#gregory pincus

[tenth-sentence]

In 1934, at Harvard University, the endocrinologist Gregory Pincus (who later became one of the principals in the development of the contraceptive pill) had managed to wash eggs out of monkey ovaries and fertilize them in vitro.

"In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity" - Daniel J. Kevles

[sensedim1938]

PAKİSTANLI MÜSLÜMAN BİR BİLİM ADAMININ İLGİNÇ ARAŞTIRMASI..

Dünyada yalnızca 14 milyon Yahudi var;

~Amerika'da 7 milyon,

~Asya'da 5 milyon,

~Avrupa'da 2 milyon,

~Afrika'da 100 bin

Adet Musevi yaşıyor..

Soru: Pekiyi de kaç adet Müslüman İnsan var?

Cevap: 1,4 milyar Müslüman;

~1 milyar Asya,

~400 milyon Afrika,

~44 milyon Avrupa,

~6 milyon Amerika

Kıt'asında Yaşıyor.

👉Yâni Dünyada 1 Musevi’ye Karşın 100 Müslüman Var...

İyi ama Yahudiler Müslümanlardan niçin 100 kat daha güçlü ve daha zengin ve daha eğitimli ve daha mucitler?

Tarafsız ve Bilimsel Yollarla tespit edilmiş nedenlerini öğrenmek istiyorsanız lütfen okumayı sürdürün.

👉Tüm zamanların en etkin bilim adamı Albert EİNSTEİN bir Yahudiydi.

👉Psikanalizin babası Sigmund FREUD bir Yahudiydi.

👉Karl MARKS Yahudiydi.

Tüm İnsanlığa zenginlik ve sağlık katmış Yahudilere bakalım;

👉Benjamin Rubin insanlığa aşı iğnesini armağan etti.

👉Jonas Salk ilk çocuk felci aşısını geliştirdi.

👉Gertrude Elion lösemiye karşı ilaç buldu.

👉Baruch Blumberg Hepatit-B aşısını geliştirdi.

👉Paul Ehrlich frengiye karşı tedaviyi buldu.

👉Elie Metchnikoff bulaşıcı hastalıklarla ilgili buluşuyla Nobel ödülü kazandı.

👉Gregory Pincus ilk doğum kontrol hapını geliştirdi.

👉Bernard Katz nöromasküler iletişim kaslarla sinir sistemi arası iletişim alanında Nobel ödülü kazandı.

👉Andrew Schally endokrinoloji metabolik sistem rahatsızlıkları, diyabet, hipertiroid tedavilerinde kullanılan yöntemi geliştirdi.

👉Aaaron Beck Cognitive Terapi’yi akli bozuklukları, depresyon ve fobi tedavilerinde kullanılan psikoterapi yöntemini geliştirdi.

👉Gerald Wald insan gözü hakkındaki bilgilerimizi geliştirerek Nobel ödülü kazandı.

👉Stanley Cohen embriyoloji embriyon ve gelişimi çalışmaları dalında Nobel aldı.

👉Willem Kolff böbrek diyaliz makinesini yaptı.

👉Peter Schultz optik lif kabloyu, Charles Adler trafik ışıklarını,

👉Benno Strauss paslanmaz çeliği,

👉Isador Kisse sesli filmleri,

👉Emile Berliner telefon mikrofonunu,

👉Charles Ginsburg ilk bantlı video kayıt makinesini geliştirdi.

👉Stanley Mezor ilk mikro işlem çipini icat etti.

👉Leo Szilard ilk nükleer zincirleme reaktörünü geliştirdi.

Peki, ama;

~Son 100 Yıl içinde Yahudiler sadece Bilimsel alanda 104 Nobel Ödülü kazanırken,

~1.4 milyar Müslüman neden yalnızca 3 Nobel kazandı

Yahudiler niçin bu kadar yaratıcı ve neden bu kadar güçlüler? Yahudi inancına bağlı ve küresel çapta büyüyüp tanınmış şu yatırımcılara ve işadamlarına ve markalarına bakalım;

* Ralph Lauren (Polo),

* Levi Strauss (Levi's Jeans),

* Howard Schultz (Starbuck's),

* Sergei Brin (Google),

* Michael Dell (Dell Bilgisayarları),

* Larry Ellison (Oracle),

* Donna Karan (DKNY),

* Irv Robbins (Baskins & Robbins),

* Bill Rosenberg (Dunkin Doughnuts)

* Richard Levin (Yale Üniversitesi'nin kurucu başkanı).

Yahudi inancına bağlı ve küresel çapta büyüyüp tanınmış şu sanatçılara bakalım:

* Michael Douglas,

* Dustin Hoffman,

* Harrison Ford,

* Woody Allen,

* Tony Curtis,

* Charles Bronson,

* Sandra Bullock,

* Billy Crystal,

* Paul Newman,

* Peter Sellers,

* George Burns,

* Goldie Hawn,

* Cary Grant,

* William Shatner,

* Jerry Lewis,* Peter Falk...

Yönetmenler ve Yapımcılar arasındaki Yahudiler:

* Steven Spielberg,

* Mel Brooks,

* Oliver Stone,

* Aaaron Spelling (Beverly Hills 90210),

* Neil Simon (The Odd Couple),

* Andrew Vaina (Rambo 1 /2 / 3),

* Michael Mann (Starzky and Hutch),

* Milos Forman (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus),

* Douglas Fairbanks (TheThief of Baghdat),

* Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) ,

* Kohen Kardeşler,

* William Wyler.

* William James Sidis

Sorun kendinize;

250’lik IQ derecesiyle Dünyaya gelmiş en parlak insan hangi dine mensuptur?

Sorun kendinize;

Neden Yahudiler bu kadar güçlüdür?

Cevabı şudur;

Her çocuğa ve her gence kaliteli eğitim verirler...

Bu eğitim türü sorgulayıcı (teslimiyetçi değil), araştırıcı (ezberci değil) ve yaratıcıdır (bilgi üretmek/bulmak içindir)

[wordywhiskers]

The Birth of the Pill by Jonathan Eig - Book Review

"...The Pill was The Pill because it was the only one that mattered, the one everyone was talking about, the one they needed.”

I bought The Birth of the Pill from an indie bookstore during a vacation in West Texas. I was very interested in the history of contraception, especially regarding the pill. In large part, this is because the pill has evolved into more than just a tool for contraception. The pill is now an avenue to regulate menstrual cycles, control pain from cramps, clear stubborn acne, and more. It was so interesting to read about the inception of the birth control movement and the creation of the pill.

What I loved about The Birth of the Pill is the structure. The author, Jonathan Eig, tells the stories of four different significant figures within the contraception movement. By doing this he turns a lengthy and complicated historical piece into something more akin to a fiction novel's narrative. Four main characters - feminist movement spearhead Margaret Sanger, the passionate and wealthy Katherine McCormick, determined biologist Gregory Pincus, and unconventional Catholic doctor John Rock, are the biggest drivers of the birth control movement during this time.

Let’s move on to a brief summary of these four characters. I’m barely scratching the surface here, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write a little about how these four band together!

Margaret Sanger’s mission for life was to make birth control universally available to all women regardless of their circumstances. In a time when it was widely unaccepted by most, she pushed people to consider the benefits of contraception and often challenged legislature that prevented women from accessing information and products related to birth control. She was the founder of the American Birth Control League, which would eventually become the Planned Parenthood Federation. When she met biologist Gregory Pincus in 1951, they got to work right away on developing a safe and effective birth control method, the pill.

Gregory Pincus was a biologist who was extremely well-versed in reproductive science. He tested his biological research on rabbits, such as IVF and hormone injections. In a time of skepticism regarding topics such as “babies born in glass”, he was ostracized for his bold research by the general public as well as his academic peers. Pincus would eventually get involved with Sanger and Katherine McCormick to develop a birth control pill. His research on hormones gave him the confidence he could deliver. He collaborated with Dr. John Rock, a distinguished obstetrician and gynecologist, who believed in the cause due to his experience seeing women suffer during unwanted pregnancies in his clinic.

Dr. John Rock worked in obstetrics and gynecology and was a Harvard professor who educated students on birth control. He published a book, Voluntary Parenthood, that served as a guide to birth control for the general population. He agreed to work with Pincus on the pill and became essential to the movement not only in research but as a presentable representation of the cause. As a devout Catholic, he gave hope to those who would deny birth control for religious reasons. Rock spoke out frequently about the Church’s unfair opposition to the pill. He challenged the views about the interplay of religion and contraception, which was key to mass acceptance of birth control.

Katherine McCormick was essentially the sole benefactor of the creation of the pill. McCormick was born into a wealthy family in Chicago and earned her bachelor’s in biology from MIT. Much like Margaret Sanger, she was a woman’s rights activist during a period when controlling women’s minds and bodies was still a societal norm. These two daring women meet and form an unstoppable force against the stigmas about contraception. McCormick’s inheritance left to her by her husband gave her complete freedom to back the birth control movement. Anytime Pincus needed funds to continue research or testing, McCormick was there with her checkbook.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about contraception or women’s history. It could be a touch too in-depth for some readers, but I found the experience to be rewarding overall! If this brief summary interests you, I would strongly encourage you to dive into the book. There are so many intriguing details that went into the production of the pill, and all the moving parts involved kept me engaged throughout.

[ren1327]

"Dearest Gentle Readers" character list

Here are the characters and roles they have based on the show.

Under the cut as not to clog time-line

.

Violet Bridgerton - Mrs. Bowman (Camp Creteceous)

Anthony, 23 - David "Dave" (Camp Creteceous) A

Benedict, 21 - Brandon "Brand" Bowman (Camp Creteceous, Chaos Theory) A

Colin, 19 - Yasmina "Yaz" Fadoula (Camp Creteceous, Chaos Theory) A

Daphne, 18 - Kenji Kon (Camp Creteceous, Chaos Theory) O

Eloise, 17 - Darius Bowman (Camp Creteceous, Chaos Theory) B

Francesca, 17 - Jessica "Jess" Harding (Telltale's Jurassic Park) O

Gregory, 13 - Maisie Lockwood-Grady (JW: Fallen Kingdom, JW: Dominion) B

Hyacinth, 11 - Kadasha (Battle at Big Rock) A

Portia Featherington - Claire Dearing (JW, JW: Fallen Kingdom, JW: Dominion) A

Prudence, 19 - Zachary "Zach" Mitchell (JW) O

Phillipa, 18 - Grey Mitchell (JW) O

Penelope, 17 - Samantha "Sammy" Gutierrez (Camp Creteceous, Chaos Theory) O

Simon Basset, 21 - Benjamin "Ben" Fitzgerald Pincus (Camp Cretaceous, Chaos Theory) A

Will Modrich - Roxie (Camp Cretaceous) A

Alice Modrich - Kayla Watts (JW: Dominion) A

Madame Delacroix - Mae Turner (Camp Cretaceous) B

Lord Nigel Berbrook - Kash D. Langford (Camp Cretaceous) A

Mrs. Berbrook - Lewis Dodgeson (JP, Camp Cretaceous, JW: Dominion) B

Credessa Cowper, 20 - Sonoya Santos (JW: Dominion) O

Lady Cowper - Zara Young (JW) O

Queen Charlotte - Ian Malcolm (JP, The Lost World, JW: Fallen Kingdom, JW: Dominion) O

King George III - Alan Grant (JP, JP3, JW: Dominion) A

Brimsly - Nick Van Owen (The Lost World) B

Lady Danbury - Ellie Sattler (JP, JP3, JW: Dominion) B

Prince Fredrick - Eric Kirby (JP3) A

Lady Whistledown - Brooklyn (Camp Cretaceous, Chaos Theory) A

Mentions of deceased:

Edmund Bridgerton - Fredrick Bowman (Camp Cretaceous) A

Archibald Featherington - Owen Grady (JW, JW: Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic World: Dominion) A

[ukdamo]

The Cats of Old San Juan

David M. de León

The cats of Old San Juan are not native though they were born here. They are not native though being native is not a measure of belonging. The cats are here because of the rats. The rats are here because of the Americans. The Americans were here because of the Spanish. The Spanish were here because fuck the Spanish. *

The colony of cats has been on the Paseo del Morro since the 1950s. The cats are fed and protected. The cats are loved, more or less. The cats are photographed. *

The Paseo del Morro is a rocky promenade by the sea. The Paseo passes under the walls of Old San Juan. The walls are there because of the Spanish. The Spanish were there because of Ponce de León (no relation). Ponce de León was there because of Cristóbal Colón. Colón was there because fuck Colón. *

In 2004 the Paseo del Morro was renovated to be more amenable to tourists and joggers. The cats were not considered tourists though they are not native. The cats were getting in the way of the joggers. *

The city was going to euthanize the cats. The city was going to euthanize the cats. But the cats are loved. The cats are photographed. *

Some locals started a project to save the cats. They called the project Save-a-Gato. Save-a-Gato is neither English nor Spanish. *

Save-a-Gato manages the colony of cats. They manage the colony through a strategy of TNR. TNR stands for “trap, neuter, release.” This is considered humane. It was the alternative to being euthanized. Being euthanized was also considered humane. *

“Humane” is from Latin. It means “to act like a human.” *

Save-a-Gato has been managing the colony since 2004. Save-a-Gato is volunteer-based. You can donate. You can adopt a cat from Old San Juan today. Visit their Facebook page. *

Puerto Rico is managed by the US. *

Clarence Gamble, of the Proctor and Gamble family, set up twenty-two birth control clinics on the island in the 1930s. These clinics practiced sterilization. The sterilizations were either voluntary or not. Clarence Gamble was a eugenicist. Clarence Gamble wanted to breed out poor people. Puerto Ricans are a poor people. *

In the 1950s Clarence Gamble connected an American named Gregory Pincus with Puerto Rican women. These women were not told they were participating in an experimental drug trial. Pincus came to test birth control, which was illegal on the mainland. The women were given ten times the modern dose of progesterone. 17% experienced serious side effects. At least three women died. The deaths were not investigated. *

By the 1960s almost 34% of Puerto Rican women were sterilized. This was considered humane. *

My grandmother left Puerto Rico in the 1950s. Her family left because they were poor, not because they were being sterilized. They left because they knew they were poor, not because they knew they were being sterilized. *

Her name is Alicia Sanchez. She was strong and stubborn and cruel. She taught me how to swear in Spanish. I loved her very much. She doesn’t remember me now. *

The nursing home in Tampa tells us she is known for being childish. Every now and then she bites someone. *

People say there are more Puerto Ricans on the mainland than are on Puerto Rico. This is true. It is also true that there are more Puerto Ricans that do not exist than do exist. *

The native taíno people were subjugated in one of the most successful genocides in recorded history. Some estimate that three million were killed between 1492 and 1518. In 1518 came smallpox. *

Puerto Ricans are almost theoretical. *

Taíno is not what the taíno people called themselves. Taíno is what the Spanish called them. If you want to know what the taíno called themselves, just ask. *

There is a building at 51-57 Calle San José. It’s on a hill. It’s very famous. There’s a Puerto Rican flag painted on the door (“la puerta de la bandera”). You can buy cheap paintings of it at souvenir shops. *

In 2016 the flag was painted black. The flag was painted black in protest of PROMESA. PROMESA stands for the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act. This is neither English nor Spanish. *

PROMESA is a forced austerity act imposed by the US federal government. It hands over management of Puerto Rico to the banks. The banks are international. *

Fuck PROMESA. *

51-57 Calle San José is abandoned. It’s been abandoned so long there is a tree growing through the roof. The tree starts in the foyer and opens through the rafters. It’s three stories tall. *

La puerta de la bandera is locked with rusty chain. You can peer through the crack between the doors. Inside is darkness. Inside are cats. *

The cats do not belong there but belonging is not a measure of belonging.

[oracleintheshell]

Cybernetic Reproduction

Sarah Franklin

Although Firestone is most well known for her views on cybernetic reproduction and artificial wombs, her interest in fertility was largely based, like Margaret Sanger’s, on a desire to inhibit it.

As we have seen, improvements in contraception were the template on which Firestone imagined the technological achievements of in vitro fertilization, “inovulation,” and gestation. Scientifically, these fields were closely linked. Gregory Pincus, who co-invented the Pill, was also one of the first practitioners of IVF in mammals, succeeding with the rabbit in 1934. His colleagues Min Chueh Chang at the Worcester Institute for Experimental Biology and John Rock at Harvard were also early pioneers of both IVF and contraception. The Ford Foundation, which poured money into population control programs, also funded much of the basic biological research both in the United States and the United Kingdom that yielded many of the most well known discoveries in human medicine, veterinary science, and livestock improvement, including embryo transfer, preimplantation sexing, cryopreservation, sperm capacitation, in-vitro maturation of gametes, and in-vitro fertilization.

In Firestone’s view, these developments were “more efficient means” only—they extended human capacities for biological control, and “in themselves” were essentially benevolent, liberating, progressive, and desirable. In relation to scientific progress in the field of human reproduction, Firestone appeared unequivocal: more progress and more efficient devices were liberating for women.

Like atomic energy, fertility control, artificial reproduction, and cybernation, in themselves, are liberating . . . . Already we have more and better contraception than ever before in history . . . Soon we shall have a complete understanding of the entire reproductive process in all its complexity, including the subtle dynamics of hormones and their full effect on the nervous system. Present oral contraception is at only a primitive (faulty) stage, only one of many types of fertility control now under experiment. Artificial insemination and artificial inovulation are already a reality . . . .

The history of the contraceptive pill in many ways confirms Firestone’s argument, developed in Chapter 9, that the outcomes of scientific research “in themselves” are less revealing than the process of discovery, investment, and prioritization that precedes and determines them. Without doubt the combined oral contraceptive pill that is today used by more than 100 million women worldwide could have been developed much more quickly if efforts to establish it as a political, economic, scientific or medical priority had not met with precisely the “cultural lag and sexual bias” described by Firestone as an irrational and morally retrograde anxiety about allowing women more reproductive choice and control.

It was largely the efforts of social activists such as Margaret Sanger in the United States and Marie Stopes in Britain that catalyzed proper (“pure”) scientific research into human reproduction by internationally recognized experts such as Pincus. Indeed the birth of a new scientific field—reproductive biology—has been described as particularly indebted to Sanger and her vast international network of colleagues and supporters (including prominent scientists and physicians such as Julian Huxley, Robert Dickenson, and Clarence C. Little). As a report on the activities of the Ford Foundation pointed out in the mid-1970s, the successful initiation of research in the reproductive sciences from the 1930s onward was the result of “more than half a century of concerted effort by interested individuals and private organizations, mainly from outside the mainstreams of the biomedical research community.” As medical historian Merrily Borrell summarizes:

The activities of birth control activists and their supporting agencies, and the financial backing of private contributors and foundations, notably the Rockefeller philanthropies, provided an important new stimulus to the development of research on the biology of reproduction in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Biologists were able to claim an enlarged realm of issues for scientific study through their activities as advocates and as investigators for the birth control movement. At the same time they promised as-yet undiscovered possibilities for regulating human reproduction once its physiology was understood.

These new possibilities for reproductive control could only be pursued as part of an “enlarged realm of issues for scientific study” by being shorn of their moral and political connotations, their constitution as a proper scientific study of physiological facts and biological principles was entirely made possible by the networking, persuasion, international organizing efforts, and material support provided by the birth control movement and its supporters. This interplay between social activism, global political priorities, the material support of philanthropic institutions, and “pure” scientific research illustrates well the “dialectical” complexities Firestone sought to convey, much as they led her to employ somewhat contradictory models of both technology and society in the process.

Among other things, the history of birth control demonstrates Firestone’s keen awareness that new reproductive technologies were unlikely to be used to benefit women without a struggle of the kind Sanger, Stopes and their allies waged for the better part of half a century to develop a safe, reliable and freely available contraceptive pill (a goal that still today remains unmet anywhere in the world, and not for reasons of technological incapacity). As Firestone noted of the history of birth control, “the kinds of research [for which] money [is] allocated . . . are only incidentally in the interests of women when at all.”

The anovulatory effects of steroids were discovered in the 1930s by the Penn State research scientist Russell Marker, who synthesized progesterone from sarsaparilla, and later from Mexican yams. Marker was unable to generate support to research contraception from his corporate sponsor, Parke-Davis, and went on to found the Laboratorios Syntex SA in Mexico, which quickly came to dominate the market for therapeutic steroid products. It was not until a decade later that the eminent reproductive physiologist Gregory Pincus met Margaret Sanger, founder of the Planned Parenthood Foundation of America (PPFA), at a dinner party in New York. The PPFA funded Pincus to undertake hormonal contraceptive research, but he too was unable to attract research funding from his corporate partner, G. D. Searle & Co. Not until Sanger interested the independent corporate philanthropist Katharine Dexter McCormick in Pincus’s research could it move forward on a properly funded basis, which it then quickly did, first in animal trials and later in humans. The first clinical trials were initiated in 1954 by recruiting infertile women volunteers from John Rock’s Brookline clinic. The FDA approved the first contraceptive pill in 1960. Within three years more than half a million women had used it. However it was not made legally available to unmarried women in all states until 1972.

As Firestone predicted, both contraceptive and reproductive technology are good places to look for technological “revolutions” that have been constrained in their potential to benefit women as a result of a variety of social attitudes and a large dose of what she described as biological moralism. This remains a crucial aspect of women’s relationship to “reproductive technology” if we include in this phrase (as we should) the ability to restrict fertility as well as its promotion. Access to contraception is still denied to the majority of the world’s women despite the fact that control over reproduction is one of the most significant factors contributing to successful health, development and agriculture policies. It also correlates positively with increased literacy and education rates for women, which in turn yield higher rates of economic independence.

In contrast to the oft-repeated characterization of Firestone’s argument as having put too much faith in the capacity of new reproductive technologies to liberate women, her assessment of their potential precisely anticipated that they would reinforce gender polarity if their use was not accompanied by a radical redefinition of gender, parenthood, and the family. As she presciently warned, “in the hands of our current society and under the direction of current scientists (few of whom are female or even feminist), any attempt to use technology to ‘free’ anybody is suspect.”

Indeed on the topic of the “revolutionary” consequences of new reproductive technologies Firestone is arguably most accurately prescient in her descriptions of their intransigence, as in the case of birth control. Far from naïve, her argument about technology is as focused on its propensity to fail as its potentially transformative capacities, much as later risk society theorists have argued its “dialectic” is defined.

The lessons from Firestone for today’s debates about technology thus remain fully available to the conscientious reader, and may indeed offer some of the most enduring insights from The Dialectic of Sex—at the core of which is a dialectical model of what Raymond Williams called “the technology and the society.” Keeping in mind that a manifesto is formally characterized by compression, and that its rhetoric is inherently hyperbolic, we can read Firestone most instructively by altering her sense of scale. Scaled down to case studies of particular technologies, the essential mechanics of her argument emerge as both cogent and contemporary. Let us conclude, therefore, with two of the cases that most concerned her.

[risozero]

Reprodução Cibernética

Sarah Franklin

Embora Firestone seja mais conhecida por suas opiniões sobre a reprodução cibernética e úteros artificiais, seu interesse pela fertilidade foi em grande parte baseado, assim como o de Margaret Sanger, no desejo de inibi-la.

Como vimos, melhorias na contracepção foram o modelo no qual Firestone imaginava as conquistas tecnológicas da fertilização in vitro, "inovulação" e gestação. Cientificamente, esses campos estavam intimamente ligados. Gregory Pincus, co-inventor da pílula anticoncepcional, também foi um dos primeiros a praticar a FIV em mamíferos, tendo sucesso com o coelho em 1934. Seus colegas Min Chueh Chang no Instituto Worcester de Biologia Experimental e John Rock em Harvard também foram pioneiros precoces tanto na FIV quanto na contracepção. A Fundação Ford, que investiu dinheiro em programas de controle populacional, também financiou grande parte da pesquisa biológica básica tanto nos Estados Unidos quanto no Reino Unido que resultou em muitas das descobertas mais conhecidas na medicina humana, na veterinária e no melhoramento do gado, incluindo a transferência de embriões, sexagem pré-implantação, criopreservação, capacitação espermática, maturação in vitro de gametas e fertilização in vitro.

Na visão de Firestone, esses desenvolvimentos eram apenas "meios mais eficientes" - eles estendiam as capacidades humanas de controle biológico e, "por si mesmos", eram essencialmente benéficos, libertadores, progressivos e desejáveis. Em relação ao progresso científico no campo da reprodução humana, Firestone parecia inequívoca: mais avanços e dispositivos mais eficientes eram libertadores para as mulheres.

Assim como a energia atômica, o controle da fertilidade, a reprodução artificial, a cibernação, por si mesmos, são libertadores . . . . Já temos mais e melhores métodos contraceptivos do que em qualquer outro momento da história . . . Em breve teremos uma compreensão completa de todo o processo reprodutivo em toda a sua complexidade, incluindo a dinâmica sutil dos hormônios e seu efeito total sobre o sistema nervoso. A contracepção oral atual está em um estágio primitivo (falho), apenas um dos muitos tipos de controle de fertilidade atualmente em experimentação. A inseminação artificial e a inovulação artificial já são uma realidade . . . .

A história da pílula anticoncepcional em muitos aspectos confirma o argumento de Firestone, desenvolvido no Capítulo 9, de que os resultados da pesquisa científica "por si mesmos" são menos reveladores do que o processo de descoberta, investimento e priorização que antecede e determina. Sem dúvida, a pílula anticoncepcional oral combinada que é hoje usada por mais de 100 milhões de mulheres em todo o mundo poderia ter sido desenvolvida muito mais rapidamente se os esforços para estabelecê-la como uma prioridade política, econômica, científica ou médica não tivessem encontrado precisamente o "atraso cultural e preconceito sexual" descrito por Firestone como uma ansiedade irracional e moralmente retrograda sobre permitir às mulheres mais escolha e controle reprodutivo.

Em grande parte, foram os esforços de ativistas sociais como Margaret Sanger nos Estados Unidos e Marie Stopes na Grã-Bretanha que catalisaram a pesquisa científica adequada sobre a reprodução humana por especialistas internacionalmente reconhecidos, como Pincus. De fato, o surgimento de um novo campo científico - a biologia da reprodução - tem sido descrito como particularmente endividado a Sanger e sua vasta rede internacional de colegas e apoiadores (incluindo proeminentes cientistas e médicos como Julian Huxley, Robert Dickenson e Clarence C. Little). Como um relatório sobre as atividades da Fundação Ford apontou em meados da década de 1970, o início bem-sucedido da pesquisa nas ciências reprodutivas a partir dos anos 1930 foi o resultado de "mais de meio século de esforço concertado por indivíduos interessados e organizações privadas, principalmente fora dos principais fluxos da comunidade de pesquisa biomédica". Como resume a historiadora da medicina Merrily Borrell:

As atividades dos ativistas pelo controle de natalidade e de suas agências de apoio, e o apoio financeiro de contribuintes privados e fundações, nomeadamente as filantropias Rockefeller, forneceram um novo estímulo importante para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa sobre a biologia da reprodução no final da década de 1920 e início dos anos 1930. Os biólogos conseguiram reivindicar um amplo campo de questões para estudo científico por meio de suas atividades como defensores e investigadores do movimento de controle de natalidade. Ao mesmo tempo, eles prometiam possibilidades ainda não descobertas para regular a reprodução humana uma vez que sua fisiologia fosse compreendida.

Essas novas possibilidades de controle reprodutivo só poderiam ser perseguidas como parte de um "amplo campo de questões para estudo científico" se despidas de suas conotações morais e políticas; sua constituição como um estudo científico apropriado de fatos fisiológicos e princípios biológicos foi inteiramente possibilitada pela rede de contatos, persuasão, esforços internacionais de organização e apoio material fornecidos pelo movimento de controle de natalidade e seus apoiadores. Esse jogo entre ativismo social, prioridades políticas globais, o apoio material de instituições filantrópicas e pesquisa científica "pura" ilustra bem as complexidades "dialéticas" que Firestone buscava transmitir, assim como a levaram a empregar modelos um tanto contraditórios de tecnologia e sociedade no processo.

Entre outras coisas, a história do controle de natalidade demonstra a percepção perspicaz de Firestone de que novas tecnologias reprodutivas dificilmente seriam usadas em benefício das mulheres sem uma luta do tipo que Sanger, Stopes e seus aliados travaram durante a maior parte de meio século para desenvolver uma pílula anticoncepcional segura, confiável e de livre acesso (um objetivo que ainda hoje permanece não alcançado em nenhum lugar do mundo, e não por motivos de incapacidade tecnológica). Como Firestone observou sobre a história do controle de natalidade, "os tipos de pesquisa [para os quais] o dinheiro [é] alocado... são apenas incidentalmente do interesse das mulheres, quando muito."

Os efeitos anovulatórios dos esteroides foram descobertos na década de 1930 pelo cientista de pesquisa da Penn State, Russell Marker, que sintetizou progesterona a partir da salsaparrilha e, posteriormente, de inhames mexicanos. Marker não conseguiu obter apoio para pesquisar a contracepção de seu patrocinador corporativo, a Parke-Davis, e fundou os Laboratórios Syntex SA no México, que rapidamente dominaram o mercado de produtos terapêuticos à base de esteroides. Somente uma década depois é que o eminente fisiologista reprodutivo Gregory Pincus conheceu Margaret Sanger, fundadora da Fundação Planned Parenthood of America (PPFA), em um jantar em Nova York. A PPFA financiou Pincus para realizar pesquisas em contraceptivos hormonais, mas ele também não conseguiu atrair financiamento de pesquisa de seu parceiro corporativo, G. D. Searle & Co. Somente quando Sanger interessou a filantropa corporativa independente Katharine Dexter McCormick na pesquisa de Pincus é que ela pôde avançar com financiamento apropriado, o que rapidamente aconteceu, inicialmente em testes em animais e posteriormente em humanos. (Os primeiros testes clínicos foram iniciados em 1954 recrutando mulheres voluntárias inférteis da clínica de John Rock em Brookline.) A FDA aprovou a primeira pílula anticoncepcional em 1960. Em três anos, mais de meio milhão de mulheres a utilizaram. No entanto, ela só foi legalmente disponibilizada para mulheres solteiras em todos os estados em 1972.

Como Firestone previu, tanto a tecnologia contraceptiva quanto a reprodutiva são bons lugares para procurar "revoluções" tecnológicas que foram limitadas em seu potencial de beneficiar as mulheres como resultado de uma variedade de atitudes sociais e de uma grande dose do que ela descreveu como moralismo biológico. Isso permanece um aspecto crucial da relação das mulheres com a "tecnologia reprodutiva", se incluirmos nesta frase (como deveríamos) a capacidade de restringir a fertilidade, bem como sua promoção. O acesso à contracepção ainda é negado à maioria das mulheres no mundo, apesar do fato de que o controle sobre a reprodução é um dos fatores mais significativos que contribuem para políticas de saúde, desenvolvimento e agricultura bem-sucedidas. Também está positivamente correlacionado com maiores taxas de alfabetização e educação para mulheres, o que, por sua vez, resulta em maiores índices de independência econômica.

Ao contrário da caracterização frequentemente repetida do argumento de Firestone como tendo depositado muita fé na capacidade das novas tecnologias reprodutivas de libertar as mulheres, sua avaliação de seu potencial precisamente antecipava que elas reforçariam a polaridade de gênero se seu uso não fosse acompanhado por uma redefinição radical do gênero, da parentalidade e da família. Como ela alertou de forma perspicaz, "nas mãos de nossa atual sociedade e sob a direção de cientistas atuais (poucos dos quais são mulheres ou mesmo feministas), qualquer tentativa de usar a tecnologia para 'libertar' alguém é suspeita."

De fato, sobre o tema das consequências "revolucionárias" das novas tecnologias reprodutivas, Firestone é talvez mais precisamente premonitória em suas descrições de sua intransigência, como no caso do controle de natalidade. Longe de ser ingênuo, seu argumento sobre a tecnologia está focado em sua propensão ao fracasso tanto quanto em suas capacidades potencialmente transformadoras, assim como os teóricos posteriores da sociedade de risco argumentaram que sua "dialética" é definida.

As lições de Firestone para os debates de hoje sobre tecnologia continuam plenamente disponíveis para o leitor consciente e podem oferecer insights duradouros de A Dialética do Sexo - no centro do qual há um modelo dialético do que Raymond Williams chamou de "a tecnologia e a sociedade". Tendo em mente que um manifesto é formalmente caracterizado pela compressão e que sua retórica é inerentemente hiperbólica, podemos ler Firestone de forma mais instrutiva ao alterar seu senso de escala. Reduzidos a estudos de caso de tecnologias específicas, os mecanismos essenciais de seu argumento emergem como sendo tanto coerentes quanto contemporâneos. Portanto, concluímos com dois dos casos que mais preocupavam Firestone.

[virgoanmaenad]

I’m so happy I’m on birth control. I’m so happy my body jives with a method that’s considered the most reliable hormonal method we have. I love that I have free and open access to it, I appreciate the doctor and med student who put it in me, I love science and medicine and Margret Sanger and John Rock and Gregory Pincus andKatharine Dexter McCormick and all the minds that went into such a liberating medication. If birth control has one fan, I am it.

[gonzalo-obes]

IMAGENES Y DATOS INTERESANTES DEL DIA 9 DE MAYO DE 2024

Día de Europa, Día Mundial de los Calcetines Perdidos, Semana de Acción Contra los Mosquitos, Año Internacional de los Camélidos.

San Geroncio y San Gregorio Ostiense.

Tal día como hoy en el año 1994

Nelson Mandela es investido presidente, convirtiéndose en el primer presidente negro de Sudáfrica.

1963

En España, el régimen dictatorial franquista crea el Tribunal de Orden Público (conocido como TOP) para juzgar actos terroristas y delitos que dicha dictadura considera políticos. En 1977, muerto Franco dos años antes e iniciándose la Transición Española, será suprimido, creando en su lugar la Audiencia Nacional. (Hace 61 años)

1960

En Estados Unidos, la "U.S. Food and Drug Administration" autoriza la venta de la píldora anticonceptiva que ha sido fabricada por el endocrinólogo Gregory Goodwin Pincus. En poco tiempo se convertirá en uno de los medicamentos con mayor significado cultural y mayor impacto demográfico, a la vez que supondrá una revolución sexual en el mundo de la mujer. (Hace 64 años)

1950

En el edificio del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores en el Quai d'Orsay, ubicado cerca del Puente Alejandro III de la ciudad de París, Francia, el Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores francés Robert Schuman pronuncia un discurso presentando su propuesta para la creación de una Europa organizada, requisito indispensable para el mantenimiento de relaciones pacíficas. Esta propuesta, que pasará a ser conocida como "Declaración Schuman", se considerará el germen del nacimiento de lo que actualmente es la Unión Europea. La declaración se plasmará definitivamente en el Tratado de París, que se firmará el 18 de abril de 1951 por el que se creará la Comunidad Europea del Carbón y del Acero (CECA), a la que se adherirán no sólo Francia y Alemania sino cuatro países más: Bélgica, Italia, Luxemburgo y los Países Bajos. Sin duda, éste es el primer paso para la creación de una Federación Europea que con el tiempo desembocará en la Unión Europea. (Hace 74 años)

1944

En El Salvador, el general Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, que ha dirigido el gobierno del país durante 13 años con mano férrea valiéndose de métodos represivos y autoritarios, renuncia al poder presionado por una huelga general y sometido a la vez a una creciente presión internacional. (Hace 80 años)

1936

Benito Mussolini proclama a Víctor Manuel III como Emperador de Etiopía. La Sociedad de Naciones, por iniciativa británica, impone sanciones económicas a Italia, que se aproxima cada vez más a la Alemania fascista de Adolf Hitler. (Hace 88 años)

1927

El gobierno federal australiano se transfiere a la ciudad de Canberra proclamándose como la nueva capital de Australia en detrimento de Melbourne. (Hace 97 años)

1688

Tras la unión de Hungría a Austria en diciembre de 1687, los austríacos se anexionan Transilvania, hasta ahora en poder de los turcos. (Hace 336 años)

1386

Tras haber solicitado Juan I de Portugal apoyo militar a Inglaterra para defender su independencia, los dos países firman el tratado de Windsor, mediante el cual ambos reyes (Juan I de Portugal y Ricardo II de Inglaterra) se comprometen a mantener perpetuas relaciones de amistad y asistencia mutua. Esto se traducirá en la presencia de arqueros ingleses en el ejército portugués. Por contra, Inglaterra recibirá diez galeras equipadas por Portugal. En el contexto de estas negociaciones, Juan I se casará en 1387 con Felipa de Lancaster, cuyos descendientes serán destacadas figuras del comienzo de la dinastía portuguesa de los Avís. (Hace 638 años)

1457aC

Fecha probable de la Batalla de Megido (ubicado en el actual Israel) donde las fuerzas egipcias mandadas por el faraón Tutmosis III se enfrentan y vencen a una coalición cananea dirigida por el rey de Kadesh, que se tendrá que batir en retirada hasta la cercana ciudad de Megido donde los supervivientes serán asediados por los egipcios durante siete meses para rendirse finalmente. Tras esta importante victoria, los egipcios recobrarán el control de Canaán y el imperio egipcio de Tutmosis III alcanzará la mayor expansión territorial jamás conocida, que abarcará desde el Reino de Kush, en Nubia (actual sur de Egipto y norte de Sudán), hasta el norte de Mesopotamia. (Hace 3481 años)

[tenth-sentence]

A report in Science Newsletter of a 1951 conference on population problems attended by Pincus was headed 'The explosive increase in world population could be squelched by a tiny pill'.

"Frankenstein's Footsteps: Science, Genetics and Popular Culture" - Jon Turney

[efvicioso]

Tal día como hoy, en 1903, nace Gregory Goodwin Pincus, endocrinólogo estadounidense cuyo trabajo sobre las propiedades antifertilidad de los esteroides condujo al desarrollo del primer anticonceptivo oral eficaz: la píldora anticonceptiva.

https://buff.ly/4aN6qdO

[secretexperiment]

is this the great biologist and birth control/IVF pioneering researcher Gregory Pincus, or could it perhaps be ghost hunter and puppet master extrordinaire Shane Madej? A modern doppelganging mystery…

@wearewatcher

[wolffyluna]

This Valentine's Day, give a shout out to Alexander Fleming, Charles Goodyear, Julius Schmid, John Rock and Gregory Pincus for laying the foundations for romance in the modern age.

[sex-ed--2cool4school-literally]

Intermediate Era (1920 - 1960):

The intermediate era included a lot of development in sex education in public schools. Many movements were involved, such as birth control, social hygiene, and the eugenics movement. Many adults and parents were concerned over the decline of sexual morality.

The eugenics theory and movement began in this era, but people started to disassociate from the movement because people didn’t agree with how it was described and put out. After the eugenics theory was implemented by Nazi Germany, many more people disassociate from the movement. As the eugenics movement became less popular, more people started to put more emphasis on the birth control movement. The start of the American Birth Control League (now Planned Parenthood) also pushed for access to birth control. Margaret Sanger and other advocates helped further this movement. Sanger also won a court case, and the court decided that birth control would no longer be seen as lewd. This winning of the court case also paved the way for the development of the birth control pill (which was made by Sanger and Gregory Pincus).

In the early 1920s, parents and adults grew concerned over the decline of sexual morality. Even though the dominant culture promoted AOUM, there was a subculture that encouraged “no strings attached” to sex. The rate of people being okay with premarital sex grew, and this new way of thinking became the new ordinary among younger people. A major influence on this was Alfred Kinsey, who had researched sexual behavior. His books contained information on controversial things like:

Beastiality

Homosexual Behavior

Marital Infidelity

Infant Sexual Responses (Infants and children experience orgasms; Children victims of rape are benefited from the assault).

Apart from that, more young people were taking part in (oral) sexual activity without receiving sex education. AOUM became the primary goal of sex education in public schools. It was heavily encouraging, and sex education courses in public schools began teaching family life education.

[wellconstructedsentences]

One Small, Precise, Poetic, Spiraling mixture: Math plus poetry yields the Fib.

The Fib by Gregory Pincus