A Hard Pill to Swallow
A radical thought on the implenmentation of male birth control
Pass the Bill So Men Also Have to Take the Pill.
Pregnancy and fertility have always been issues of the woman. Women are left with the responsibility to protect themselves from unintended pregnancies while men are left powerless without the ability to control their own futures. There is no need to fret men! Male birth control might be the answer to your worries. You will no longer have to worry about the financial burden that comes along with unwanted pregnancies because you will be in total control of your future. This is not the only problem male birth control will solve. What if the U.S could hone the power of the pill, and use it to help us solve one of the most important issues we are facing today, saving money for the defense budget.
In light of recent events it has become apparent to U.S citizens that saving money for the defense budget is an imperative concern. It is so imperative in fact that the U.S President has decided to ban all transgender citizens from showing their allegiance, and fighting for their country in the U.S military. You see it would save the United States a whopping .01 percent more of the already $696 billon defense spending budget for 2018. Plus, it will only affect the lives of around 1,320 to 5,530 transgender service members. That’s no big deal.
Let’s Talk Numbers
According to NPR.org, at least 41% of active duty service men have children. For example, in the U.S Army 49% of the enlisted soldiers are fathers. According to GoArmy.com, an active solider that has children makes almost $5000 more than there single counterparts. This doesn’t include the extra housing allowances and healthcare benefits that cover all of the service member’s children until they are 18 years old. This example is just one branches of the military. If the U.S was in the business of saving money for the defense budget there are definitely more effective ways to save. One way, would be to pass a new bill stating that all active service members be required to take male birth control. The implementation of the new bill would save the U.S millions for the defense budget. The requirement of the pill to military members would lower the amount of children born to service members, and in turn save the U.S money. The United States will no longer have to pay military members that have children thousands more a year. The temporary sterilization of active service members would also save U.S funds because that would mean less healthcare benefits and housing allowance payouts. This bill may seem like a radical change, but so is taking a person’s right to join the military.
Social Benefits
Money isn’t the only benefit the U.S would reap from the implementation of the temporary sterilization of servicemen. There are a number of social reasons this new bill will benefit America. If we think in the terms of Gayle S. Rubin’s Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality, we can see that sex is more than just a diversion from more critical issues. On the contrary, Sex is an important topic that we should all be taking into high regard for it is in times of war that sexuality and sexual expression are at a high. Sex is a stress reliever and when we are in times of high social anxiety it is through sex that people are able to find easement to those stresses. If male soldiers were required to take birth control then they would be able to use sex as a tool to relieve them of their anxieties. In other words we would take away the morality around sex and look at it as a recreational tool.
A stress reliever is just a byproduct benefit. We as a society could benefit from the temporary sterilization of our military this way we would be reassured that their only focus is protecting their country. Military men would no longer be worried about their families left behind while on deployment. They would no longer have the distraction of children while they are training. We would have a stronger more focused military. One of the reasons the trial of male birth control ended was because of the very harsh side effects men were experiencing while taking the pill. They couldn’t bare the acne, the increased libido, or the mood swings. As we can see these are all common symptoms that occur to women once a month. These men are supposed to be the strongest and most resilient in the nation. If they can endure the side effects of the treatment then they can overcome any obstacles. The negative side effects couldn’t compare to those of war.
If the U.S can control the bodies of women, and the transgender community then they can surely control those of the men that are servicing them. It is time we take a note from Nina Turner’s book, and start to think of the radical changes that need to be implemented into our society. If we are going to restrict one group in our society we might as well all be equally repressed. If we really want a way to prevent pregnancies before they begin then why not stop them at the source. If the language around pregnancies was rebranded and men shared the burden then male birth control would not be a farfetched idea. We would make progress into a more sexually egalitarian society.
