Julie Gillis thinks birth control and reproductive rights are men’s issues as much as they are women’s.
I love fiction. I love science. I love science fiction. It would be easy to love science fiction because it shows us a world that could exist (aliens! dystopias! interstellar travel!), but I love science fiction because it actually shows us what we are really anxious and concerned about NOW, here, in our current world.
Science fiction authors are fantastic at picking up on the fears and dreams of a current culture and either manifesting them in an alternative world much like ours, or creating mirror narratives in worlds completely different (but with those same dynamics at play).
Something we’ve been anxious about for about 100 years?
Reproduction, the role of the state, control of the body through science such as pharmaceuticals, eugenics, but also through religion.
I saw this post, What Does Science Fiction Tell Us About The Future of Reproductive Rights, over at Jezebel, read it, and due to the interesting and very intense commentary on posts like We Are Pregnant and Once A Babysitter Always A Babysitter and felt it might be a good blog post for us here at GMP.
With examples from male and female science fiction authors, times ranging from turn of the century to recently, and foci on both pro-life and pro-choice, the range of books is stunning and I see a theme.
Reproduction causes intense anxiety. Who gets to control it? Who gets controlled by it? And this is a theme in all the books listed in the article. But the author poses an interesting and compelling question on top of the theme of reproductive rights anxiety:
“All the stories I’ve discussed up to this point focus on reproductive rights as an issue that centers basically on conception. Mostly, they ask: Who controls how we have babies, and who says what kinds of babies we can have?
But I would argue that the real issue lurking beneath the surface of those questions is a single, stark query: Who is responsible for raising children?”
Who indeed. Certainly we at GMP are struggling with issues of parenthood, rights, equity, and more. And the books throughout the article show us mirrors of those fears, wrestling matches, and concerns. This is a men’s issue as much as women’s. We share DNA, we need to share parenting. Given the acceptance of LGBT families, it’s a human issue.
I’m certainly curious to see what fiction is created our reality, but I’d far rather make sure our reality finds a way to deal with these issues with collaboration and peace. Is that science fiction, my dream? Maybe. But I’ll live in reality and support finding those happy endings where I can.
What can we learn from them as they are fiction? Can we learn to avoid dystopic endings? Can we find ways to write new stories in our real lives that have happier endings? Do we write these books to help us avoid the bad endings?
Photo Courtesy of brains the head
About Julie Gillis
Vocalyze
Well I love sci-fi, so I will always love an article that mentions it.
I do think it’s interesting that conversations about reproduction tend to focus on preventing conception, or what should be done immediately after conception. Very rarely does anyone discuss how reproductive rights affect what happens after birth. (Or if they do it becomes a discussion about how women have more maternal rights than fathers do paternal rights).
Personally I’m pro-choice, and pro-contraception (of all kinds), mostly because I believe in bodily autonomy. But one of the reasons I’m not pro-life, is because I ask myself what kind of life an unwanted child would have. I have known a few people who are the results of unexpected pregnancies. Many times it’s worked out just fine.
But in the case of one of my second cousins, it’s been really quite horrible. Her mother had already had two children, and when she had my cousin, her attitude was pretty much – I’m done having kids. She has _always_ treated her youngest daughter as an unwanted addition to their family. And my cousin has quite a few problems regarding rejection, and neglect because of it. – Now obviously I’m not saying that my cousin should have been aborted. I’m saying that I can see that contraception and abortion are about more than a woman (or a man) wanting to selfishly have uninhibited sex.
People forget that more contraceptive choices for straight women mean more sex for straight everyone! Its a win win situation
My grandmother had nine kids and a couple more pregnancies that didn’t last. I would say that this has more than a little to do with the fact that she died almost a decade ago while my grandfather is still alive. Over christmas he told me that they’d absolutely have used contraception if they did it over again.
That wasn’t unusual, or even excessive for a woman of her generation. My friend’s grandmother had 19 kids. The first two of whom she bore at home on the kitchen floor with no help.
I thought that article on scifi was very interesting too, I really enjoyed it. I’m more of a fantasy than scifi reader, but scifi does have this tendency to play into society’s fears unlike any other genre. It’s really cool.
Once I started having sex, I realized how weird it is that my options for birth control were the pill, the ring, the shot, IUD, diaphragm, implanon, the patch, Plan B, the female condom and that men’s options were … the condom, or depending on their partner to be doing on of those. Has birth control become a mostly women’s issue just because of the biology of it (i.e. it’s easier to stop one egg than a million sperm)? As it is, unless a man is using a condom, he really has to trust the woman he is with to have similar views as him. Which is why everyone should talk about birth control before having sex! If you are a man who definitely doesn’t want children, not even remotely, and the woman you are with would never ever get an abortion, you have to decide whether you want to chance that 1% she could end up pregnant (because no contraception is 100% effective).
When is that male pill coming out again?
Easier to trick the body to believe it is pregnant and stop ovulation since it’s part of pregnancy, vs disabling sperm production that is pretty much go from puberty onwards without really stopping.
I wonder what the risks are with condom + pull out method/manual/orally stimulate till orgasm?
Yeah, that’s what I pointed out above. Every so often you hear about people working on a male birth control pill, but it never seems very likely.
It just seems like it would be best for both partners to be on birth control, that way they don’t have to rely totally on someone else to prevent babies they don’t want. Women can mostly choose what they want, though if they don’t want to be on birth control, they do have to rely on condom use by the man. But men can only choose condoms, and a lot of guys don’t like condoms. Plus, condoms can break and are easily forgotten during drunk sex.
And the pull out method is not recommended by anyone. Only men who really know their bodies can do it accurately. And you would never be able to orgasm if she is on top.
I’m just sort of surprised that men aren’t pushing for the birth control pill for them. It is completely possible, there’s just no funding for it because people think men aren’t interested.
Well when I say pullout I mean stimulate the last stretch by hand or mouth BUT use a condom before that whilst inside, so there shouldn’t be much risk of spillage or broken condom with a lot of semen inside the condom, inside her.
Last I saw of the male pill was that it stopped testosterone production which is a big problem, it’s quite tricky to stop sperm maturing and keep the rest of the system functioning, much easier to just hijack the pregnancy response and stopping ovulation since 1 hormone I think is mainly at play there.
Currently, a child has 2 parents. Parenting should be shared equally by both, unless the parents voluntarily come up with a different plan.
In the future, a child will have N parents, where N may be smaller or greater than 1. In that case, all parents will equally share in parenting.
Oops, I meant smaller or greater than 2.
Great article…and you ask great questions!
I was involved with a man a long time ago who was a scientist, who was performing cutting edge research…we discussed various currents topics at the time: the discovery of the AIDS virus, sexual promiscuity in the NYC bar/club scene, ways of transmission of the virus, and methods of prevention….
And yet, his own sexual behavior was like something written out of some outdated medieval text…he was controlling and abusive towards me…he never used condoms and refused when I brought it up…he was always suspicious of me no matter what assurances I gave him…in retrospect, his behavior was so contradictory and backwards compared to the advanced scientific intellect he clearly demonstrated…
He was on the forefront of the scientific advances and continues to progress in this area today…however, he was so condescending and cruel in his dealings with women, especially me, that stuns me to this day…He was trying to write his own future…but eventually I realized his idea of a happy ending was not mine, no matter how much he tried to talk me into it…
Thank you for asking such open-ended questions…that’s the heart of all this, isn’t it?
Speaking of advances in technology, I’m so thankful for recently approved non-hormonal copper IUD. The insertion is painful and intrusive (and it’s pretty expensive), but it’s worth it. Hormonal birth control did numbers on my body. Throughout the course of my experiences with it, I had nausea, weight gain and loss, loss of sex drive, leg pains, gall bladder problems, breasts getting too big…I’m beginning to sound like the warning announcement in a commercial now. It’s amazing how far birth control has come in just the past 10 years, and I expect it to get even better.
I can’t wait until male birth control is approved. This system kind of sucks for us all. Women bear the brunt of the cost, the affect it has on the body, and the practical matters (getting the prescription and taking the pill every day at the same time, going to the doctor to get the shot or IUD insertion). Men, on the other hand, don’t have much control. Unless they use a condom (which might break), they have to have complete faith that their partner is keeping up with her birth control or the has time and money to get the Plan B pill (it’s about 50 bucks and you have to go to a pharmacy counter, which can be embarrassing for some) if a condom breaks.
I’d be first in line at the pharmacy if that happened, she doesn’t need to be embarrassed. I’d be there asap if she and I both agreed. If she didn’t agree then I’d probably be hella scared and annoyed unless it was a longterm partner and we were financially stable.
Yeah, hormonal birth control sucks. I have yet to find one that doesn’t make me depressed and/or moody. Really, it’s just a matter of finding which pill makes me the LEAST depressed. I like not having to worry about condoms, but I hate feeling sad every day.
I have been seriously considering the copper IUD, but my friend got the the non-copper one and was in pain for a year, she had these periods from hell, it was terrifying. So I’m a little scared to do that. :/
One of my favorite SF books on the subject is Ursula Le Guins “The Left Hand of Darkness”. So many things in that book inspire further thought. Speaking of Le Guin, this blog post http://www.feministlab.com/reproductive-rights/an-ode-to-ursula-le-guin/ has a nice Le Guin quote from a talk she gave 30 years ago.
As someone living in Scandinavia It’s odd to follow the current US debate about right to abortion and now also contraception. Here, you would not be able to find a single serious politician who would be willing to argue against right to abortion. The public would laugh at the idea. For the church (or politicians) to go out and argue against access to contraception – even more absurd. To us, this is a non-issues, because there’s no controversy. There was, in the 70s, but that’s way behind us.
The Following is a letter I sent to Mr. Richard Wolf of Wolf Films I know you will understand the importance of it’s message Thanks for reading it. I am seeking a national spokesperson for this issue.
Dear Mr. Wolf;
First, let me say congratulations for the success of “Law and Order” television and over 22 years of the best TV crime drama ever. The double strike tone is the icon for script TV and now is as memorable as the sweaty hand that concluded “Dragnet” every week. Who will ever forget Jerry Orbach as Det. Briscoe and Sam Waterston as D.A. Jack McCoy? I must also start by saying that I am survivor of sexual abuse as a male child. This is a bad way to introduce myself, but as you will see, I’ve got to say it. I hate talking about this stuff. My real point to this letter is to recognize and thank you for the support you have given to the awareness of the issue of gender discrimination afforded to male child victims of sexual assault I was blown away by the statements by Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelly Giddish) in reference to the discrimination suffered by male child victims and the lack of concern in society for addressing the issue of male victim sexual assault. This blew me away when I heard it on the TV. Finally, someone in media is talking about it. You and your writers are the first to see that there is no way to do SVU without looking into this critical hole in society’s thinking. Other shows have done similar stories but none really highlights the double standard in the attitude towards boys and girls as victims of sexual abuse. At least 30-40% of the time one of SVU’s stories covers something about male sexual victimization. And this from Hollywood—it is hard to believe. No one, not Oprah, not the major networks news, not 60 Minutes and not, surprisingly, even Charlie Rose brings this up.
After the Penn State revelations, you did a similar story line and Charlie Rose did a show on the scandal. Treat Williams (one of my favorites) played the coach. Your program was right on target in it’s fictional examination of the issue but Rose missed the point. About 95% of his show examined the implications of the scandal to the football team and only about 5% dealt at all with the safety of male children and authority. Now I realize people don’t want to talk about this, my friends wish I would change the subject and my sister gets angry when I talk about sexual assault and male victims. I have a women friend whom still believes that adult male sexual victimization is impossible. If the victims at Penn State were girls, I think Paterno or the administration would have told the police and Sandusky would be incarcerated now. The only MSNBC pundit to look at the scandal very hard was Chris Mathews, (not Even Rachel Maddow) and Chris did so because he is from PA. The only pundit to take a hard line about Paterno was Keith Olberman but of course you see what happened to him. And also surprisingly, Dave Letterman said Paterno should be fired and Penn State football should be suspended. And Dave is a big football fan—what happened to Rose and Maddow? Rachel should be able to understand the implications of this discrimination, and I understand her concern about LGBT issues but is she a single-issue pundit about sexual assault?
Of the professionals confronted with the challenge of male child victimization, in my experience, the police are the most receptive This is because they see it every day. Not even many PhD. Psychologists who write self-help books are receptive to the subject. They appeal to one demographic mostly, women and they see it as a threat to bring up any male oriented issues. And so it is with politicians. After the Penn State press, I called and wrote to every US and Arizona legislator to use their bully pulpit to say something on behalf of the boys who were abused at Penn State. None did. That includes McCain (you remember him), Kyl, Quayle and even my state rep and senator, Kirsten Sinema. I was in particular surprised about Sinema because she is openly bisexual and would understand this issue. Same-sex marriage is an important topic and so is the sexual victimization of girls and women but right now little boys are being raped, it is their turn to get attention and you alone are doing that.
Lastly, a few facts you may or not be aware of:
1) The FBI does not define rape as possible for males. Their definition is: “the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will”. This appears in the Uniform Crime Report of the FBI. If the FBI does not take the rape of boys seriously, who else in government will? It also leads to the false impression that sex crimes are committed much less against males.
2) A California (yes, California) court has upheld that the male child victim of a sexual assault was financially responsible for the child which resulted from the assault. This was in San Luis Obispo County in the mid 1990′s. This exposes the blindness of society to the problem of male sexual assault and it’s pro female only viewpoint. “Only males perpetrate and only females are victims”. Bias can happen by any gender and does.
3) The US Dept. of Justice commissioned a study of the rates of prosecution and sentence looking at demographics such as gender, ethnic origin, jurisdiction and other factors. It found that female defendants routinely only get 10% of the sentence as male offenders for the same crime. This is for nearly all jurisdictions and crimes including murder, fraud, sexual assault and theft. And this does not only just include Los Angeles. See, I try to have some sense of humor about this. Sorry.
4) Courts routinely hold against men who sue for damages as a result of an STD and at the same time hold for any female so involved. This despite forensics to support the man’s claim. When it comes to STD’s, transmission is equal opportunity but society does not see it that way.
5) And most unbelievably, female convicts who continue to evade jail time for felonies committed against male victims. You of course remember Debra LaFave which your last story followed so well (in fiction). Ms. LaFave has still yet to serve any jail time for her felony conviction. The Orange County Florida Court could not find a precedent in law to sentence a female convict so they did not. Here in Maricopa County, the daughter of a county supervisor, Fulton Brock was convicted in Pinal Superior Court of a Class III felony but the sentence decree did not include any jail time. I called both the Pinal and Maricopa County courts to complain. (Maricopa County is where the offenses were committed) but they told me that the decree said otherwise and that the TV reporters got it wrong. I called Melissa Blasius, a local reporter for the NBC affiliate and she said that Channel 12 had already noted the discrepancy and has requested the decree under FIFA over six months ago, still no documents. Also remember Maricopa County is the land of Sheriff Joe. What is going on in Maricopa County ? How is that for a story? Far be it for me to tell Mr. Wolf about crime stories! See, still more humor.
The big point is to say thank you. If we could get a spokesperson like Ms. Giddish that would be a god send. Your shows already speak. One last thing, I thought NBC should have given LOLA a better chance. With the cast changes by Alfred Molina, Terence Howard and Alana de la Garza, I felt the show was hitting stride. I went to school at Fullerton State and also see the rich cultural and geographic potential of the LA venue and how could you go wrong with Jeff Goldblum and Peter Coyote?
Thank You Very Much;
Mike Laviolette