Thursday, February 04, 2010

Finding out what fails, and promoting it more

This is a rerun from last March, but well worth another read:

Single, pregnant and panicked starts off well enough, looking at the complex dynamics that lead smart, well-educated 20-something women to get cavalier about their birth control. But it ends with beating the "More contraceptives education" drum -- completely dismissing out of hand the dynamics of relationships.

And of course we have the sidebar courtesy of Planned Parenthood:

Not ready to be a mom? Follow these rules to avoid an unwanted pregnancy.

....

3. Watch for interactions. [Not between you and other people -- between other substances and your Pills]

....

4. Learn to love condoms. [Again, ignoring human dynamics. One of Robert A Heinlein's characters once dismissively characterized condoms as "making love without touching". And it is a bizarre idea. "I love you enough to want you inside me -- as long as we don't have any actual physical contact."]


And, my personal favorite:

5. Find “the one.”


Not "the one" as in "the one man you want to build a family with" but "the one" as in "the Pill you want to avoid a family via".

I'll close with this one:

6. Get smart.


How about getting smart enough to drop the hubris? The drive to reproduce is powerful -- one of the most powerful forces in the universe. And we think that we can throw pharmaceuticals at it and tame it.

HT: The Dawn Patrol

5 comments:

Lilliput said...

Hi Christina

I finally got online at a place I can send you guys these links in case you haven't seen them. It refers to the evidence against abstinance based programmes.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/2/2/833158/-WaPo:-Abstinence-Only-Suddenly-Works-Reality:-Absolutely-Not.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/31/1122/06029

I would love to hear what you think.

Lilliput said...

Another article about the same study from Europe:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/05/abstinence-only-sex-education

Tonal Bliss said...

Oh goody, we'll certainly trust the DailyKos!! lol

MoonChild02 said...

Actually, when done correctly, it does work:

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/culture/education/2890-abstinence-education-effective-study-finds

L. said...

Yep -- I've certainly succeeded in taming my drive to reproduce. I am living proof, it can be done!

Ladies, even if your husband is begging you for another baby to hold in his arms, as mine was, just tell him to hush, and buy a pet. Or find someone else to have it with -- and I am not kidding there.