Eugenic uses of the Pill

 
Gregory Pincus and John Rock, early contraceptive researchers (Pincus is inventor of the first oral contraceptive) "shared an understanding of nonwhite and deviant subjects as bodies whose reproductive power should be restricted by the state in order to 'reduce hunger, poverty, and disease while fostering economic stability.' The antibaby molecule was intended to be made into a 'simple, cheap, safe contraceptive to be used in poverty-stricken slums, jungles, and among the most ignorant people.'" (Preciado 174, with the quote here from Margaret Sanger, courtesy Andrea Tone in Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America)
 
"In the context of an emerging politicization of racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities in the United States, the contraceptive molecule was thought of as an urban eugenic device and as a method of controlling nonwhite population growth" (also 174)
 
"for more on the Pill and racial purification, see Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty" (190)

> from Paul Preciado's Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era (2008, translated 2013)

> tagged with #control, #poverty, #race, #reproduction, #drugs

> created April 30, 2024 at 9:19:01 AM


> part of unfinished everything


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unfinished everything is an original work / ongoing project (1997-present) by jeremy p. bushnell

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