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Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Free Motherhood
I really enjoyed our class discussion today about the "Flapper" of early 1900's, the idea of the "New Woman". When Dr. Lampert posed to us the question, "What does the author mean by "free motherhood"", my first instinct was to think of a woman having a choice on whether or not she wanted to be a mother- on her own time, or at all. Then, my mind began to wander to how that could be accomplished, and DUH- birth control!! At the risk of shouting out an answer that I was not sure was even available in the time period being discussed, I silently googled the timeline of the invention and mass distribution of birth control (my good friend Wikipedia, in all its glory, always knows just what to say! ) As I discovered the history of birth control, I found this very interesting image that parallels today's discussion quite well, to say the least../
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I just chuckled out loud about the photo. I think it's strange how child bearing is referred to as "villain" and the fact she has to beat it away...but at the same time, I kind of understand what a big of an issue it was in that time period. Men wanted sex when they wanted it, and regardless if women did too or not, they had no say. Free motherhood is an interesting term to me because it does sound like it can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Motherhood is a "free" choice if a woman does does to get pregnant. It would interesting, actually, to read information from the time that promoted birth control.
ReplyDeleteKatrina, Ask and we shall receive! I'll post a few links shortly. Great cartoon, Caitlin.
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