Contraceptives degrading to women

[Rico_S]

WHY are women expected to pollute their systems while the men do nothing?

1. First of all, you have to understand that the vast majority of society doesn’t consider hormonal birth control as “polluting” women’s systems. (not here to get into an argument about that, just imparting a reality that is likely to explain to a large degree why you can’t understand why women do this).
2. I’m guessing here, but I would imagine that supressing ovulation via hormones is a much simpler proposition than trying to render sperm ineffective with similar ease (and lack of interference in the actual act).
3. Women have been getting the short end of the stick since the dawn of society. For thousands and thousands of years, men have made the rules. It’s not surprising that women would be the ones expected to bear this type of burden.
4. I do think BC being primarily a female responsibility has changed. Condoms are pushed heavily now to young people and that typically falls to the men (although not exclusively).

 

[Convert_in_99]

Always wonder wh y it is always the woman who have to deal with this. My family work in India where the birth rate is out of control in poor ares as the men will not allow them to take the pill etc lest they prevent a boy…

Girl babies are often …discarded at birth ( my family rescue) and the chosen method of setting the matter straight is to give the women hysterectomies, and they are laid out in a field to recover, which many never do

WHY are women expected to pollute their systems while the men do nothing? PS I know we are not talking of catholics here but the title did not limit it.

NFP is the same. The burden 99% of the time falls mostly on the women.

In other words being a woman stinks in general

ETA: I’m in no way promoting ABC, just reiterating the fact that the burden of NFP is also mostly the woman’s problem.

 

[Allegra]

NFP is the same. The burden 99% of the time falls mostly on the women.

In other words being a woman stinks in general

ETA: I’m in no way promoting ABC, just reiterating the fact that the burden of NFP is also mostly the woman’s problem.

Well, the male isn’t going to be checking your cervical mucus, but I think most NFP husbands have felt the burden of periodic abstinence.

 

[Convert_in_99]

Well, the male isn’t going to be checking your cervical mucus, but I think most NFP husbands have felt the burden of periodic abstinence.

Yes, but it is BECAUSE of us they have to abstain. In many NFP families where the marriage is rocky or isnt as strong, the husband still sees it as the woman’s fault he can’t have sex. So it can be extra heartbreaking and devistating to the woman in a less than ideal marriage. In a lot of cases, in this fallen world, NFP will either make or break a marriage.

 

[Rosebud77]

Yes, but it is BECAUSE of us they have to abstain. In many NFP families where the marriage is rocky or isnt as strong, the husband still sees it as the woman’s fault he can’t have sex. So it can be extra heartbreaking and devistating to the woman in a less than ideal marriage. In a lot of cases, in this fallen world, NFP will either make or break a marriage. [/QUOTE]

I find that incredibly sad and that it has nothing to do with the world being fallen**

 

[Convert_in_99]

Convert in 99;14201007:

Yes, but it is BECAUSE of us they have to abstain. In many NFP families where the marriage is rocky or isnt as strong, the husband still sees it as the woman’s fault he can’t have sex. So it can be extra heartbreaking and devistating to the woman in a less than ideal marriage. In a lot of cases, in this fallen world, NFP will either make or break a marriage. [/QUOTE]

I find that incredibly sad and that it has nothing to do with the world being fallen**

Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean by this.

 

[Maximilan_Kolbe]

Speaking as a man, and much like pornography, I don’t see anything that allows men to view women as a source of sexual pleasure with no responsibility and consequence and anything but degrading to them.

 

[SusanneT]

Well, the male isn’t going to be checking your cervical mucus, but I think most NFP husbands have felt the burden of periodic abstinence.

There is no reason why any husband (or wife) has to ‘endure’ periodic abstinence. It’s simply that if they want to enjoy intimacy then they simply have to accept that God may choose to bless them with a new life.

 

[on_the_hill]

Doesn’t one of the hormone companies use pregnant mares for estrogen collection? They keep the horses pregnant for this, and when the colts are born, they are auctioned off to slaughter houses.

Premarin is made from horse urine. It is a drug used for hormone replacement therapy for women who are going through menopause. It’s not birth control.

I haven’t found **any **online sources that confirm that birth control pills come from horse urine. If you find one, please post it. I’ll accept any peer-reviewed journal article.

Also, just one more point: I’m sure we’re absolutely **not **created an equivalency between birth control pills used as contraceptives and birth control pills used for legitimate medical reasons, such as PCOS. The Church is crystal clear in its determination that the use of birth control pills for medical reasons is fully permitted.

And just one more point: I have **never **heard any guy disrespect, disregard, or degrade a woman for not being available for sex whenever he wanted it. Not even a single time. If that’s what your expectation of guys is–then you better find psychologically healthier guys to be around.

 

[berniemcken]

I have been thinking about something lately. There is a lot of talk in Catholic circles about contraceptives being degrading to women. As much as I do believe they are sinful, I honestly don’t understand how they can only be degrading to women. Are men not equally sinning when they are being used?

Thoughts?

It’s degrading in the fact that it alters her God-given femininity, turning her to something she is not. Her fertility is a beautiful component of her person and a blessing from God and contraception negates it and alters it into a form of barren, masculinity. Contraception is contrary to the dignity and complementarity of BOTH persons, male and female.

 

[berniemcken]

Speaking as a man, and much like pornography, I don’t see anything that allows men to view women as a source of sexual pleasure with no responsibility and consequence and anything but degrading to them.

Yes!! Use is the opposite of love.

 

[berniemcken]

1. First of all, you have to understand that the vast majority of society doesn’t consider hormonal birth control as “polluting” women’s systems. (not here to get into an argument about that, just imparting a reality that is likely to explain to a large degree why you can’t understand why women do this).
2. I’m guessing here, but I would imagine that supressing ovulation via hormones is a much simpler proposition than trying to render sperm ineffective with similar ease (and lack of interference in the actual act).
3. Women have been getting the short end of the stick since the dawn of society. For thousands and thousands of years, men have made the rules. It’s not surprising that women would be the ones expected to bear this type of burden.
4. I do think BC being primarily a female responsibility has changed. Condoms are pushed heavily now to young people and that typically falls to the men (although not exclusively).

BC pills (and IUDs) don’t just prevent ovulation, and it fails at that regularly. It also thickens cervical mucus to prevent the uniting of sperm and egg (and fails sometimes) and works in a third way, via progestin, to make the uterine wall inhospitable to a newly formed embryo. Sometimes it fails all together and women still get pregnant, but it does cause plenty of miscarriages. Sad.

 

[holyrood]

I have been thinking about something lately. There is a lot of talk in Catholic circles about contraceptives being degrading to women. As much as I do believe they are sinful, I honestly don’t understand how they can only be **degrading **to women. Are men not equally **sinning **when they are being used?

Thoughts?

Degrading and sinful are two different things.

I don’t know what you read specifically, but I think the ‘degrading’ refers not to the question of sin, but to the fact that contraceptives speak a message: I want sex with you, but I don’t want to have a child with you. I don’t want to be that tied to you. I want to be able to use you for sex and then walk away.

As I read somewhere: I want SEX from you, but I don’t want ALL of you, I don’t want the responsibility that may come from sex with you.

Regardless of the spin put on it, many, many girls and women feel *pressured *more than ever to have sex now that contraceptives are freely available. They used to be able to at least say no, they weren’t risking pregnancy. Now they’re told (falsely of course) that there’s no risk, and we have ended up with a world that’s actually ridiculing those who choose to wait until marriage.

A rather sad story to illustrate this: A friend of mine once expressed amazement and some envy that I was treated well by my then-boyfriend and ‘didn’t even have to’ sleep with him. She said, her words, she didn’t even get these nice things and she ‘had to’ sleep with him.

Not the use of ‘have to.’

The irony which I doubt she herself sees, is that she probably in general thinks of people like me as ‘sex negative’ or prudes or not with the times, even as she envied it, and felt *obligated *to have sex with her boyfriend.

That, to me, does seem pretty degrading, to feel that you have to sleep with someone, because…why? Because he expects it? Because the world expects it?

And contraceptives are a big part of what has made the shift that allows men and the world to pressure women and make them feel they ‘have to.’