Population policy forum. Men, the Church, and pleasure

I applaud Marge Berer's initial proposal on feminist population police, demonstrating that feminists are capable of construction as well as criticism. Such creative efforts, while partial, are what keep the conversation going and us in it. Several points deserve to be highlighted as they point toward much needed changes in public policy. One is the need to shift the overwhelming burden of reproduction from women alone to society in general and men in particular. This is not to give an inch on women;s moral agency and primary decision making. To the contrary, it is to insist that male birth control be an integral part of all population policies in action as well as in regulations. Rates of tubal ligations and vasectomies in most countries show that women assume more than a fair share, men doing comparative little. Another important element is the role of religion as a shaper of social policy, the Catholic church worldwide being the prime example of how sex education, birth control, and abortion are regulated as much be theology as by law. Feminist s ignore this reality in our peril, though dealing head on with it, as some religious professions have found out, is also dangerous. The fact that the majority of women of childbearing age in the US ignore the church's pronouncements and use contraception shows that the ideological strangle hold is slipping. We can loosen it further. A related, though perhaps less politically correct, concern in such a feminist proposal is the place of sexual pleasure for its own sake. While public policy is not typically concerned with such matters, education is needed for women to feel entitled to separate sex from procreation, to enjoy the full range of sexual activities for which reproduction is but 1 possible outcome. This, after all, is a major feminist achievement that deserves to made available without delay]