Group Blog for Western History and Culture

Monday, March 31, 2014

The History of Abortion in America

Abortion is one of today’s most controversial topics. Some people say the women has a choice because it is her body, others say the child is alive, meaning it has human rights. No matter what you stance on the abortion debate, it is important to know the history of it in our country.[1]

Long ago in the early 1800’s abortion was legal in America, in fact it was not until the mid-1800’s that there were laws against abortion. At the time of the writing of the constitution abortion was very openly advertised, and many people practiced it. Abortion had been practiced many, many years before the discovery of America, so from the time of the early settlers abortion was practiced.[2]

There are many reasons why abortion was starting to be made illegal in the States, one was people were worried the children of the immigrants would dominate the population. The reason for this fear was that the birthrates of those incoming women were much higher, than the Anglo-Saxon women that were already living there. The earliest known law against abortion was in Connecticut in 1821, and by 1860 twenty states had laws limiting abortion.[3]

In the 1800’s any surgical procedure, not just abortion was risky, but with abortion becoming illegal many of the “doctors” carrying out the procedures were not qualified at all. This resulted in many women being injured, possibly even killed, because they thought they needed an abortion.[4]

From the 1880’s- 1973 is known as the prohibition on abortion, meaning that the number of “back alley abortions” were on the rise. In the years before Roe v. Wade it is said that illegal abortions were as high as 1.2 million per year. This is proof that making abortion illegal did not reduce the amount of abortions being had during this time period.

In 1973 a critical decision was made in favor of abortion in the Roe v. Wade case. The Supreme Court decided that a woman could get an abortion from a well-trained doctor. Jane Roe, a 21 year old pregnant woman, took Henry Wade a Texas Attorney General to court over a law that said abortion was illegal unless the woman’s life was on the line. The court heard her case and the decision for legal abortion was made.[5] Side note, today Jane Roe is pro-life, and 100% against abortion.[6]

Today, the country is divided on the topic, some states are for abortion some are against. I personally think the abortion is wrong the child is alive, and well in the womb. And the best proof for this is the laws when you kill a pregnant woman in some states it counts as two cases of murder. If the baby is not alive, why count it as two counts of murder? In the end abortion will always be a topic of controversy, and we are far from solving it.

-Nathan Brown

[1] National Abortion Federation, "The History of Abortion." Last modified 2010. Accessed March 31, 2014. https://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/history_abortion.html.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid

[5] ibid

[6] Steven, Ertelt. Lifenews.com, "Woman Behind Roe v. Wade: “I’m Dedicating My Life to Overturning It." Last modified Jan. 22, 2013. Accessed March 31, 2014. http://www.lifenews.com/2013/01/22/woman-behind-roe-v-wade-im-dedicating-my-life-to-overturning-it/.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Evolution of Birth Control in 19th Century

The Evolution of Birth Control in the 19^th Century

Dating all the way back to 3000 B.C., humans have tried to find a way to stop the seed from evolving into another human being through sexual reproduction. Even though some people and places have different standards and cultures, humans have been pursuing this idea of protection for a very long time. Before vulcanized rubber came into play in 1838, humans were experimenting with animal intestines, fish bladders, and even cheap linen to try and develop a version of our modern day condom[1]. Looking back at history, the most important and revolutionary event that involved birth control was the passing of the Comstock Law in 1873. With the passing of this law, birth control and any contraceptive or obscene devices were illegal to be transported through the mail. This caused a lot of things to change but before I delve deeper into that, I want to look further back into the time of the Industrial Revolution. During this time, contraceptive devices were being used widely all throughout the U.S. Ranging from pessaries, small devices that women would stick in their vaginas to block sperm, all the way to herbs used for Abortions. Although most of the tactics that people were using were seen as barbaric today, they were seen as quite normal back then. After the invention of the vulcanized rubber for condoms, the whole contraceptive industry exploded and new more sophisticated devices were made such as intrauterine devices, vaginal sponges, cervical caps, and even male caps, which were simply condoms that covered just the head of the penis. All of these inventions completely revolutionized the way people were having sex and even British playwright George Bernard Shaw said the condom was “the greatest invention of the 19^th century”[2] Although things seemed progressive for a while and contraceptives were accepted, things quickly changed in 1873 when the Comstock Law outlawed the passing of any of these devices through the mail. Since most companies saw this as a harm to their business and profits, they decided to do something unique. Since losing profit wasn’t an option, the companies simply began to re-label their products as “hygiene” products. Although they

maintained the same general properties as before, they were now being labeled to prevent germs instead of sperm and sexual penetration. In fact the most popular form of contraception between 1930 and 1960 was the Lysol Douche, which was supposively approved by European doctors, who later were proved to be non-existent. In conclusion, the evolution of birth control in the 19^th century was pretty progressive and a lot of new devices completely revolutionized the way we look at sex and the way sex was performed.

[1] Thompson, Kirsten. Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "Our Bodies Ourselves: Birth Control." Accessed March 30, 2014. http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=18&compID=53.

[2] Daniel , DeNoon. Medicinenet.com, "MedicineNet." Last modified 08 06, 2001. Accessed March 30, 2014. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51170.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Effect of Religion on The View of Homosexualtiy Today

Christians Say What?

By: Madison Anderson

So there has been a huge controversy over whether or not homosexual marriage should be legalized, and we base our decisions on our religion and moral values. As Christians, our Bible states six main verses that target whether or not same sex relationships are moral. These verses are referred to as The “Clobber” Passages. How sad is it that passages from the Bible, which are meant to be about loving one another and truth, are referred to as clobber. These passages include Genesis 19:1-5, Leviticus 20:13, Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Romans 1:21-31, 1 Timothy 1:9-10 and Jude 1:6-7. So based off of these verses we can draw the conclusion that homosexuality is wrong, right? Well what if I said that there was not a word that translated from Greek to English that meant homosexual? Greek was the language that the Bible was first translated into. In Leviticus 18:22 in the Living Bible, it states the word homosexuals, however the word homosexual was not used until the 1940’s. Shocked yet? The Living Bible was published in 1971, but it is only viewed as a paraphrase of the Bible. This seems wrong to me if you compare the NLT with the KJV because the KJV does not directly say homosexuality. Then to break things down a little more, in Romans 7:4-6 it states that we as Christians are no longer under the law. So what does this have to do with anything today? Well everything. I cannot stand hearing people state so intentionally that homosexuality is wrong, and they point fingers and weigh it as if it is any worse than any other sin that we all commit; remember there are always three fingers pointing back when you point a finger at someone else. For a while now I have had a problem with Christians condemning the LGBT community. You do not see them standing on the side of the road condemning you for cheating on your wife. When it comes to my personal belief, what I tell myself is that I would rather someone come to church and feel loved than commit suicide because they have to hide their true selves. I feel like we have gotten something backwards here whether it be because of mistranslation or our own flaws, but it needs to be reevaluated. Standing on the side of the road telling people they will go to hell because of their choices or how they were born? Come on now get real![1]

Sundby, ET. GALIP Foundation, "Calling the Rainbow Nation Home." Last modified 2014. Accessed March 29, 2014. http://www.gaychurch.org/homosexuality-and-the-bible/calling-the-rainbow-nation-home/.

[1] ET Sundby, “Calling the Rainbow Nation Home” Gay Church, GALIP Foundation, www.gaychurch.org, (accessed March 29, 2014)

kikiandtea.com

carm.org

Friday, March 28, 2014

History of Strip Clubs

Everybody knows what a strip club is even if you have never been to one. When you see the bright neon lights and the giant sign that says something like “Girls! Girls! Girls!” you know exactly what is going on behind the front door of that building. Knowing what a strip club is today, for most people, is common knowledge. The thing that most people do not ever think of is the history of strip clubs.

Nobody knows who the very first person to begin stripping was, or where stripping began, but there is evidence that striping has been around for a long time. There is evidence that stripping has been around since the bible.[1] I find it fascinating that stripping has been around for so long because when most people think of stripping, they think about the modern form of stripping with poles in a club.

The 20^th century seems to be when the first actual dancing, or strip clubs began to pop up. Many of the clubs in the United States were not accepted and they may have been burnt down or the police may have raided them.[2] It’s obvious that opinions toward these types of clubs have changed because you can go to most big cities around the US and find more than one strip club. For example, Las Vegas has man different strip clubs to choose from.[3]

The 50’s is when stripping became more accepted. During this time, stripping was one of the main parts of the ever growing sex industry and stripping was also very marketable. For most of history stripping has been for females only but in the past 20 years or so, males have been stripping.[4] Pole dancing is pretty much what everyone thinks about when they hear the words “strip club” and that was not really a popular thing until about the 70’s and 80’s. Strip clubs have generally remained the same as far as the pole goes except some things have been added. The lap dances and contact dances are a couple of examples of things that have changed since the pole has been added to the strip clubs.[5] Stripping and strip clubs have evolved over hundreds of years and the modern strip club is much different from the clubs that were around many years ago.

[1] "The history of stripping." Accessed March 28, 2014. http://www.montrealstriptease.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=28&lang=en.

[2] "The History of Exotic Dancing." Last modified May 14, 2013. Accessed March 28, 2014. http://www.busama.com/the-history-of-exotic-dancing.

[3] "The History of Exotic Dancing." Last modified May 14, 2013. Accessed March 28, 2014. http://www.busama.com/the-history-of-exotic-dancing.

[4] "The history of stripping." Accessed March 28, 2014. http://www.montrealstriptease.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=28&lang=en.

[5] "The history of stripping." Accessed March 28, 2014. http://www.montrealstriptease.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=28&lang=en.

America’s War on Masturbation & Anti-Masturbation Devices of the 19th Century

Want your children to stop masturbating? Do as some 19^th century extremists did and put their genitalia in an uncomfortable, inhumane confinement. That will surly show them you care. One of the beliefs that was prevalent in the 19^th century was that the sexual innocence of children should be protected. Religious beliefs did not condone masturbation. They thought that it was only appropriate to express sexual desire in a marriage. [1]

Below are two examples of the anti-masturbation devices uses. The one on the left is made from copper and would be for a male. The chastity belt on the right was for a woman. It would not harm her, but would do unsightly damage to anything that was headed in the direction of her no, no zone.

There was not a large amount of research conducted on the penis or the vagina, however it was concluded that sex or masturbation could be potentially detrimental to one’s health. The speculated health issues were both physical and mental. A few were included insanity, involuntary discharge of seminal fluid, damaged eyesight, epilepsy and heart pains.[2]

Sylvester Graham thought that nutrition was in direct relation to sexual desire. Indulging yourself in a piece of cake was thought to encourage someone give into their sexual urges. Thus the invention of the Graham Cracker! When it was first created it did not have all of the cinnamon-sugary flavor that the cracker now has today. It was bland and cardboard-like. Graham believed that this addition to a young boys diet would lesson their sexual desire. Kellogg’s corn flakes were created for the very same reason. [3]

What seems to be the most extreme method of preventing masturbation is both male and female circumcision. Doctors believed that if they removed the foreskin of the male penis that young boys would be discouraged from reaching down there (however that is not accurate).[4] Female circumcision was initiated to treat chronic masturbators and nymphomania. The clitoris could either be burnt or cut off completely.

Has the trend of circumcision in the 19^th century affected the amount of circumcision we see today? It could be considered to be an influence because an estimated 75% of men are circumcised in the current United States. However the purpose has gone from masturbation prevention to pure cosmetic concern. Luckily there is not a trend in female circumcision and it’s not something that you hear about occurring in the US.

Lydia Boinest

[1] Voll, Michael. Cracked, "5 Insane Ways Fear of Masturbation Shaped the Modern World Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_19520_5-insane-ways-fear-masturbation-shaped-modern-world.html

[2] Robinson, B.A. Ontario Consultants onReligious Tolerence, "Medical Beliefs in Past Centuries ." Last modified December 09, 2005. Accessed March 28, 2014. http://www.religioustolerance.org/masturba4.htm.

[3] Matt, Soniak. Mental_floss, "Corn Flakes Were Invented as Part of an Anti-Masturbation Crusade." Last modified December 28, 2012. Accessed March 28, 2014. http://mentalfloss.com/article/32042/corn-flakes-were-invented-part-anti-masturbation-crusade.

[4] Marsh, Jan. V&A, "Sex & Sexuality in the 19th Century." Accessed March 28, 2014. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/sex-and-sexuality-19th-century/.