Department or Program
History
Abstract
The birth control pill was invented in the 1950s by Dr. Gregory Pincus, which dramatically changed the conversations about birth control and sexuality in America. Other scholars have probed the role of the Pill in terms of: gender relations, sexuality and sexual behavior, feminist literature and activism, government regulation of birth control, the impact on the medical and pharmaceutical worlds, lives of specific individuals involved in the birth control movement, and other areas. This thesis will examine the representations of birth control in the media after the Pill’s release through an analysis of three popular magazines: Time, Ebony, and Ladies Home Journal. These mass circulation magazines catered to different imagined audiences. The divergent representations of the Pill reflect these differences. Nevertheless, the similarities speak to American cultural norms during the sixties. By contextualizing and closely analyzing the discussions about birth control in these magazines, this thesis looks at the historical perception of birth control. This thesis argues that contradictory to the popular notion today, contraception has not always been a symbol of female emancipation.
Level of Access
Restricted: Campus/Bates Community Only Access
First Advisor
Barnett, Lydia
Date of Graduation
Spring 5-2015
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Recommended Citation
Whetzle, Anna Forest, "Controlling Birth Control: Media Representations of Contraception in the 1960s" (2015). Honors Theses. 123.
https://scarab.bates.edu/honorstheses/123
Number of Pages
90
Restricted
Available to Bates community via local IP address or Bates login.