Birth Control and the Gates Foundation

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In my book, Writing the Diaphragm Blues, I discuss the need for a male version of the birth control pill. I also discuss how research and technology is available and ready to offer the world a male version of birth control pill, but unfortunately the world is not all that interested in it. How can we tell?  Funding. Just as funding is available by the truckload for new “Viagra” like medications, there are few trucks loaded and ready with finances to test new methods of birth control for men.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the few organizations substantially backing this effort. 

But there is reluctance for this direction in birth control research. Indeed, many men object to the idea of subjecting their body to hormonal forces that impact their body negatively. Ironic enough, many of these same men do not seem to worry about asking their female partners to subject their body to hormonal drugs, but the line is drawn once the tables are turned. Yet I would argue that it is not unreasonable to object to putting medications into your body that would cause you some kind of harm. It is actually a very reasonable objection. That is why research is now attempting to find a solution to the male birth control conundrum, which does not include doses of hormones – but this research is just in its infancy. Regardless, until a solution can be found, birth control continues to be an issue that impacts women more directly, mostly remaining a non-issue for men.

In this past election cycle, the issue of birth control has shown its ugly little head again (pun intended). It really should be a non-issue, and indeed it has been a non-issue for centuries. It is quite ridiculous to suggest that the use of birth control, and the need for birth control, is a rather new and modern debate. The pill … yes, but birth control has existed for centuries, from the use of natural herbs, to the intestines of animals that were used as a type of a condom.  Why is birth control an issue now?  It is an issue because people feel birth control is a form of population control, and a simple abortant.  It is also an issue because it gives people the ability to control the social roles played by the different genders in society. However, I have commented on the second point a great deal in this blog, let me reflect a little on the first point.

As Melinda Gates suggests below, the argument and the fear regarding the widespread use of birth control is fear regarding purposeful population control. This population point it's not so much of a side issue as Melinda Gates suggests in her discussion, but Gates is correct when she states that the bottom line regarding birth control is this: people should have a right to decide whether or not they are ready to bring a child into this world, and whether they can care for that child. Birth control is indeed a personal, egoist concept and "I," and "my needs" are prominent in this formula.  However, the utilitarian position, or the "we" position is also dominate. So yes, population control is at issue as well. This doesn't mean I want or that I suggest we need to adopt a policy, such as is seen in China, limiting how many children we bring into this world.  However, there is something to be said about famine, a lack of resources, and our inability to care for children that we bring into this world. It is simple irresponsible to suggest through rhetoric or practice that humans have the right to bring children into this world, but we don't necessarily have to take responsibility for caring for those children/people throughout their lives. The philosopher Peter Singer brought up this discussion in '72 with his well argued article "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" in Philosophy and Public Affairs (1:1). Although dated, I cannot help but feel we should all revisit this discussion again.

Regardless, I would agree that creating a general rule for the good of the majority is not always a sound idea - frankly, it can be disastrous. Mandatory use of birth control is as bad as an idea as is limited the amount of children a couple can have in a society where the male child is valued over the female - China has a mess on their hands because of this.  Although I am a utilitarian at heart, I'm also a pragmatist. I like to look at situations as they, individually, occur and then weigh the consequences of potential reactions to that situation before I act. It’s a process and I am a huge supporter of focusing on the process rather than a particular, singular, outcome. People and situations are unique, and they must be approached uniquely. It is this approach toward birth control that is needed globally.  

What does this mean in the end?  It means that we must have open access to birth control throughout the world. It also means that men must have more open access to different forms of birth control as well, and they must be encouraged to make it part of their personal regiment, just as women do. It also means we must educate the world on the use of birth control, and the responsibility that comes with the use of birth control. We must teach people about sex, the consequences of sex, the consequences of sexual assault, and… yes… the consequences of overpopulation. The problem is that most talking heads are making this issue in either or issue rather than looking at the consequences, the wide affecting consequences, of a world without birth control. Enough.

Melinda Gates TED talk on Birth Control.

Bad Romance: Women's Suffrage

Moveon.org is promoting this Lady GaGa Parody Video on women's suffrage that is brilliant (read about the video and Soomopublishing).  They are also asking people to sign a petition designed to stop violence against women.  It is worth your time signing and worth your time watching!

 

Gender Pay Inequality is Alive & Well Ladies

I got an e-mail today from the AAUW (American Association of University Women) regarding equal pay in the US. This email  reminded me of a recent conversation I had with a dear friend, someone who is about my age, regarding the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Like many women I have met throughout my lifetime, my friend assumed that the ERA had passed years ago. Indeed, she was shocked and dismayed to learn that it had still not passed, this reasonable amendment that was first introduced to the public in 1923.
I have even spoke to some women who feel that passing the ERA is not all that pertinent in today's society. The argument runs along these lines:

•  Women can work the same jobs as men today.
•  If a woman wants to have dildo, hell she can go out and buy one.
• Women are really not discriminated against in our modern society.
• Heck, I know some men who stay home with the kids, while the woman goes out and works!

But the truth is simple; there is no true quality between the sexes in the US. We may be closer, but closer is not destroying the so called "glass ceiling." Women continue to be treated as second-class citizens (you are a slut if you use birth control is just one in a long string of examples I could bring to the table), and women's rights as a full and equal citizen in the United States continues to be challenged. This can be seen through many facets of life, but especially through an economic lens.

The AAUA's forum "The Simple Truth about the Pay Gap" presents compelling information regarding both race and gender pay gap inequality realities in the United States. Since we are a country that treasures profit, and equates success with one's financial bottom line, the findings regarding pay inequality is staggering. It is important to note these pay gap statistics take into consideration job performance.  That is to say, the job comparison ratio assumes that both parties, male and female, perform the same job equally well. What was found was that women earn approximately 77% of what her male counterpart makes for performing the same job. If you happen to be a woman of color, such as a black woman (70% of a man's paycheck) or a Hispanic woman (61% of a man's pay check), you will struggle more seriously in our society, demonstrating that genderism and racism are alive and well and kicking our collective female asses.

Please take a moment to read this information regarding state-by-state wages, this is a chart that compares gender pay (Note: this is a PDF File, and the information was gathered by the US Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey Data). Here are some highlights regarding gender pay inequality, 2010 numbers:

•  Gender equality in the realm of pay does not exist in any state in the United States.
•  Washington, D.C. offers the best earnings ratio, with women earning 91% of a males' paycheck for the same job (Men: $ 61,381 VS Women: $56, 127).
•  I was personally surprised to find that the rather conservative state of Arizona (82%) does a better job with pay quality than the overall liberal state of Washington, which falls into the 77% category.
•  Wyoming has the biggest problem with offering paid quality to the female gender, coming in at 64%. Wyoming was closely followed by Louisiana and Utah, both in the 60 percentile.

To add fuel to this fire, Bloomberg found that the best way for a woman to make equal or better money then her male counterpart was to open a shoe shinning business, since all other business in and around wall street paid women substantially less, and could justify this reality logically:

The six jobs with the largest gender gap in pay and at least 10,000 men and 10,000 women were in the Wall Street-heavy financial sector: insurance agents, managers, clerks, securities sales agents, personal advisers and other specialists. Advanced- degree professions proved no better predictors of equality. Female doctors made 63 cents for every $1 earned by male physicians and surgeons, the data show. Female chief executives earned 74 cents for every $1 made by male counterparts. 

Friday Funny: Abstinence

The Ethics of Birth Control

Justice Should be Blind, Not Stupid

Erin Solaro over at the Seattle PI's Civic Feminism blog wrote a delightful post about the Politics of Contraception.  I left a comment there, thanking her for her fantastic post and also posing this question: 

Why are these people (those who want to take birth control away from woman) only concerned with the moment, the act of potential procreation and not the consequences resulting from that moment?

What worries me terribly is the simple fact that these men (and they are almost all men) working to deny women access to birth control never bother to look at the potential consequences of what happens when we deny women access to birth control (Yes women, men have historically been given clear access to birth control, but women denied).  All these politicians and pundits are concerned with is the act of potential procreation. This is the ethics of short-term egoism that refuses to look at long-term consequences of this action: Birth control denial.  This short-term ethic set is downright irresponsible of lawmakers, and certainly an example of why many citizens no longer trust of hold hope in their political representatives (consider this, recession is simply a result of short term rationale of fast profit that had devastating consequences for the US and globally as well). This is a huge problem not only with politics, but with our society today: short-term satisfaction and, ironic enough, birth control is not about short term satisfaction, no matter how much Rush Limbaugh and others like him wish to frame the issue with such misguided rhetoric: give a woman birth control and she will screw anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Here are some long-term consequential considerations we must consider before denying women birth control:

• What happens to women that have been raped?
• What happens to women who need birth control for general health reasons related to hormonal imbalances?
• What happens to a market place devoid of cheap female labor (the more children a woman has, the more likely she will have to leave the market place)?
• What happens to a home’s economics when it loses ½ of its income making members once she leaves the market places and becomes a homemaker. 
• (I am not putting down the life of the homemaker. However, many homes need both adults working to survive. If we have no birth control, the average family could have up to 4-5 children, making it important for one parent to stay home to care for the children. If history has demonstrated anything, it will likely be the woman who stays home.  where will the money come in this world today to feed and care for a such a family well?)

• What happens to all the unwanted children in this world? The “disposable” children abandoned, lost, and not cared for?
• What happens to women’s rights generally and how society views women?
• What happens when the death rate of women skyrocket as more births occur and as more women die during child birth?
• What about over population in relation to famine and a frightfully shrinking natural resource pool in this earth?

These few consequential considerations are only the tip of the iceberg regarding potential problems and dramatic socialist structural changes as a result of such a drastic act as denying easy access to birth control. To make things more clear, let’s take a case study: Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries.  As I wrote in my comment on the PI:

Taken in an Irish Laundry: Location Unknown

In Ireland (and globally but Ireland becomes the case study par excellence), hundreds of thousands of women were placed in Laundries and forced to become nothing more than slave labor for the state and church of Ireland. Major targets? Single mothers and any woman deemed amoral as compared to her society's spiritual temperament. These women had no choice, as law regarding their bodies were clear: A woman's body was not their own.  Their body was their fathers, their brothers, their husband, the church or the state, but there was no true anonymity. And the children, ripped from these Magdalene Laundresses? Either they were shipped out of Ireland, adopted to foreign Catholic parents, or placed in workhouses; horrific state run institutions of abuse (Read the Commission to Inquire into child abuse).

Birth control plays a huge role in this travesty, because here was a society that denied birth control to women and, at the same time, did not consider any of the consequences of this so called moral action.   We are headed there if we do not stop this nonsense now.  Denying women birth control is wide raging consequences, consequences that must be addressed and seriously debated. Otherwise, we are simply caving to egoistic, short sighted, and misguided proclamations that will harm all of our society, not simply the women it’s trying to control.

Adrienne Rich

Image linked to from the Poetry Foundation: Adrienne Rich.

"The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming forces on this planet." (Adrienne Rich, 1929 to 2012)

I have just received the news that Adrienne Rich has died, and my heart is broken. I took a few minutes to read a few articles about her life; I set down and remembered the first time I read her work; I got up and I lit a candle, and then I cried. My sadness is for me. I cannot think of a world without Adrienne Rich in it, without Adrienne Rich being there to help remind us about all about our follies when it comes to gender relationships, love, and ethical, kind interaction among us all. And although I am saddened today by her leaving us, I am also so grateful that she was here for the amount of time she was.

Truly, I cannot imagine a world that did not have Adrienne Rich in it. How much she gave us all. How much she potentially changed in our world with each word she wrote, each poem she compose, and each time she bared her soul for our benefit.

Just yesterday I was adding a quote from Adrienne Rich to a chapter in Writing the Diaphragm Blues regarding women's rights and birth control. I sought out her book because I remembered there was an interesting passage regarding the death at the midwife, and the rise of the doctor in Western civilization.  She has been a go to resource of mine for much of my life. 

For me personally, Adrienne Rich encouraged my voice as a feminist. She encouraged me to go out and write about those things that most of us keep behind closed doors. She showed me how it was okay to be uncomfortable by my confessions, by my feelings, and with my anger. She encouraged me with her words and her actions, to share my own subjective experiences about being a woman, about sexuality in order to share and reach out to a larger imagined community. I shudder to think of a world without Adrienne Rich in it. But possibly, my hope is this: that she encouraged other women to follow in her footsteps, to expose their souls for the world's benefit.

Goodbye Adrienne Rich. You will be missed by many, including myself.

• Washington Post: Adrienne Rich, feminist poet and essayist, dies at age 82 
• New York Times: Adrienne Rich Feminist Poet and Author Dies at 82
• Of Woman Born
• Poets.org: Adrienne Rich
• Adrienne Rich, the Poetry Foundation

Chapter 6: Playing Heads or Tails with My Diaphragm

In 2008 I wrote a creative piece for Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion called: "Playing Heads or Tails with My Diaphragm: Drinking Lattés with Hélène Cixous."  In this short essay, I get to imagine myself having a conversation with John McCain and Hélène Cixous about gender, politics, and identity.  I am reworking this essay to be included as a short piece in my memoir on sex and sexuality.  Here is a pieced together preview of some of the dialogue.  I call the McCain approach to sexuality "Viagra politicking."  We have a lot of Viagra politicking in Washington as of late.

*****

“And so it still goes . . .” I sighed, while sipping my double-shot latté.

“What still goes?” said John McCain coming up behind me—grinning brightly, and sandwiching my hand between his.

“Politics as usual. Empty rhetoric. Careless sexism.”

“My, my dear girl!” Pat, pat, pat came his hand on mine. “It can't be as bad as all that!”

“Can't it? You who champions Viagra over birth control,# stagnate, ‘calm’ courts over equal pay for women.# ‘My, my dear man,’ can you smell the patronizing?”

"Don't you mean patriotism!"

“Hum . . . Yes, presently they do smell the same.”

“So then,” he said grinning once again—his shark tooth smile reflecting the sun, “I can count on your vote?”

“I'll tell you what, let's play heads or tails with my diaphragm and leave it up to chance. Can you guess which side is heads . . . is tails?”

“Why the part that sticks up like a dome, that’s the head.”

“Ah yes, I figured you'd say as much, no more Viagra for you.”


“You know, you shouldn't think of a corset as a jail, but as a thing of beauty,” said the press-deemed maverick, while fruitlessly reaching for Hélène's hands.

“John,” I said, “I did not invite you into my skin. I would have remembered addressing the invitation.”

“Shush. Enough now” said McCain, who was backing away from Hélène's Mona Lisa smile. “You look lovely in the corset, enchanting. Let me lace up the back for you.”

“Goddamn it! That's too damn tight!”

“Just a bit more. There, now turn towards me. Yes, that is what I like to see. As Rousseau, that great defender of democracy liked to say, a woman ‘ought to make herself pleasing in [a man's] eyes and not provoke him to anger; her strength is in her charms, by their means she should compel him to discover and use his strength.’”
 
“To please you? I didn't even invite you.”

“But you did, my dear. Or why would you have let me play with that diaphragm of yours? I think it landed on heads.” John McCain smiled.

“Stop calling me ‘dear,’ I'm Lilith.”

“Would a rose by any other name . . .?”

“I’m unlacing myself—I’m untangling myself from your words. I did’nt invite you. I will not become you. Now give me back my diaphragm, I saw you slip it into your pocket, next to your Viagra."

Watch him run.  Can you see him? Limping forward, legs close together, protecting himself from possible castration—run, sir, run to Freud … comfort each other the best you can as time for both of you is linear and short. I live in the circular realm; it goes around and around, never to stop.

“Hélène, do you think he saw in me the Medusa?”

“You're Lilith, and I'm Medusa.”

“A rose by any other name …”

R

Getting my First Period - Chapter 3

This is another short bit from my book, Writing the Diaphragm Blues.  In this chapter, I recount what happened to me when I got my period for the first time.  Do you remember what happened when you got your period? Did you family support you and help you along?  My family throw a party.
----------

From Chapter 3: "Diaphragm Blues."

I’ll never forget when I got my period …. oh hell on earth! I say this with a combination of horror, delight, and just a little bit more horror thrown in for good measure. Why do I say horror? Simply because when you are a thirteen year-old girl, having your period for the first time, even if your prepared for it, is a horrible experience. To be honest, the first time I noticed hair under my arms, it was enough to send me to my bedroom for three months.

I really did not want to grow up, as I had no interest in becoming a woman. I enjoyed being a child, and I enjoyed being a tomboy even more, so these signs of womanhood were offensive and threatening. When I got my period for the first time, my Mother was overjoyed. She sent Lee-Dad to the market for menstrual pads, because she only used tampons and she didn’t think I would like to use a tampon on my first time. However, a family friend was present and she tried to teach me how to use a tampon in the bathroom. Oh my God. Let me just say that again ... Oh my God! Talk about an epic failure, not only was it a tampon, but it was one of those tampons without an applicator. Again … hell for a thirteen year old.

My Dad soon came home from the store with the pads, beaming, announcing to the world, it seemed, that I was now a woman. Did he tell the guy at 7-Eleven? I am rather sure he did. I see the scene very clearly in my mind’s eye:

Dad: Good day sir, I would like to buy these menstrual pads.

Store Clerk: Why certainly good man. I’m assuming they’re not for you?

Both: (laugh)

Dad: No indeed not, but I hear they make good odor-eaters for your shoes.

Both: (the two men laugh again).

Dad: No, they’re for my daughter - she is a woman today.

Store Clerk: Well congratulations. I guess you’re going to be locking her up from now on, right? (Both men chuckle.)

Dad: Yep! The next stop is the local armoury. I’m buying her the best chastity belt money can buy!

Store Clerk: Good luck with that!

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R

B is for Boobs and Birth Control

Today I am working on Chapter 6, writing about two nicknames I have been given by my peers at different times in my life - nicknames around the topic of sexuality.

The first and most frustrating nickname I was given was One-Boob-Becky when I was a child. I think the name speaks for itself. I got this name when I was at Kino and in 6th grade. The name followed me through to JR High and High School, when I finally left for WA state with my family.  To celebrate this memory, I thought I would do two things.  First, I invite you to look at this interesting Twitter feed/search on two terms: "lopsided Boobs," as well as "Boobs."I love searching Social Media for key words and topics because it lets me see a slice of spontaneous opinion about the ideas and topics.  If you linger on the Boob link for long, you will see that the updates are continuous on that topic! People like to speak about boobs.

For the heck of it, I also decided to Songify part of the chapter, a monologue I wrote on the topic of growing up with one boob.

Listen here: One-Boob-Becky

Finally, I want to direct your attention to this interesting article from NPR that talks about the possibility of birth control being deemed mandatory for Insurance coverage: Birth Control Without Copays Could Become Mandatory. 

For years, many insurance companies would willingly cover the entire price of an abortion but NOT for birth control.  I have written and studied about this situation before and the logic continues to boggle the mind.  It is about time that birth control is seen as normal part of health care need for women.  The battle over this issue is tomorrow, when "when the independent Institute of Medicine is expected to make recommendations about preventive health care services for women." I'll be waiting and watching myself.
R

Chapter One: Under Where? Underwear!

As promised, here is a short excerpt from my memoir that examines one woman's journey discovering and understanding her sexuality, her role as a woman, and herself.  In Chapter One, I talk about how we are often introduced to the idea of sexuality with a simple question: Where do Babies Come From? 

On Facebook I read a status update that my nephew was told by a friend of his that babies come from the great baby cloud. Since cloud computing is getting so very popular, I could not help but imagine Google being behind this operation, talk about Google+, with Apple on its heels for iTunes downloads. Picture this, baby souls stored in “the cloud,” being pumped with information from the Internet - twitter feeding the virtual soul fetus along with Facebook wall updates, and targeted advertisements.  Advertisers would be in heaven! Consider the potential of training a child to be a consumer even before he or she popped out of the womb!  Capital delight!

I also examine the sad truth that for many women, including many in my family, the first introduction to sex is rape:

Writing this memory down, I sit and wonder what my Mother must have felt or thought with my imitation of her eye drawings: for I now know this was her first memory, and the eye was what she focused on as she was being raped. She was a very young child when it first happened. This sexual abuse would follow her throughout her childhood, adolescence, and into the throws of young adulthood. Much of it stopped at thirteen or fourteen when she pulled a gun on her attacker, her Stepfather, and hitchhiked out of Fairbanks, Alaska, taking the Alcan highway. Maybe she viewed the single eye as not only a physical example of her attacker, but as the all-seeing Ra, a universal god.

Do the myths we tell our children about sex and sexuality eventually lead to larger misconceptions, such as the myth that women deserve to be raped, that it is the only thing that can control her? Or, rather, is this slippery slope argument without steam and substance?


Writing the Diaphragm Blues looks to the comic moments of sexuality, to the more serious consequences of sex and violence - all though the eyes of one woman, her experiences, and her efforts to better understand herself and her place in the world.

Chapters Complete: 5

I have five chapters mostly complete, there are always revisions, in my memoir about sex, sexuality, birth control and being a woman.  There is a lot of excitement over the chapters overall, and not all from me!  So, there is hope for an audience.

I often tell my students that they need to be very much aware of the audience they are writing for, and if they cannot be aware of the specific audience, normally that is me or another instructor, they need to be aware of writing for a general audience outside of the "self." Which is why in moments like these, I find myself deeply missing my Mom, and her feedback.  For those of you who did not know her, she was a professional fiction writer, and a supporter of my nonfiction creative writing and theatre. I'm certain that she would have great advice for me, including how to go about finding a literary agent. There are many stories I have to tell, after all, and I do not wish to stop here. Although I have enjoyed my academic writing as well, I feel more comfortable with this present work, and I also feel like I can reach a wider audience through the type of writing I'm doing presently.

I am particularly lucky on this project because I have a couple of dear friends who have agreed to be readers, and also editors of sorts. They are catching all my eccentricities, so to speak, those hard to see grammar mistakes, and bizarre spellings that I occasionally developed out of thin air. They also are catching my acrobatic, dyslexic, interventions throughout the writings. I've got some of the greatest friends ever, and for that I am grateful.

I feel the need to start marketing the text, and also market myself as well.  However, I'm not entirely sure how to do this. It's something that I will have to start thinking on. Along these lines, I wanted to start talking about some of the larger topics on Twitter, Google+ and on here, the blog, but the last time I talked about sexuality on these platforms, especially Twitter, I got a lot of people in the sex industry following me. Too funny, I can only imagine what any of them thought after reading my first book. It's not that I have a problem with porn, if you're into that kind of thing, it's just not the focus of this book.

It was nuts with the sex industry followers while I was writing about the Magdalene Laundries; people following me becuase I wrote on prostitution. Oh my goodness, I cannot tell you how many people wanted to help me out with finding a good prostitute. Oh those crazy search engines.

I thought tomorrow I would start writing more specifically about some of the themes in my book, without hopefully giving away too much, and also offering some excerpts here and there. I hope you will stay tuned.  R