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Margaret sanger and the birth control movement essays
Margaret sanger and the birth control movement essays
Margaret sanger and the birth control movement essays
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Ariane-Jane Flores Wmnst 341B Gonda 4/8/14 Annotated Bibliography: The Pill Introduction This lecture on the Pill will focus on the introduction, controversies, and outcome of women’s control of contraception during the mid 20th century. It will also discuss how the Pill became an influential stepping-stone for women activists. I chose to focus this discussion on three questions. First, what did the Pill teach us about the role of women in the middle 20th century? Second, what were the arguments for and against the Pill? Lastly, how safe was the Pill and what effects did women experience from taking it? By centering in on these questions, I hope to provide insight on the struggles women faced before and after this birth control technology became readily available to women in the United States. When legally introduced to society in 1960, the Pill stirred up a long period of controversy. The availability of the Pill had great impact on women’s health, social life, laws, religion, family, relationships, morality and sexuality. Initially conceived to be highly effective and safe, the Pill left many women with side effects – few which led to several fatalities. Before the Pill was created, many women postponed sex due to the social norm and fear of becoming pregnant before marriage. Families grew large and it was typical for a woman to have multiple children caused by the lack of birth control. Due to regulations, such as the Comstock laws, many people supported the prohibition of the Pill and other family planning practices. However, many women believed in the right to control their own body when it came to procreation. Despite the controversies, the Pill left lasting impacts, such as by opening society to the sexual revolution and... ... middle of paper ... ...ion. After 40 years since FDA approval, the Pill has been modified with a smaller dosage of hormones, which addressed the risks previously associated. The risks associated with the Pill have decreased. With the help of safety profiles, women are now screened for risk factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure, history of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The Pill has since evolved into a safer oral contraceptive causing the focus from supposed health risks to real health benefits such as, protection against ovarian and endometrial cancers. Gibbs, Nancy, Deirdre Van Dyk, Kathleen Adams. "Love, Sex, Freedom And The Paradox Of The Pill. (Cover Story)." Time 175.17 (2010): 40-47. Military & Government Collection. Web. 9 Apr. 2014. Yasunari, Kristie. "Margaret Sanger." Peace Review 12.4 (2000): 619-626. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Apr. 2014. Conclusion
Dorothy Wardell’s article titled “Margaret Sanger: Birth Control’s Successful Revolutionary” explains what inspired Sanger ideas on contraception and what problems she faced while working to change the notions and laws on Birth Control. The central argument presented by Wardell is that Sanger’s efforts led to privileges for women’s bodies and health centers providing methods for women to act on these privileges (Wardell, 736). Although Wardell is effective in supporting her argument, it would be stronger if she included some historical context and evidence of Sanger’s opinion in her own words found in a speech of hers and in Family Limitation.
"A free race cannot be born" and no woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother"(Sanger A 35). Margaret Sanger (1870-1966)said this in one of her many controversial papers. The name of Margaret Sanger and the issue of birth control have virtually become synonymous. Birth control and the work of Sanger have done a great deal to change the role of woman in society, relationships between men and woman, and the family. The development and spread of knowledge of birth control gave women sexual freedom for the first time, gave them an individual identity in society and a chance to work without fearing they were contributing to the moral decline of society by leaving children at home. If birth control and Sanger did so much good to change the role of women in society why was birth control so controversial?
This article was my least favorite article out of these set of readings. The author explains how much pain and suffering women went thought before and during the 1930’s. Being a mother and a wife women went thought a lot due to the lack of resources. Margret Sanger explains how women are having risk pregnancies which cause them to become ill. Women wanted ways to stop having babies. However the doctors were basically saying it was not up to the husband. Overall I agree with Sanger, women should be informed of contraception and their bodies.
The Roaring Twenties were known as a time of economic boom, pop culture and social developments. This was a time when women began to break norms, they acted rebelliously such as wearing releveling clothing, smoking, and drinking. These women were known as “flappers” who wanted to change their roles in the 1920’s. Birth control activist, Margaret Sanger sought to change the world where women had access to a low cost, effective contraception pill. In “The Morality of Birth Control” Sanger battled opponents who claimed that contraception would cause women to become immoral. The author uses rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and fallacies to back up her claim while touching on issues in the church, advancements of women, and the source of disease in the world.
This pill “eliminates the external causes of death” by protecting the user from all known forms of sexually transmitted diseases, providing an unlimited libido, and extending youth and by serving as a “sure-fire one-time-does-it-all-birth-control pill” for men and woman (294). In sum, it “was designed to take a set of givens, namely the nature of human nature, and steer these givens in a more beneficial direction” (293). The pill would take everything about a human’s nature and change it in a way to benefit society and create a beneficial society or a utopia
educating women more on the pill and the way it works, the after effects of
Birth control pills gave women the right to be in charge of their own conception or lack thereof.
In today's world, the subject of abortion is a very controversial issue. Some people are totally decided on pro-life or pro-choice, but most are somewhere in between and have mixed feelings. Abortion has been a very important issue since the early 1980's when the topic started to gain popularity. Since then, horrible things have happened to put abortions in the hot seat. There have been bombings on clinics, murders of abortion doctors, and protests that have turned violent. There should be a more discrete and private way to have an abortion without all those hassles. There has been development of a new pill that can help to cool down some heated abortion issues. The new pill is called the RU-486, or commonly referred to as the morning after pill. If the new pill is made legal, it can create a private way for women to have an abortion without having a surgical procedure done, and the pressures of the surrounding world would not be there influencing their decisions.
Imagine today in America’s hyper-sexualized society, not being provided with any knowledge about contraception or sexual education. Before Margaret Sanger’s activism, most women were in this position of oblivion about their own bodies. In “Morality of Birth Control”, Sanger argues effectively for the legalization and acceptance of both birth control and sexual education using ethos, pathos, and logos to strengthen her argument. Sanger organizes her argument by first presenting a series of questions that were sent out to “the most eminent men and women in the world.” These questions pertained to the opinions of these men and women on the topic of how birth control and awareness could potentially affect their society.
Weimar, Carrie. "Women taking birth control pills for reasons other than contraception." UF Health Podcasts. UF Health Communications, 1 February 2012. Web. 8 Dec 2013.
... Birth Control Pill." Birth Control Pills: How does it work (2009): 1. Web. 11 Jan 2010. .
The first form of birth control came in the form a pill and was approved by the FDA in 1960(qtd in Gladwell ) The pill was said to be the safest form of birth control because it was safe and said to be a natural form of birth control. John Rock was a well know man around the community. Loretta McLaughlin writes, "It was his name and his reputation that gave ultimate validity to the claims that the pill would protect women against unwanted pregnancy.”(qdt in Gladwell) Even back then, with all the research that they set out to do the pill was still know to cause cancer in young women, not only cancer but the miscarrying of children shortly after taking the pill.
Birth control pills should be removed from general consumption because of physical changes, emotional changes, and synthetic hormones. Birth control pills are very dangerous it could come with a lot affects. The few effect that birth control pills come with is that is more serious, although rare woman that take the pill are in the risk of having a heart attacks, high blood pressure, blood clots, strokes, liver tumor, and gallstone. These effects are most likely not to happen to woman the chances are very low. A woman is more at risk if she is overweight and older than 35 years old of having a heart attack or stroke.
"People and Events: The Pill and the Sexual Revolution." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
Society will seldom be stuck in one place or mindset for an extended period of time. People, cultures, the economy, norms and regulations, laws and the expansion of the generations and their beliefs, all affect how a society is run. If a country is introduced to modern technology and scientific discoveries, it will ultimately alter what they believe to be normal or expected of its citizens; if it is not, it will not advance in the race to be better. Contraceptives, such as the popular condoms or birth control pill, have greatly impacted fertility rates, the family dynamics and the meaning and purpose of a traditional role dedicated to women. Abortion as well has protected women from having their lives interrupted by unexpected, unplanned problems