FREE ESSAY ON GENDERING OF CONTRACEPTION

GENDERING OF CONTRACEPTION

Would you like to be on the receiving end of a snakeskin condom?
Men and women have been using birth control for thousands of years. Typically though if
you look to the past there has been a big difference in how and why contraception was
used for the opposite sexes. Focus on actual birth control in history was mainly up to
the woman, while men's contraception was focused on preventing disease. This can be taken
back to one of the earliest known uses of the condom. Roman soldiers used sheepskin
condoms not to prevent pregnancy but to fight disease. Documentation of the Chinese on
the other hand shows that 4000 years ago woman in the culture were drinking mercury to
prevent pregnancy. This is a continuing trend. Findings in the past not only show that
there was a difference in the use of contraception between the sexes but there was also a
distinct comfort ability level of the devices themselves. One example you can find of
this is Casanova's use of a linen condom, not saying that its comfort ability compares to
male condoms of today, but most would find it more soothing than a female device of the
time deemed the "box". Ladies of the time period would insert the "box", a 6-sided
concaved wooden object, inside their vagina hoping to block whatever semen might try to
escape. Needless to say the "box" was declared a torture device and its use was stopped.
Even to this day contraception has been more focused on the female. When you think of
possible male contraception techniques only three exist, a fourth hormonal technique
being in development. The three include use of the condom, withdrawal, and vasectomy. On
the other hand when u look at what options the female has the list is numerous. A few
being jellies, female condoms, pessaries, intrauterine devices, condoms, birth control
pills, and barriers. The reason for this? It is possibly society's outlook on females as
being the birth giver and thus being seen as the one who should control birth. Or it may
possibly be the outlook on the power of the male penis, it being a tool for "planting the
seed". In any case Contraception throughout history up until this day has been flooded
with inequalities.
Bibliography
http://www.spub.ksu.edu/ISSUES/v101/sp/n098/opinion/opn.louk.2-18.html
http://www.salon.com/07/features/contra.html
http://rintintin.colorado.edu/~mcck/
http://desires.com/1.6/Sex/Museum/museum1.html