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2013-10-30T20:21:49Z

Acmcgee:

America and The Pill

2013-10-30T20:21:22Z

Acmcgee: Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = America and The Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation | author = Elaine Tyler May | publisher = Basic Books | pub_da..."

{{Infobox book
| name = America and The Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation
| author = Elaine Tyler May
| publisher = Basic Books
| pub_date = 2010-04-27
| pages = 232
| isbn = 0252071034
| image = [[File:America+The Pill.jpg|alt=image]]
}}
At its conception, the birth control pill was for seen as the key to ending unplanned pregnancies but also as the panacea for unhappy marriages and the population growth crisis. In America and The Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation, Elaine Tyler May uses the fiftieth anniversary of the pill to reflect not only this admirable vision, but to also provide a broad sweeping narrative of the history of oral contraception in the post-World War II decades, exploring women’s struggle to obtain reproductive rights and sexual freedom. Initially, the pill was believed to be the “magic bullet” to the world’s problems, curbing overpopulation and communism, reducing poverty, and promoting planned families and capitalism. (3) However, many women embraced the pill as a means to seize control of their reproduction and further their own sexual autonomy. May draws on a variety of archival sources as well as previous historical studies, including the work of Linda Gordon, Andrea Tone, Elizabeth Watkins, and Lara Marks, to trace the history of the pill from its development and approval in the 1950s and 60s to its use today, exploring whether the pill lived up to earlier expectations, how it changed the lives of women, and how its impact can be understood today.

The chapters of America and The Pill are organized thematically. In the first chapter, May pays special attention to Margaret Sanger and Katherine McCormick, whom she refers to as “the mothers of invention.” Reframing to story of the pill’s origin, May notes that while male researchers are credited with inventing the pill, their primary motivation was to cure infertility. Instead, May lifts Sanger and McCormick up, arguing that they saw the necessity of women obtaining reproductive rights through the control of their own fertility. Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, published information regarding contraception, and was even sent to prison for her advocacy, while McCormick funded a great deal of the early research of the pill.

Throughout the book, May illustrates that the issues of politics, religion, eugenics, as well as connections to larger social movements and the sexual revolution are all part of the history of the pill. For many, the issue of women’s choice was not the primary concern. Instead, during the 1950s , individual family planning and population control agendas took center stage in the discussion. However, as May illustrates, the motivations of those seeking to make birth control available mattered little to the everyday woman. For example, African American and poor women “took advantage of whatever contraceptive services were available to them” in spite of fears over racist social engineering voiced by male leaders of the Black Power movement (47-49). With the increasing availability of oral contraception though came the separation of sexual intercourse and pregnancy, which increased sexual freedom and empowerment for women. However, as May is quick to point out, this did not end the double standard of sexual behavior that existed for women. Instead, “Even if an unmarried woman avoided pregnancy, she risked a tarnished reputation,” whereas male sexual freedom was always considered natural (58).

In a chapter entitled “Bedfellows,” May explores the male point of view of oral contraception. Men, obviously, stood to benefit, as the pill did away with the awkwardness of condoms and reduced the chances of a shotgun wedding or illegal abortions and the potential financial strain of unplanned children, yet “it could also undermine a sense of masculine potency grounded in procreative power” (58). Using the pages of Playboy, May provides a fascinating content analysis, illustrating the magazine’s support for the pill due to its promotion of sexual freedom with fewer consequences and the subsequent increasing insistence by men that women take oral contraception despite the known side effects. Women who chose not to take the pill were painted in the magazine as “neurotic, prudish, hostile to men, or unwilling to take responsibility for contraception” (66). While May does not reach a conclusion on whether oral contraception “was a boom for men or a bust,” she does note that it challenged power relations between men and women (70). In a later chapter, May discusses why there is no oral contraception for men. Sad or interesting, side effects like thrombosis and blood clots were common for women taking oral contraception but they would not keep them from taking the pill. For men, such side effects as loss of libido (a common side effect for women) were deemed to be too great of a sacrifice. Cultural beliefs over a loss of masculinity from not being able to impregnate women also turned men away from a male oral contraceptive. In addition, since women had to worry the most about becoming pregnant, many men believed that the responsibility of contraception should fall to them. Instead, there is now a scientific fixation of saving the male libido. On the popularity of Viagra, May sarcastically observes, “Apparently, a pill that enhances the potential for men to impregnate women is considerably more marketable than one that diminishes that possibility” (116).

In the final two chapters, May explores the social, religious and political controversy surrounding the pill and it’s role today. Incorporating responses to an internet survey, she illuminates the variety of uses, meanings and range of feelings associated with the pill; however, she does not provide much analysis of these responses. She concludes that despite the pill’s central role in the sexual revolution, it’s challenging of authority (i.e. in politics and religion) was merely a ripple effect. Looking back on its fifty year history, however, May has no trouble concluding that while the pill did live up to some of its promises, it did not meet all the expectations of early researchers and advocates. May notes that “It did not eradicate poverty, nor did it eliminate unwanted pregnancies or guarantee happy marriages. But it became a major player in many of the most dynamic and contentious issues of the last half of the twentieth century: the quest for reproductive rights; challenges to the authority of medical, pharmaceutical, religious, and political institutions; changing sexual mores and behaviors, reevaluation of foreign policy and foreign aid; and women’s emancipation” (6). Despite such a wide reaching effect, May argues that in many ways progress has yet to be achieved. Women still face similar feelings of guilt and shame about premarital sex, sexual activity, and fear of pregnancy like their mothers. Many of the medical side effects of oral contraception remain. While the pill did not resolve concerns of poverty and over population, it “took its place not as the miracle drug that would save the world, but as an important tool in women’s efforts to achieve control over their lives” (6).

While an enjoyable and interesting read, America and The Pill could be cited as being too much of a celebration of the birth control pill rather than a critical evaluation of oral contraceptives and their impact. For example, while mentioning some of the deficiencies of the birth control pill and the ethical concerns around the experimental research, May quickly dismisses them and argues instead that researchers were concerned with safety from the beginning and met the research standards “of the day” (28). While she does acknowledge and discuss Margaret Sanger’s early ties to eugenics, she attempts to paint birth control activists and researchers with a broad brush, glossing over the few real instances of unsafe conditions for test subjects and underlying bigotry of some. Similarly, she goes too far when she states that in the practice of birth control, “coercive policies never took hold in the United States,” ignoring the history of sterilization abuse in the twentieth century (49). Other glaring omissions include any discussion of the pill’s environmental impact or the significant Supreme Court decisions (Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) to name a few) that addressed the legality of the pill’s distribution to women. Regardless, America and the Pill remains a valuable contribution of social history to the growing historiography of reproductive rights.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]
[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Elaine Tyler May]]

Twentieth Century United States

2013-10-30T20:13:16Z

Acmcgee: /* Book Summaries */

==Book Summaries==
* Donna Alvah. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/women-and-children-first-the-importance-of-gender-and-military-families-in-the-cold-war-era/ Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946-1965] (2007).
* Alex Cummings. [[Here's How to Make a New Page: The Revenge, 1955-1957|Here's How to Make a New Page]] (2013).
* Luis Alvarez. [[The Power of the Zoot|The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II]] (2008).
* Karen Anderson. [[Wartime Women|Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II]] (1981).
* Eric Avila. [[Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight|Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles]] (2004).
* Beth Bailey. [[America’s Army|America’s Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force]] (2009).
* Beth Bailey & David Farber. [[The First Strange Place|The First Strange Place: The Alchemy of Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii]] (1992).
* Beth Bailey. [[From Front Porch to Back Seat|From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America]] (1989).
* Mark Brilliant. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/californication-race-ethnicity-and-unity-in-twentieth-century-california/ Californication: Race, Ethnicity, and Unity in Twentieth Century California] (2012).
* Amy Bridges. [[Morning Glories]] (1999).
* Laura Briggs. [[Reproducing Empire|Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico]] (2002).
* Alan Brinkley. [[Voices of Protest|Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, & the Great Depression]] (1983).
* Charlotte Brooks. [[Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends|Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends: Asian Americans, Housing, and the Transformation of Urban California]] (2009).
* Robert Caro. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/dog-days-classics-robert-caros-controversial-portrait-of-robert-moses-and-new-york/ The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York](1974)
* Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/dog-days-classics-political-boss-and-midwestern-pharaoh-richard-j-daleys-chicago-legacy/ American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for the Nation and Chicago] (2001)
* Lizabeth Cohen. [[A Consumers’ Republic|A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America]] (2003).
* Lizabeth Cohen. [[Making a New Deal|Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939]] (2008).
* Nancy F. Cott. [[Public Vows|Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation]] (2002).
* Pete Daniel, [[Lost Revolutions|Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s]] (2000)
* Mike Davis. [[City of Quartz|City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles]] (2006).
* Mike Davis & Michael Sprinker. [[Magical Urbanism|Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US Big City]] (2001).
* Michael J. Dear. [[The Postmodern Urban Condition]] (2001).
* Robert C. Donnelly. [[Dark Rose]] (2011).
* Steven Erie. [[Globalizing L.A.|Globalizing L.A.: Trade, Infrastructure, and Regional Development]] (2004).
* Steven P. Erie. [[Beyond Chinatown|Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California]] (2006).
* Elizabeth Ewen. [[Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars]] (1985).
* Barbara Ferman. [[Challenging the Growth Machine|Challenging the Growth Machine: Neighborhood Politics in Chicago and Pittsburgh]] (1996).
* John M. Findlay. [[Magic Lands|Magic Lands: Western Cityscapes and American Culture After 1940]] (1993).
* Steven Gregory. [[Black Corona|Black Corona: Race and the Politics of Place in an Urban Community]] (1999).
* Jason Hackworth. [[The Neoliberal City|The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism]] (2006).
* William Ivy Hair. [[Carnival of Fury|Carnival of Fury: Robert Charles and the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900]] (2008).
* Tona J. Hangen. [[Redeeming the Dial|Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion, and Popular Culture in America]] (2013).
* Chester W. Hartman. [[Yerba Buena|Yerba Buena: land grab and community resistance in San Francisco,]] (1974).
* Georgina Hickey. [[Hope and Danger in the New South City|Hope and Danger in the New South City: Working-Class Women and Urban Development in Atlanta, 1890-1940]] (2005).
* Richard Hofstadter. [[The American Political Tradition|The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made it]] (1989).
* Daniel Horowitz. [[Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”|Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”: The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism]] (2000).
* Daniel Martinez HoSang. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/erasing-race-whiteness-california-and-the-colorblind-bind/ Racial Propositions: Ballot Initiatives and the Making of Postwar California](2010)
* Jonathan Hughes (Editor)& Simon Sadler (Editor).[[Non-Plan|Non-Plan: Essays on Freedom, Participation and Change in Modern Architecture and Urbanism]] (2000).
* Daniel Hurewitz. [[Bohemian Los Angeles|Bohemian Los Angeles: and the Making of Modern Politics]] (2007).
* Marilynn S. Johnson. [[The Second Gold Rush|The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II]] (1994).
* Tony Judt. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/neoliberalisms-license-to-ill/ Ill Fares the Land] (2011).
* Larry D. Kramer. [[The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review]] (2004).
* Joel Kotkin. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/americas-ace-in-the-hole-is-of-course-its-awesomeness/ The Next Hundred Million:America in 2050] (2010)
* Kevin M. Kruse. [[White Flight|White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism]] (2007).
* Matthew D. Lassiter. [[The Silent Majority|The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South]] (2007).
* William R. Leach. [[Land of Desire|Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture]] (1994).
* Michael F. Logan. [[Fighting Sprawl and City Hall|Fighting Sprawl and City Hall: Resistance to Urban Growth in the Southwest]] (1995).
* Roger W. Lotchin. [[Fortress California, 1910-1961|Fortress California, 1910-1961: From Warfare to Welfare]] (2002).
* Lisa Lowe. [[Immigrant Acts|Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics]] (1996).
* Robert S. Lynd & Helen Merrell Lynd. [[Middletown|Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture]] (1959).
* Catherine Lutz. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century] (2001).
* Nancy MacLean. [[Freedom Is Not Enough|Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace]] (2008).
* Isaac Martin. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/stalking-the-tax-man-the-pervasive-influence-of-the-property-tax-revolt/ The Permanent Tax Revolt: How Property Tax Transformed America] (2008).
* Douglas Massey & Nancy Denton. [[American Apartheid|American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass]] (1993).
* Elaine Tyler May. [[America and The Pill|America and The Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation]] (2010).
* Carol Lynn McKibben. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Racial Beachhead: Diversity and Democracy in a Military Town] (2012).
* Lisa McGirr. [[Suburban Warriors|Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right]] (2002).
* James Miller. [[Flowers in the Dustbin|Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977]] (2000).
* Glen M. Mimura. [[Ghostlife of the Third Cinema|Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video]] (2009).
* John Hull Mollenkopf. [[The Contested City]] (1983).
* Maggi M. Morehouse. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/double-victory-from-wwii-to-the-avf-african-americans-and-the-u-s-military/ Fighting in the Jim Crow Army: Black Man and Women Remember World War II] (2000).
* Edward P. Morgan. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/a-mediating-mess-how-american-post-wwii-media-undermined-democracy/ What Really Happened to the Sixties: How Mass Media Culture Failed American Democracy] (2011)
* Charles Moskos Jr. and John Sibley Butler. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/double-victory-from-wwii-to-the-avf-african-americans-and-the-u-s-military/ All That We Can Be: Black Leadership and Racial Integration the Army Way] (1996).
* Andrew H. Myers. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Black, White, and Olive Drab: Racial Integration at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and the Civil Rights Movement] (2006).
* Armando Navarro. [[The Cristal Experiment|The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control]] (1998).
* Becky M. Nicolaides. [[My Blue Heaven|My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920-1965]] (2002).
* Margaret Pugh O’Mara. [[Cities of Knowledge|Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley]] (2004).
* Gilbert Osofsky. [[Harlem|Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto : Negro New York, 1890-1930]] (1996).
* Rick Perlstein. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/essence-precedes-existence-the-problem-of-identity-politics-in-hurewitzs-bohemian-la/ Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America](2009).
* Rebecca Jo Plant. [[Mom|Mom: The Transformation of Motherhood in Modern America]] (2012).
* Daniel T. Rodgers. [[Contested Truths|Contested Truths: Keywords in American Politics Since Independence]] (1998).
* David Roediger. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/dog-days-classics-the-wages-of-whiteness-and-the-white-people-who-love-them/ The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class] (1991).
* Adam Rome. [[The Bulldozer in the Countryside|The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism]] (2001).
* Richard Ronald. [[The Ideology of Home Ownership|The Ideology of Home Ownership: Homeowner Societies and the Role of Housing]] (2008).
* Peter Henry Rossi & Robert A. Dentler. [[The Politics of Urban Renewal|The Politics of Urban Renewal: The Chicago Findings]] (1981).
* Mike Royko. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/dog-days-classics-political-boss-and-midwestern-pharaoh-richard-j-daleys-chicago-legacy/ Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago] (1971)
* Roger Sanjek. [[The Future of Us All|The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City]] (1998).
* Bruce Schulman & Bruce J. Schulman. [[The Seventies|The Seventies: The Great Shift In American Culture, Society, And Politics]] (2002).
* Joel Schwartz. [[The New York Approach|The New York Approach: Robert Moses, Urban Liberals, and Redevelopment of the Inner City]] (1993).
*Gary S. Selby [[Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights]] (2008)
* Josh Sides. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/making-san-francisco-josh-sides-erotic-city/ Erotic City: Sexual Revolutions and the Making of Modern San Francisco] (2009).
* Nayan Shah. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/intimate-citizenship-the-influence-of-marriage-sexuality-and-transience-on-national-membership/Stranger Intimacy:Contesting Race, Sexuality and Law in the American Northwest] (2012).
* David J. Silbey. [[A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899-1902]] (2007).
* Rickie Solinger. [[Beggars and Choosers|Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States]] (2002).
* Allan H. Spear. [[Black Chicago|Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890-1920]] (1969).
* Todd Swanstrom. [[The Crisis of Growth Politics|The Crisis of Growth Politics: Cleveland, Kucinich, and the Challenge of Urban Populism]] (1988).
* Ronald Takaki. [[Hiroshima|Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb]] (1996).
* Penny M. Von Eschen. [[Satchmo Blows Up The World|Satchmo Blows Up The World: Jazz Ambassadors Play The Cold War]] (2004).
* Robert Wiebe. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/dog-day-classics-robert-h-wiebe-and-the-search-for-order/ The Search for Order, 1877 - 1920] (1967).
* Andrew Wiese. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/getting-to-the-mountaintop-the-suburban-dreams-of-african-americans/ Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century] (2004)
* Rhonda Y. Williams. [[The Politics of Public Housing|The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women’s Struggles Against Urban Inequality]] (2004).
* William Appleman Williams. [[The Tragedy of American Diplomacy]] (2009).
* Gwendolyn Wright. [[Building the Dream|Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America]] (1983).
*Zimmerman, Andrew. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/the-ties-that-bind-the-transnational-trick-of-immobilizing-the-mobile/ Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South] (2010).