This is such a shallow way to look at contraceptives and reproductive autonomy. We are the ones who get pregnant, so birth control gives us the power to protect ourselves from it. Even if male contraceptives were finally sorted out and made widely available today, they would still be framed as men’s own reproductive autonomy (not ours) because they would be about preventing pregnancy from their own standpoint and giving them control over their own role in reproduction.
Reproductive autonomy is about being able to shape your own end of the reproductive bargain. Obviously, it would be great for the pill to exist for men too, but it would still primarily serve men’s reproductive autonomy, just as ours serves ours. These things are related but not interchangeable. It would not change the fact that women are the ones who have to deal with the physical and social consequences of pregnancy and because the consequences are not equally distributed, women should always retain the power to decide their own reproductive futures without having to depend on men to do so.
Sharing responsibility for contraception is not the same thing as sharing reproductive autonomy which is what birth control is for women. Yes, both people should take responsibility for preventing pregnancy, but a man taking contraceptives does not remove a woman’s need for her own birth control options, just as a woman taking contraceptives does not absolve a man of responsibility for preventing pregnancy. Nobody’s autonomy is a substitute for the other person’s. This is not misogyny.
I’ve said it before that pregnancy is one of those things I believe should ideally have a 2FA approach to prevention. If you’re really serious about avoiding it, the man does his part and you do yours. Both people have some independent control over whether a pregnancy happens instead of leaving the outcome dependent on one person’s choices or one single method of contraception.
We need to be able to talk about expanding contraception options for men without pretending that it is the same thing as women’s, or that giving men more options somehow makes women’s independent access to birth control less important. Saying that contraceptives are misogynistic because they’re “one-sided” is reductive and buries the reality of what pregnancy means for women. Women should always wield power to prevent pregnancy even if more birth control options are widely made available for men.
Ok I think my tweet my be interpreted wrong I get what u are saying I really do but my intention wasn’t 2 minimize our milestones and freendom I was more focused of pain and systemic medical misogyny where we must alter our bodies while male contraceptives aren’t taken seriously