“Sleep on the roof” as contraception.
HUH??
Separating sex from reproduction allowed so many women to finally enjoy sexual pleasure, free from concern about unintended pregnancy.
Jonathan Eig’s The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution is a deep dive into the history of the creation of revolutionary oral hormonal contraception.
The four main actors in the story of the Pill are complex characters, as Ruby and Anne say, and the development of the Pill was far from straightforward — and not always legal or entirely ethical. But helping women take control over their bodies was indeed revolutionary, and the Pill changed the world.
Hear the book review with Anne and Ruby, then read more on how sexism, eugenics, feminism, pleasure, medicine, and social norms all collide in this one tiny Pill.
References:
The Birth of the Pill: https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Birth-of-the-Pill/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25622271-the-birth-of-the-pill
https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/dr-rocks-taxonomy
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/1514/3518/7100/Pill_History_FactSheet.pdf
https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/a-brief-history-of-birth-control/
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fda-approves-the-pill
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3520685/
https://ordinaryphilosophy.com/2015/03/14/book-review-summary-the-birth-of-the-pill/
https://www.vox.com/2014/10/23/6994695/the-secret-history-of-birth-control-pills
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63507/12-bizarre-facts-about-history-birth-control
https://www.mic.com/articles/113022/the-dark-history-of-birth-control-that-you-haven-t-heard
