I expect the Children of Mary, a Catholic community of women religious based in Newark, OH, are inspirational ladies in many ways. Their grounds look beautiful, and I’m sure the hospitality they show to retreatants is received gratefully. The sartorial aesthetic they advocate for women—“Think: Long Flowing Beautiful!”—is, as it happens, my own as well.
But.
This video, entitled “You Deserve to Know the Truth About Contraception,” is confusing. Here’s how it starts:
[hard blink] Fellas? [Edited to add: I am really interested in the truth behind the story of Austin, the chimp who allegedly engaged in sexual behavior with males when all the females in his group had been given hormonal birth control. It looks like it comes from a book called The Decline of Males by Lionel Tiger, but I don’t know more about the study on which the claim is based. Anyone else able to work their Google mojo better than I have done? Is there an anthropoplogist in the house?] [Edited again to add: Check out Amy Phillips Bursch’s rundown and rebuttals of the video’s claims.]Studies have shown that women release a chemical hormone, or pheromone, when they’re fertile, making them more desireable and attractive to men… When a woman is taking a contraceptive, her body responds as if she is pregnant and infertile, and therefore no longer releases the pheromone of fertility, making them less desirable to men. Studies have shown that men are far more attracted to average, fertile women than they are even to supermodels… What is a man to do when the majority of women are contracepting, and he no longer finds them desirable?
