liberation and the sexual revolution” (Levy, 53-54). The typical woman was “freed from domesticity” (Levy, 57). Levy later discusses how Hugh Hefner helped fund the feminist initiative to legalize the birth control pill. Although he appeared to be fully on board with the feminist movement, he had the same goal but a different agenda as these females. He sought to enable men to treat the sex movement differently: have sex with liberated females and have no sense of commitment or faithfulness. All in all, Hefner “served the ideas of the women’s liberation movement” but most feminists disliked him because underneath this surface layer, he was not doing it for the right reasons.
I believe that Levy would not only approve of a birth control pill for men, but she would look at it as a mutual & fair share of the burden that both men and women take on when they jointly engage in sexual activity. This sense of equality is what Levy looks for in life and what she often writes about. Levy would greatly disprove of men out there, such as Quentin Brown, who supports the male birth control pill because it would give men more power. Don’t they already have enough control? Levy makes mention of Andrea Dworkin, a former prostitute that penned a novel about sex and rape. Dworkin states, “The end of male dominance would mean-in the understanding of such a man-the end of sex” (Levy). Although she is referring to male dominance in terms of the actual act of intercourse, this can strongly relate to the idea that men could be losing their sense of “male dominance” that they always have had if they begin to take one of these new forms of male birth control. Based on Levy’s choice of topics in her novel, I think that she might agree that men would definitely feel they are losing some of their much-loved supremacy over women if they took the pill.
In Johnson’s article, he discusses the patriarchy system and how it has total control over our society and the individuals in it. Although we participate in this system that controls us, willingly or not, it can be very difficult to simply escape the bounds of the system. Johnson says, “It’s an arrangement of shared understandings and relationships that connect people to one another and something larger than themselves” (Johnson, 34). When examined closer, the defining elements of patriarchy is the “male-dominated, male-identified, male-centered, and control-obsessed character” (Johnson, 38), which all simply aids in creating basic values of restraint and authority in almost all aspects of life. The idea that males dominate in this patriarchal social construct allows stereotypes and definitions of what it is to be “male” and “female” to be formed. Johnson states,
To have power over and to be prepared to use it are culturally defined as good and desirable (and characteristically “masculine”), and to lack such power or to be reluctant to use it is seen as weak if not contemptible (and characteristically “feminine”). (Johnson, 39)
I believe that Johnson’s ideas correlates well to the probable belief amongst men that they should not need to medicate themselves in order to ensure a more reliable form of birth control, as they are “in control”. Taking the pill may take this power away from them. This could potentially be seen as a sign of vulnerability or weakness in a man.
Adrienne Rich discusses in her article, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”, the idea that women are forced to live under the norms of heterosexuality in our society, more so than men. Although this does not directly relate to the issue discussed in Schieszer’s article, she makes some interesting points about the sources of male power and how this allows men to dominate in society. Rich acknowledges that many men take issue with being a “stay-at-home-dad”, and she states, “I believe large numbers of men could, in fact, undertake child care on a large scale without radically altering the balance of male power in a male-identified society” (Rich, 314) Although men feel that this could lessen their male authority and go against the idea of the stereotypical male, Rich believes that men might be surprised with what they find if they give that type of lifestyle a chance. This could correlate to the birth control issue. Would men also feel that this might take away from their “power”? Rich states, “characteristics of male power include the power of men…to command or exploit their labor to control their produce” by means of controlling “contraception, sterilization, and childbirth” (Rich, 315). Rich’s ideas relate to gender inequalities in terms of sex and can also add to the thought that men may be against birth control as it, like being a stay-at-home-dad, could disgrace them.
Our society today places men in the dominant position to control most aspects of life. This patriarchy consumes us and makes it quite a challenge to escape it. Having a birth control pill that is only for women is part of this patriarchy. Men never had the responsibility of protecting themselves from getting a female pregnant, but now that a birth control pill for men is on the horizon, would men even take it? Based on class discussions, I have decided that it is highly likely that most men will not consider taking this new form of birth control at first because it has been for women only. Men might see taking a birth control pill as something that could diminish their power. But then one must acknowledge that some men, as mentioned in the MSNBC article, look to birth control as a power enhancer for men, which seems unnecessary in this patriarchy we live in. In order to make strides in our society and to create gender equality in terms of the act of sex itself, men need to feel comfortable enough in order to break free from the labels that pigeonhole them, and in turn place unfair burdens on women.
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