Fringe Science: What Havoc ‘The Pill’ Wreaked on Sex Relations
“A love of nature keeps no factories busy.”
-Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
There are, likely, multiple reasons for the epidemic of male eunuch-cuckoldry in modern society: the chemicals in the food and water, the demonization of masculinity by the governing authorities because of the inherent, latent threat it poses to totalitarian state control, etc.
Related: Are Tainted Cheerios Running Hog-Wild on Human Reproductive Organs?
Arguably, though, no one contrivance has done more to alter, and subvert, the natural order of male-female sex relations, and social relations at large, than an unassuming little pharmaceutical pill a mere centimeter or so in diameter.
Via Archives of Sexual Behavior:
“Women who are regularly cycling exhibit different partner preferences than those who use hormonal contraception. Preliminary evidence appears to suggest that during pregnancy women’s partner preferences also diverge from those prevalent while regularly cycling. This is consistent with the general assertion that women’s mate preferences are impacted by hormonal variation. During pregnancy, women’s preferences are thought to closely resemble those displayed by women who are using hormonal contraception…
Women who use hormonal contraception have been shown to display different mating preferences and behaviors than women who are regularly cycling…
Upon initiation of hormonal contraception, women prefer lower levels of masculinity in their male partners. Moreover, these researchers showed that women who met their partner while using hormonal contraception were actually paired with men who had lower levels of masculinity as assessed via both facial measurements and perceptual judgments.”
The long and short of it is that, when women take the pill (synthetic progesterone), it permanently inhibits their estrogen levels, which in turn facilitates an attraction to men with less masculine features — what some might call the quintessential “beta-male,” or “soy-boy,” archetype. There are many pejorative terms for such a pasty, noodly, malnourished-looking man.
Many, many studies have examined this phenomenon by presenting women, some on the pill and some not, with images of men with various degrees of masculine facial features and asking them to rate their attractiveness.
“To examine the impact of oral contraceptive (pill) use on preferences, we tested for within-subject changes in preferences for masculine faces in women initiating pill use. Between two sessions, initiation of pill use significantly decreased women's preferences for male facial masculinity but did not influence preferences for same-sex faces…
Both facial measurements and perceptual judgements demonstrated that partners of women who used the pill during mate choice have less masculine faces than partners of women who did not use hormonal contraception at this time.”
Since females are naturally, and rightfully so, the “selector sex” — meaning they determine through careful mate selection, what genes are allowed to be passed on and which are disposed of (as opposed to men who will, under the right circumstances, as seen in prison, have sex with literally anything that opens its holes) — what can we assume this little pill has done to influence male behavior in the past century or so? Men are notoriously willing to go to limitless lengths to modify their behavior in order to achieve sexual relations with women.
What has it done to divorce rates, as women who selected their mates when they were on the pill suddenly recoil in revulsion once they come off of it, or, inversely, realize their mates are toxically masculine once they go on the pill and their progesterone levels hit the roof?
Divorce rates?
Infidelity rates?
The implications are nearly endless; the pill, which has only been commercially available since 1960, could potentially explain so much about the state of modern society.
“There is only sex. Everything is sex. Do you understand that what I'm telling you is a universal truth, Toby?”
-Robert California, The Office
Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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Excellent! We never used contraceptives (hormonal, barrier, etc.) and I am grateful for that every time I think about it. Another thing that may be (probably is) affecting both men and women due to widespread use of “the pill,” is the fact that it’s in the water system (at least city systems).
Thanks for another great article with your usual alternate and insightful analysis. The following now makes a lot more sense:
My daughter at 20 years old was told by her doctor start using birth control pills, even though she was not sexually active, because it was good for her. She is my daughter so she immediately found a new doctor. But WTF.