Connections to past articles

I have always thought of birth control as a means of providing women with reproductive freedom that allows women to move beyond their domestic roles. But I see now after reading Dorothy Roberts’ “Killing the Black Body: The Dark Side of Birth Control” that this belief is somewhat naïve considering now the other intentions for the pill. The influence of the theory of eugenics on the use of the pill to decrease the “unfit” population and on our laws was shocking to read. In science a theory is formed from observations and experiments and offers a plausible explanation or model for how something occurs in the world. I can understand how the mistaken belief of inheriting intelligence and personality traits could be accepted. I would be inclined to believe it considering that my personality is very similar to that of my father’s personality even though I did not spend much time with him as a child since my parents were divorced. However, what truly made it wrong, though, was that Eugenicists used the theory to promote and support the belief of white supremacy by targeting the poor, the handicapped, and minorities. We see again like in the measurements taken of skulls from different races in “Theories of Gender and Race” by Londa Schiebinger how the prejudices of society can influence the interpretation of scientific data.

One of the questions asked in class was how black people’s attitudes toward birth control had changed. At first it seemed that they welcomed it as a way to space out their children or to have smaller families and thus improve their economic status. However, later there was a lot of suspicion from the black community as to whether birth control was meant to better their lives or was a tool to wipe out their race. Some black leaders such as Marcus Garvey and Philip Francis promoted the idea of overpowering whites by outnumbering them. I found this idea disturbing in that these leaders suggested bringing black women who had lives outside the home back to their domestic roles in order to increase the population. It seems to me that this is another example of how black women’s sexuality has been silenced as we have read in Evelyn Hammonds’ article. There was no consideration of how black women feel about their sexuality being harnessed and them being turned into the brood mares for the next generation of black Americans. I was glad, though, that this idea did not take effect, and that the black community instead promoted birth control as a way to overcome oppression.