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..."

2013-10-30T20:21:22Z

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..."

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{{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]]

America and The Pill - Revision history

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..."