"Are you on the Pill?"

“ Are you on the Pill?”

            If this question was asked to today’s youth, no one would wonder what I meant and an ever-growing 55% of teenage females would answer yes to that question.  However, it obviously has not always been like this.

            Contraceptive pills made their first appearance in 1957, made available in within limits. It was only in 1960 that birth control became widely known and was used by 500 000 women across the United States, which is still rather small to how many are using it today. It was received quite negatively, with books like The Doctor's Case Against the Pill being published in 1969 by Barbara Seaman – an almost ironic last name for someone so against sex. Basically, being on the Pill automatically meant you were having sex, which was bad no matter your status. If you were single, you were having unmarital sex. If you were married, you were either sleeping outside of your marriage or avoiding God’s way and not having children. Either way, you’re sinning instead of winning.

            The Pill, although it was a huge breakthrough, simply terrified most people because of its potential disadvantages instead of being happy because of its one, big advantage – SEX.

"Pill Poppin', Penis Lovin', Satan's Girl" is not necessarily something you would want to be associated with. 

And now, although birth control is less, um, shall we say frowned upon? It is still sometimes viewed in a negative light. For example, my boyfriend’s mother assumed that him and I would wait until marriage.

            She could not have been more wrong.

            Yet, she was clueless about our active sex life until one night we were discussing my new stretch marks on my thunder thighs.

            “Judith,” said my boyfriend, ever blinded by love. “Your thighs are great, you can’t be shy about going in my pool forever. It’s not your fault, it’s your Pill that makes you curvier.”  Curvier. Right choice of words homeboy.  

            However, my mother in law saw right through us and assumed, right away, that we were having sex outside of marriage. Skipping the awkward sex talk he was privileged to have, she basically said I was a sinner and my wise and mature decision to go on birth control was a slutty one. Some people are just stuck in 1960 but my very own mother was the one who brought it up when I was only 13 years old. She had understood that times change and people evolve and it is okay to be prepared. My mother did what most people should do nowadays and made me comfortable with my sexuality as I grew up.  She never slut shamed me, even as I told her at the tender age of 15 that I had lost my virginity. She never made me feel like any subject was taboo, even as I asked her what was the weirdest place she’d ever had sex (picnic table). She saw the advantage in the Pill and didn’t feel threaten by the doors it opened up to me.

            Although the Pill may be a gateway to having sex stress free, it’s a comfortable pillow parents can lie on without having to worry about their daughters getting pregnant. The Pill is a good thing, and thank God we’ve realized it now.