If Buying Condoms Was Like Buying Birth Control, Here's How Frustrated Men Would Feel

[Luminous Animal]

http://mic.com/articles/100934/if-buying-condoms-was-like-buying-birth-control-here-s-how-frustrated-men-would-feel

While somewhat silly, the video makes valid points about how birth control works for American women. The justification process alone — to parents, the medical establishment and to one's partner — is exhausting and intimidating. It is also a costly process. As the medical assistant notes in the video, upon the guy's admission that he doesn't have health insurance, "That will be $150. I hope it's worth it."

That women have to justify the need for birth control at all reveals the wild, sexist hypocrisy pervading American culture: On one hand, women are responsible for "taking care of the situation," while simultaneously fighting all the legal and societal preventative measures — from gawking comments about one's sexual habits to the increasingly limited and cost prohibitive access thanks to Congress and the courts — in place that make it frustratingly difficult to procure said contraceptives.

[SheilaT]

2. If only it could be like that for men

just for a week.

Oh, wait, it's always been like this for women.

[BlueJazz]

3. Women..We Men feel your pain !!

No we don't. Some of us (on the far right side) don't give a shit. Most of the men here at DU at least TRY to understand and think it a pack of bullshit the stuff that you Women have to go through.

I want my reward for the above.....a large Milky Way.

[eggplant]

14. And some of us *do* understand it.

I got snipped. It was a hell of a lot simpler than what the missus would have had to deal with. It seemed more than fair, since she got to go through labor. Twice.

[BlueJazz]

15. You're a good man. I'm not married yet but hope I have the courage to do the same.

You get all the Milky Ways you want.

[eggplant]

18. Basically, it was like this.

It was twenty minutes. He didn't buy me a drink, and we didn't cuddle afterwards. I wouldn't recommend doing it twice, but once isn't a big deal.

Oh, and by far the most important thing, buy a bag of frozen peas in advance. You can't believe how important that part is.

[central scrutinizer]

21. my urologist was a real card

He's got me all prepped for the vasectomy and says in a dead pan voice, "I've always wanted to do one of these". Then after he's done and got me closed up, he says, dead pan again, "Come back next week and we'll do the other side."

[redwitch]

20. My hubby got snipped. Twice.

Which is fair because I went through 2 pregnancies.

[Luminous Animal]

25. My husband got snipped, as well. It was a great relief for both of us.

[eggplant]

27. And just to be extra safe, we don't have sex in the same room as each other.

Just in case, you know.

[Luminous Animal]

31. Of course!

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[Mr.Bill]

5. If men could get pregnant

birth control pills would be dispensed in gumball machines and they would be bacon flavored.

And abortion would be a sacrament in the Catholic church.

[47of74]

7. Hell, birth control medicine would be mixed in with Communion wafers for those who wanted it.

[progressoid]

6. Rec!

[Treant]

8. It's a little off.

Spermicide is, in my local stores anyway, right next to the condoms. It's an externally applied item just like those. I can even get vaginal bags if I want them.

For some varieties of birth control, I'd strongly prefer a doctor look at me first to make sure there won't be an issue. High blood pressure with birth control pills? Bad idea.

And of course an IUD is implanted, so requires medical care.

This is a touch histrionic. I would expect that similar will need to be done on a male should birth control pills be developed, and of course the most reliable (a vasectomy) is minor surgery already and requires doctor clearance.

[IronLionZion]

19. Having a doctor examine someone before prescribing hormone altering medication

is deeply misogynistic patriarchal oppression to some people.

Women can and do buy condoms with just as much ease as a man. And there are polyisoprene and female condoms for those who prefer the feeling or have latex allergies. And it can be bought online these days even from Amazon if you want to avoid people or in my case no one here sells female condoms for some reason.

[Luminous Animal]

26. Jesus Christ, it was meant as humor to shed some light on the burden of birth-control

responsibility that is mostly borne by women and how that may effect us.

It's not meant as a critique of the patriarchy but a silly skit that gives male viewers a bit of a notion of what it is like to be in their female partner's shoes.

[IronLionZion]

32. I know what they meant

but it wasn't very accurate at all. Apples and oranges.

[Luminous Animal]

34. Yes. Apples and oranges. That is the point. The apples are using humor to let the oranges

have an inkling of their experience.

[ancianita]

43. I luv it. Thanks!

[jmowreader]

9. Try being a teenaged male in a small, conservative town

I grew up in an Idaho town in the 1970s. We had two drugstores, three grocery stores and two convenience stores. The convenience stores, the grocery stores, and one of the drugstores didn't sell condoms. The other drugstore, which was run by a man who'd been a bishop at the Mormon church, kept the rubbers behind the pharmacy counter, and he'd interrogate you if tried buying condoms. And after you left, he called your parents if you were a kid, or your wife if you were married, and report that you bought condoms.

Because he did this, the kids who were sexually active set up an alternate source of supply: if you were planning to get laid this weekend you gave to this one guy who owned a car five dollars on Thursday before school was out and he'd drive into Spokane right after the 3:15 bell, buy boxes of Trojans and break them down into threes, put them in envelopes and pass them out on Friday. It worked well enough that not one girl in my graduating class got pregnant in high school, and sex was the only source of entertainment for the kids on Friday nights.

I appreciate what this video is trying to say - birth control should absolutely be far easier and cheaper for women to get - but in the days before AIDS, getting condoms was no mean feat if you didn't live in a major metropolitan area.

[Bibliovore]

11. Wow.

Is the situation notably improved in your home town, beyond that the ex-bishop has probably retired by now? And could women buy condoms there at all back then if they didn't have access to a car?

[jmowreader]

16. I at least HOPE it's improved

I don't live there anymore, have only been back a couple times and haven't gone shopping there since. But I figure they're selling rubbers in more places now, and over the counter besides.

[Art_from_Ark]

29. They were sold in vending machines in truck stops in the '70s

The first time I saw them was around 1976 or so during a school field trip when the bus stopped at a truck stop in Oklahoma. I also saw them in truck stops in Colorado and Kansas, so I imagine that condom machines were pretty much a standard feature of truck stops back then.

[KoKo]

33. Thanks for this post ...because Not ALL Americans are Equal in Access..

And for both Males and Females in Small Town America buying Female Personal Products or Male Personal Products isn't the SAME across America.

Been there from Rural America to the Wall Street of America. It's really tough for those in Rural to get protection without feeling shamed. Whereas one lives in Big City America one thinks that "Birth Control" is anonymous. But...It ISN'T for RURAL AMERICA .....and that is still an important part of our Country who is Disadvantaged.

We need to be aware that not ALL OF AMERICA is the one we live and work in....there are other parts still who have Social Problems in Small Towns....where we have to be CAREFUL and are denied Access. The SHAME FACTOR that someone's Mom or Dad knows the Local Drugstore Employees and will TALK........

Recommend!

[jmowreader]

37. Birth control isn't the only place where our party is out of touch

Cars come to mind quickly.

I have pointed out on several occasions that no electric vehicle that doesn't have an auxiliary liquid-fueled engine (gas or diesel, makes no difference here) will become really popular in the middle of the US. To this I always hear a wave of protest: electric cars are great, they're the future, why would you want one to be polluting?

And the reason I'd want one to be polluting is very easy to demonstrate: Pull up Google Maps and plot a course from Billings, MT, to Albert Lea, MN. It's over 800 miles and there are maybe fifteen places to buy gas - very few of which are open 24/7 and some are cardlock only, meaning you need an account with the owner to use it. "Next Gas 100 Miles" signs aren't uncommon in the West; no one's going to build a charging station when it almost takes an act of Congress to get a gas station built - and there's already demand for gas. There is a vast amount of our great land that's essentially uninhabited...except for wheat fields and cattle ranches. And the problem is, that vast amount of land has twenty percent of the Senate representing it, and damn near every one of 'em is a Republican.

In Seattle you could ban petroleum and be okay. People would build electric-car recharging stations all over town. In California it'd be even easier. Same thing with any metropolitan area. But ya know what? You tell a farmer in North Dakota the Democrats are thinking about banning diesel and it'll chase him straight into the arms of the GOP, if he's not already there. The things that work great in Boston will NOT work, no matter how much we'd like them to, in the Great Smoky Mountains.

There are things we could do better. They could make hybrid diesel-electric pickups. You could take this pickup down to South Carolina's upcountry. It would do everything as well as, or perhaps better than, a pure-diesel pickup plus burn less fuel, and it wouldn't have to cost much more than a pure-diesel rig. People would buy it. But if you start talking about changing everyone over to pure-electric rigs, that upcountry gentleman's going to go, "now hold on there. It's 250 miles to Hilton Head. I can go down, fish and come back in one day in a diesel, but in an electric just driving there and back would take two days. Sorry, but I can't deal with that."

Perfect can be the enemy of good. We need to be about good, because the Republicans are all about bad - and if we insist on perfect, bad's what we'll get.

[KoKo]

39. Parting some in the South from their power Trucks is worse than being shamed by

the Birth Contol or Personal Products they might have to buy from local Pharma where the person knows the "Family."

Yeah...I understand what you are saying.

[MontyPow]

10. The only thing men find frustrating about buying condemns

Is that they found themselves in a position where they are expected to buy condemns.

Our culture has put all the responsibily and all of the blame on women.

[Bibliovore]

12. Funny typo. There's certainly a lot of condemnation surrounding birth control.

[MontyPow]

22. Accidental snark! I need to brush up on my spelling :P

[Shankapotomus]

13. If humans weren't such hound dogs

we would have unified Gravity with the other forces by now.

[Kalidurga]

17. well look at the bright side

at least the hound dogs tend to start fewer wars and such.

[dilby]

23. I would suck it up and deal with that if my insurance paid for them. n/t

[maddiemom]

24. This was great! When my daughter (around thirty at the time and in a serious relationship)

went into Planned Parenthood to get shots for birth control ( Shots! For birth control! In my generation it would have been the impossible dream.) no
one there blinked an eye, just helped with what she needed. Before, never claiming to be a "thirty year old virgin," she'd mostly relied on former boyfriends and, mostly, condoms, or the age old tricks for birth control. I know because we had honest conversations and she knew that I first got birth control pills when my (and most girls' family doc) wanted to be sure you were going to get married before issuing a prescription -- not that there weren't other medical resources. It's understandable that politicians who have a large right wing, heavily religious (by their biblical interpretations) feel the need to cater to that constituency. This is the essential problem, heavily exacerbated by a mixed race president, that is causing this country begin to fall far behind the other progressive nations. A major political leader with the nerve to call halt to the deference given to "Christian" religious political bigots in the U.S. , who are driving us back to the dark ages, will be more successful than can be imagined. The "squeeky wheel gets the grease could not be more appropriate these days. Too few of the MSM are bothering to counteract.

[Jamastiene]

28. It is missing the preaching and the being called a slut and other horrid

slurs, but it makes good points, nonetheless. K&R&FB&Tweeted

[Luminous Animal]

35. Adding a Rush Limbaugh character ranting about sluts would have definitely pushed it

to a feminist perspective rather than a day in the life woman perspective. I definitely would have appreciated that sort of addition.

[Rozlee]

30. The disapproving doctor in this skit reminds me of this judgmental receptionist

at an STD clinic I went to once in the 80s. It was a public STD clinic, for gawd's sakes. There were like two dozen clients in the waiting room and the receptionist would call out each person's name as it came up on the sign in roster and ask loudly when the person went up to her desk, "What do you want to be seen here for today?" She seemed to get a real kick out of making the clients say out loud, so everyone could hear, that they wanted to be seen to be checked for a venereal disease. If they said it real low, she'd ask them to speak up. She was absolutely horrid. What? She thought people were taking wrong turns at Ticket Master and winding up in her clinic?

[Luminous Animal]

36. Okay, this made me laugh. Not at the predicament but for your last sentence!

[Nevernose]

38. I ended up a sole, single parent because of HER lack of access

Because we were poor. Well, poor and young and irresponsible (but I guess poor and irresponsible are synonymous with young).

When The Bambina was an older teenager, and with her first serious boyfriend, I took her to my then-girlfriend's Ob/Gyn, who refused to put her on the pill. I then took her to Planned Parenthood, where I, in my totally uptight way, managed to stutter, "Give her the, you know stuff, so she doesn't, you know, have, stuff to, you know, worry about."

Eventually she thanked me, and hopefully makes me a grandparent when I'm ready (and her, too, of course!).

[Luminous Animal]

40. Good onya dad. My Grandma went with me in 1978. Thanks Grandma!

[hedgehog]

41. While I was looking at the video - an ad for Hobby Lobby popped up!

[Dirty Socialist]

42. Definitely A Strong Argument for Us Men to Buy Condoms