#it still needs improvement tho. all of womens medicine does lol

[0ystercatcher]

But what is the problem with women criticizing birth control as being patriarchal? I’ve always disagreed w/ you about this but I just saw you bring it up again and I’m not understanding your points

oh i have 0 issues with women criticizing birth control, theres many things abt it that are criticizable and i encourage women to speak out abt those. I just do not think that birth control having the flaws often brought up inherently makes it partriarchal or, the way ive seen it phrased, "patriarchy personified". i also dont think sying "birth control is poison" is a fair critique of its v real problems. to be clear, im talking abt hormonal birth control, w more focus on the pill bc thats what i know most about/have more experience with, but afaik some of this applies to non hormonal methods as well.

My point here is that any critique on birth control, the way it was created and the way it exists today, cannot be disconnected from the society we live in (capitalist, patriarchal, racist, etc.) as well as the effects BC has had in it. I know the history of it is horrible and fucked up and i wish it wasnt, but this is not something we can change at this point, so it seems useless to me to veto BC based on that. I also understand (and agree!) when women criticize the way BC is over-prescribed and treated as a "cure all" by doctors in some countries, thats just bad medicine, smth we are subjected to too often. Also, yes, the way BC - like many other things related to medicine related to the female body specifically - has been left aside and not "updated" or improved on in any particularily significant ways (can we get fucking rid of those insane side effects please??) is annoying and another symptom of a society that undermines our health issues. Like, even though weve developed other non hormonal methods of BC, they are bound to the same limtations medicine for women has had for decades, ie little research, little understanding of our endocrine systems, little funding, little care for womens health, etc. These are absolutely consequences of a patriarchal world in which we are not seen as equally human, but under that logic we'd have to start arguing that all of womens medicine developed until now is "patriarchy personified" and "poisonous" and while theres def some points to be made wrt those ideas, its honestly a useless critique of them and leads us nowhere. Like, what, do we restart womens medicine from scratch? Whats the next step after "birth control is patriarchal". I also dont think its fair to act like BC is patriarchal bc men can use it to control us, in terms of, treating it as an expectation women need to carry out with while in a relationship, or taking advantage of it to pressure women to have unprotected sex. That is not a problem inherent in BC, its men grasping at every chance they get to treat and use women like objects. So like, what next??

Even though women have been (up until fairly recently basically) left aside by modern medical, anatomical research, etc., and what little exists of those useful discoveries and medicine can be used as Tools for men to maintain power over us, are some of those advances made still....not useful? Because they were developed in a patriarchal society? Organ transplants were developed w some pretty questionable ethics and still have fairly high risks and can also be used as a source of profit, and yet despite that i think the conclusion isnt "organ transplants r unethical and will kill you", bc they have saved millions of lives. I know its not the closest comparison but my point is, despite everything surrounding it, its undeniable to say BC has had incredibly positive effects on women as a whole, despite neglected individual side effects and a poor understanding of why it affects some women badly and not others (which as i said is connected to systemic issues that arent unique to BC). BC can have shit side effects, a pretty vile history, and yet it can still be responsible for allowing women to join the workforce like never before giving us so much more independance in society, and be able to control when, how and how many (if any) children to have. That alone is something women have never been able to do at this scale, this accurately, ever before in history. Unwanted pregnancies and maternal mortality plummet after BC becomes accesible in p much every country (tbf i dont think its the sole factor but its definitely one of them lmao). You can argue it can be and has been used as a tool for the patriarchy (and lets not forget, capitalism), but thats always going to be the case with every form of birth control or family planning method ever, just because we still live in a sexist misogynistic society and as such just saying "BC bad bc patriarchy" is just...kind of useless criticism and stating smth obvious.

And really, what are the alternatives. Do we go off BC just to one up men who will still exploit us whether we do or we dont? Do we need to go back to tracking our natural cycles to avoid pregnancy just so men start taking responsibility and magically stop "accidentally" getting us pregnant bc they dont want a kid theyre not going to bear anyways? Didnt dworkin write a whole book abt how doing that kinda shit just does not work out for us?? Should we rely on men to always wear condoms and act like stealthing isnt a massive, horribly common problem? Like, lmao, im not abt to act like BC is "feminist" or whatever bc thats dumb and a useless thing to say, but the reality simply is that BC has allowed millions of women around the world a chance to decide and stay true to their life plans, its lifted the weight and a lot of the fear of a potentially unplanned, maybe even forced pregnancy on sexually active women. For many of us, it has put the power to keep ourselves from having babies in our hands instead of in mens. Doesnt that get us a few steps closer to yknow, the big feminist goal of body autonomy for all women?? I just dont think its fair to take a very reasonable and necessary convo of "BC needs to be improved along w our knowledge of womens health" and turn it into "BC is patriarchal bc men can take advantage of it". The latter is just not BC's fault, as usual its just men treating us like objects lmao.