In an article filled with speculation, misinformation and broad sweeping generalizations, the Wall Street Journal does its damned best to make the birth control pill seem to be the worst thing to have happened to modern civilization, implying that by interfering with ovulation, the pill impairs our natural ability to choose a mate, causes women to choose less masculine partners and then stray from them, and makes us pick genetically similar rather than dissimilar mates.
Women on the pill no longer experience a greater desire for traditionally masculine men during ovulation….Researchers speculate that women with less-masculine partners may become less interested in their partner when they come off birth control, contributing to relationship dissatisfaction…That could prompt some women to stray, research suggests. Psychologist Steven Gangestad and his team at the University of New Mexico showed in a 2010 study that women with less-masculine partners reported an increased attraction for other men during their fertile phase.
“Less masculine” men. What the heck does that mean? Less hairy? Less into sports? Less violent? Not into Nascar or big trucks?
How about more likely to engage in conversation? More likely to care about their partner’s satisfaction in bed than their own? More likely to accept a woman having a career?
One could use the data to argue that the pill may be the best thing that ever happened to relationships as far as the female partner is concerned.
And where is the data from real life human relationships supporting these laboratory results? Are women on the pill actually making bad partner choices or straying more? Are men actually choosing non-pill users as their partners over pill users ?
Sorry, no data. Just speculation and innuendo.
Oh, yeah, and the big new study. A study on lemurs.
The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences this year, showed that the injection of Depo-Provera, a long-lasting contraceptive that is approved for use in humans, dramatically altered the chemicals that female lemurs give off to indicate their identity and how genetically healthy they are.
Lemurs, in case you didn’t know, are the only primates who have female dominant societies, so I guess we should just extrapolate this data to humans, who as far as I can see have a male dominant society. A common social construct among lemurs is for the women to live with the kids and the males to migrate without them, so much for the nuclear family, huh? Oh, and one more thing – Lemurs have very poor vision, so without their sense of smell telling them a female is receptive, the males would miss their one shot a year to procreate, since female lemurs are only sexually receptive one day a year, another common trait with humans…
So, yeah, we should just extrapolate that lemur data to human societies and relationships. And while we’re at it, lets use it to frighten women and men away from the hormonal birth control.
Nice reporting job, WSJ. Can I send you the women who stop their hormonal birth control and have an unplanned pregnancy after reading your article so you can explain it further to them?
Note to self…WSJ has a thing for lemurs.
Second note to self…birthdays and lemur sex – both just once a year. Noted. Good not to be a Lemur.
Third note to self…Lemur males don’t travel with family. Human males should try this extensively, then report back to WSJ regarding link of humans to lemurs.
Thanks, TBTAM. You saved the day!
And here I was beginning to wonder about the attractions I’m feeling for striped tails… must be the BCP!
Elephants aren’t primates yet they do have similar female dominant societies, roaming males and an explicit rejection of elective birth control. The lemur, then, is not the ‘elephant in the room.’
What does it mean to say that an elephant explicitly renects elective birth control?
By implication, the elephant recognizes a connection between sex and birth. Do we have evidence for that?
Further, elephants would have to have a way to consciously control fertility. Do we have evidence for that?
Bardiac –
Ah I see you have met my friend Andy….
Enjoy!
Goddess knows how many kids i’d have had (more than the four in six years) if we had NOT practiced birth control! many of my contemporaries say the same. (One woman said her mother told her to stay STANDING UP when she and her husband went on vacation.) You wonder what planet the WSJ writers hail from…
“It’s possible I am actually a lemur,” she thought, her nearsighted brown eyes peering through her eyeglasses at her computer array while her husband–just back from his weekend in the country while she stayed in the city with her offspring–clanked pots and pans. The smell of garlic was overwhelming, but since she had taken to sleeping on the sofa, at least garlic breath wouldn’t be an issue. She pricked up her ears, and swished her tail. Almost dinner time.
Nancy –
I’m laughing out loud – Thanks for the little jolt of joy.
Peggy
Hi Dr. Peggy,
These findings are not only of interest to lemurs.
In fact, most of the WSJ piece covers research subjects who are real live humans. Those poor little lemurs are mentioned only briefly in the last couple sentences, so I’m puzzled by your indignation here.
I wrote recently about Dr. Marina Adshade, who teaches a popular (and cleverly titled) course called ‘The Economics of Sex and Love’ at Dalhouse University, and has written extensively about a number of well-known sociological studies done on real live humans (not lemurs!) on the effects of oral contraceptive hormones on mate preference.
Most current research, she explains, suggests that when taking The Pill, women do lose their variations in mate preference over their cycle and, in particular, they lose the approximately six days in which they have a strong preference for a man who is masculine in appearance (generally defined by researchers as those with deeper voices, more ‘chiseled’ and symmetrical facial features). She writes:
“It might very well be the case that in societies where large numbers of women are taking oral contraceptives, the societal ideal of an ‘attractive’ mate is moving away from a man who looks like he will provide good genes towards a mate who looks like he might be a caretaker.”
It makes perfect sense to me that fooling around with our bodies’ hormones like birth control pills do may well have consequences in many aspects of a woman’s life – like mate preferences!
Carolyn –
Thanks you for your comments.
The issue I have is the extrapolation of laboratory research to real life. The “It may very well be” conclusions that when presented to a public in a newspaper article without the broader context could lead to women abandoning the only method of contraception that is effective for them. Where is the data that women on pills actually in life have different kinds of mates than women off pills? That those mate choices are bad for them? What the heck is a “more masculine” and “less masculine” man? I find it quite strange that this was not defined in the article, perhaps so as not to disturb the male readers of the journal (who I am sure all consider themselves to be in the “more masculine” category).
The plethora of supportive comments on the WSJ website from anti-choice folks is no surprise. Anything that gets women to stop taking pills is what they want.
Again, my major issue with the article is not the research itself, but the lack of context, opposing points of view and real life extrapolation without research to support it. One must always consider one’s readership, and know that this kind of topic will get lots of replay in the media, most of it sensationalizing it. All of which can affect unplanned pregnancy rates.
Thanks for reading.
Peggy
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