Comments on: The Birth Control of Yesteryear http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/ A collection of Damn Interesting things Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:49:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Tink http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/#comment-25874 Tink Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:30:52 +0000 http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=851#comment-25874 [quote]Radiatidon said: "Interesting read. For centuries womankind has searched for the ultimate birth control with possible disastrous results. For instance a Roman grave yielded a 20 something woman whose mortal remains showed signs of a botched abortion using a stone tool not unlike a spear head, inserted into her pelvic region. Birth control falls into three different classes; practical, yah right, and downright dangerous. Women could avoid conception by holding their breath during the man’s orgasm, or immediately jumping backwards (eyes closed facing forward – no peeking or it won’t work) seven times after coitus. They could also try a quick swab of the vagina after intercourse with unused, virgin lamb’s wool. Packing the vagina with animal dung or using honey, pepper, alum, or lactic acid as a pessaries and/or barrier to the little swimmers. Centuries ago the women in China would ingest a concoction of lead and mercury, which had the unfortunate consequence of insanity, sterility, or death. Middle Eastern women would take a sharpened stick, insert it into the vagina, and tying one end to the leg for a night. Though this method did work, it had a tendency to have unfortunate side effects if the user tossed-n-turned during the night. During the Middle Ages European women would wear the testicles of weasels on their thighs, or wear its amputated foot around their necks during the horizontal rhombi. They also would wear wreaths of herbs, black cat’s livers or bone shards, hare anuses, and even flax lint bound in menstrual blood soaked cloth. It was also believed that walking three times around the spot where a pregnant she-wolf had urinated would scare the unborn child away. During the last century Canadian women drank dried beaver testicles stewed in a strong alcohol solution. This one sounds more like a guy invention to help loosen up the distressed girl friend for a second round. Though some of this sounds ridiculous, as recently as the 1990s girls in Australia were using candy bar wrappers as condoms, believing the foil would prevent conception. For centuries many women were not passing their first menarche (period) until their late teens or early twenties. So sexual antics were not producing unwanted teenage pregnancies. The age dropped to an average of 12-1/2 years-of-age during the 1840s. This change is believed to have occurred due to better nutrition, environmental factors, and genetics. (source – Sanfilippo & Hertweck)"[/quote] Radiatidon, Where are you dear Don? Any where else on the WWW net? Miss you and your wonderful stories. xxxooo [quote]Radiatidon said: “Interesting read. For centuries womankind has searched for the ultimate birth control with possible disastrous results. For instance a Roman grave yielded a 20 something woman whose mortal remains showed signs of a botched abortion using a stone tool not unlike a spear head, inserted into her pelvic region.

Birth control falls into three different classes; practical, yah right, and downright dangerous.
Women could avoid conception by holding their breath during the man’s orgasm, or immediately jumping backwards (eyes closed facing forward – no peeking or it won’t work) seven times after coitus. They could also try a quick swab of the vagina after intercourse with unused, virgin lamb’s wool.
Packing the vagina with animal dung or using honey, pepper, alum, or lactic acid as a pessaries and/or barrier to the little swimmers.
Centuries ago the women in China would ingest a concoction of lead and mercury, which had the unfortunate consequence of insanity, sterility, or death.
Middle Eastern women would take a sharpened stick, insert it into the vagina, and tying one end to the leg for a night. Though this method did work, it had a tendency to have unfortunate side effects if the user tossed-n-turned during the night.
During the Middle Ages European women would wear the testicles of weasels on their thighs, or wear its amputated foot around their necks during the horizontal rhombi. They also would wear wreaths of herbs, black cat’s livers or bone shards, hare anuses, and even flax lint bound in menstrual blood soaked cloth. It was also believed that walking three times around the spot where a pregnant she-wolf had urinated would scare the unborn child away.
During the last century Canadian women drank dried beaver testicles stewed in a strong alcohol solution. This one sounds more like a guy invention to help loosen up the distressed girl friend for a second round.
Though some of this sounds ridiculous, as recently as the 1990s girls in Australia were using candy bar wrappers as condoms, believing the foil would prevent conception.
For centuries many women were not passing their first menarche (period) until their late teens or early twenties. So sexual antics were not producing unwanted teenage pregnancies. The age dropped to an average of 12-1/2 years-of-age during the 1840s. This change is believed to have occurred due to better nutrition, environmental factors, and genetics. (source – Sanfilippo & Hertweck)”[/quote]

Radiatidon,
Where are you dear Don? Any where else on the WWW net? Miss you and your wonderful stories. xxxooo

]]> By: N0UGHTS http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/#comment-23195 N0UGHTS Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:33:26 +0000 http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=851#comment-23195 When I first read the title of the article, I thought this was going to be about how the Ancient Egyptians used crocodile dung as a contraceptive. I was wrong, but this article is still just as interesting (and less disgusting). When I first read the title of the article, I thought this was going to be about how the Ancient Egyptians used crocodile dung as a contraceptive. I was wrong, but this article is still just as interesting (and less disgusting).

]]> By: Mirage_GSM http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/#comment-23187 Mirage_GSM Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:08:29 +0000 http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=851#comment-23187 [quote] Granted a few of my residents are mentally challanged to the point that they are like children, but the majority have been so "spoilt" by the health care system…[/quote] This has to be the first time I have heard the phrase “spoilt by the (US) health care system”… Good thing, I wasn’t drinking anything at the moment. [quote]lizdini: It's sad that in a country with the motto "freedom and justice for all" so many people feel they are in a position to recommend forced sterilization of people they find to be below them. Americans really don't want to help anyone, it's all about what they want & screw everyone else. [/quote] From what I read, some of those suggesting sterilization are actively involved in helping people, and unless I missed some comment, only on poster ever suggested FORCED sterilization. Even being paid for sterilization is ethically questionable. I believe the US have in their constitution about “some certain, unalienable rights” meaning there are some things that may not be given away for money. I am sure selling kidneys is covered by this and sterilization would probably be a very dark grey area… As for deciding who should be allowed to have children and who shouldn’t – by what authority are we to decide who is able to raise a child? Get a writ from a shrink saying you are qualified to do so? On this page alone I have read stories of mothers who should have aborted their child by most standards mentioned here, yet they loved their child and did their best to raise it. On the other hand child abuse does happen even in wealthy upper class families. Should someone be denied the right to bear children because they are poor? Poor by what standard? Even the poorest family in the US has lots and lots more than the average family in Bangladesh. So should people in Bangladesh not have children? Do children in Bangladesh automatically lead unhappy lives? Some of the comments on this page go into a direction I do not like at all. I think there is a more recent article about this topic: http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=962 I’ll probably have a few comments there as well once I get there on my way through the archives. [quote] Granted a few of my residents are mentally challanged to the point that they are like children, but the majority have been so “spoilt” by the health care system…[/quote]
This has to be the first time I have heard the phrase “spoilt by the (US) health care system”… Good thing, I wasn’t drinking anything at the moment.

[quote]lizdini: It’s sad that in a country with the motto “freedom and justice for all” so many people feel they are in a position to recommend forced sterilization of people they find to be below them. Americans really don’t want to help anyone, it’s all about what they want & screw everyone else. [/quote]
From what I read, some of those suggesting sterilization are actively involved in helping people, and unless I missed some comment, only on poster ever suggested FORCED sterilization.

Even being paid for sterilization is ethically questionable. I believe the US have in their constitution about “some certain, unalienable rights” meaning there are some things that may not be given away for money. I am sure selling kidneys is covered by this and sterilization would probably be a very dark grey area…

As for deciding who should be allowed to have children and who shouldn’t – by what authority are we to decide who is able to raise a child? Get a writ from a shrink saying you are qualified to do so? On this page alone I have read stories of mothers who should have aborted their child by most standards mentioned here, yet they loved their child and did their best to raise it. On the other hand child abuse does happen even in wealthy upper class families.

Should someone be denied the right to bear children because they are poor? Poor by what standard? Even the poorest family in the US has lots and lots more than the average family in Bangladesh. So should people in Bangladesh not have children? Do children in Bangladesh automatically lead unhappy lives?

Some of the comments on this page go into a direction I do not like at all. I think there is a more recent article about this topic:
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=962
I’ll probably have a few comments there as well once I get there on my way through the archives.

]]> By: Correct me if I'm wrong, but: http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/#comment-22719 Correct me if I'm wrong, but: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:48:21 +0000 http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=851#comment-22719 lol, I find it hard to believe that that is the origin "I love you" heart symbol. I mean it would be the equivolent of sending your significant other a card that says I *picture of a condem* you, I *picture of a birth control pill* you or I *picture of viagra* you or something like that. lol, I find it hard to believe that that is the origin “I love you” heart symbol. I mean it would be the equivolent of sending your significant other a card that says I *picture of a condem* you, I *picture of a birth control pill* you or I *picture of viagra* you or something like that.

]]> By: lizdini http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/#comment-22134 lizdini Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:49:00 +0000 http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=851#comment-22134 It's sad that in a country with the motto "freedom and justice for all" so many people feel they are in a position to recommend forced sterilization of people they find to be below them. Americans really don't want to help anyone, it's all about what they want & screw everyone else. I hear it all the time from taxpayers. Dizzee is a prime example, she didn't get what she felt she deserved (by the by, if you didn't work for it, you don't deserve it, and if you worked for it you'd have it) so it's everyone else's fault. As long as they're a different color then she is. I'd like to know where you got your statistics? They look like crap to me. Just because you pay 20% of your income to taxes, it doesn't all go to social services, there's road repair, war spending, ect ect. Not to meantion all the financial aid you didn't recieve would have come out of other people's taxes, how is that fair to them? Anyway, back to the article at hand, I had heard about this plant from my college (community & a good education it was) anthropology teacher before, but still very DI! It’s sad that in a country with the motto “freedom and justice for all” so many people feel they are in a position to recommend forced sterilization of people they find to be below them. Americans really don’t want to help anyone, it’s all about what they want & screw everyone else. I hear it all the time from taxpayers. Dizzee is a prime example, she didn’t get what she felt she deserved (by the by, if you didn’t work for it, you don’t deserve it, and if you worked for it you’d have it) so it’s everyone else’s fault. As long as they’re a different color then she is. I’d like to know where you got your statistics? They look like crap to me. Just because you pay 20% of your income to taxes, it doesn’t all go to social services, there’s road repair, war spending, ect ect. Not to meantion all the financial aid you didn’t recieve would have come out of other people’s taxes, how is that fair to them?

Anyway, back to the article at hand, I had heard about this plant from my college (community & a good education it was) anthropology teacher before, but still very DI!

]]> By: JakobGeorge http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/#comment-19301 JakobGeorge Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:52:44 +0000 http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=851#comment-19301 It is too bad this message board has degenerated into off-topic jabs, etc., but: "Sometimes not getting the things you deserve really isn't your own fault." Nice quote, Dizzee. Any chance that this might also apply to poor Balcks and Hispanics? If the term "systemic racism" is not in your lexicon, I suggest you consider doing a little research. I do work w/ junkies and drunks, homeless people, etc., and I know that the vast majority of them are capable of doing much better for themselves, but I also know that the vast majority have been beaten down a system that feeds off of their weaknesses. I'm willing to bet that in America, as in Canada, you have a system in place that instills a learned helplessness in people with a "hand out" instead of a "hand up". I come from a relatively poor, blue collar white trash background; never heard the word "college" or "university" in our home. I admire people who can pull themselves up from zero to something, and I believe we are all capable of that. Perhaps Dizzee, et al, might want to look into doing something positive for the impoverished communities in your towns and cities. Addressing the choice issue vis-a-vis $1,000 to be sterilized, would rich people be entitled to that money as well, or should they get nothing if they choose to be sterilized since they already have lots of ca$h? Does being a corporate welfare bum count? We have some in Canada that cost the taxpayers million$ more, individually, than entire communities of regular welfare bums cost us. Ethically I'm opposed to eugenics but if it prevented the Bush Crime Family from breeding, I'd get on board. (In Canada we have scoundrels like former Prime Ministers Brina Mulroney and Paul Martin, Conrad Black, and other criminals...) As for the abortion debate, I recommend that women not have abortions if they don't want them; for men who don't want women to have abortions, I highly recommend you get vasectomies and STFU! It is too bad this message board has degenerated into off-topic jabs, etc., but:
“Sometimes not getting the things you deserve really isn’t your own fault.” Nice quote, Dizzee. Any chance that this might also apply to poor Balcks and Hispanics? If the term “systemic racism” is not in your lexicon, I suggest you consider doing a little research. I do work w/ junkies and drunks, homeless people, etc., and I know that the vast majority of them are capable of doing much better for themselves, but I also know that the vast majority have been beaten down a system that feeds off of their weaknesses. I’m willing to bet that in America, as in Canada, you have a system in place that instills a learned helplessness in people with a “hand out” instead of a “hand up”. I come from a relatively poor, blue collar white trash background; never heard the word “college” or “university” in our home. I admire people who can pull themselves up from zero to something, and I believe we are all capable of that. Perhaps Dizzee, et al, might want to look into doing something positive for the impoverished communities in your towns and cities.
Addressing the choice issue vis-a-vis $1,000 to be sterilized, would rich people be entitled to that money as well, or should they get nothing if they choose to be sterilized since they already have lots of ca$h? Does being a corporate welfare bum count? We have some in Canada that cost the taxpayers million$ more, individually, than entire communities of regular welfare bums cost us. Ethically I’m opposed to eugenics but if it prevented the Bush Crime Family from breeding, I’d get on board. (In Canada we have scoundrels like former Prime Ministers Brina Mulroney and Paul Martin, Conrad Black, and other criminals…)
As for the abortion debate, I recommend that women not have abortions if they don’t want them; for men who don’t want women to have abortions, I highly recommend you get vasectomies and STFU!

]]> By: Hayley http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/#comment-16701 Hayley Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:05:04 +0000 http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=851#comment-16701 <p>What a nifty article! That bit about the original heart-shape sounds pretty interesting. Too bad the discussion board has dissolved into mudslinging and off-topic jabs...people seem fairly happy believing what they want to; it makes me wonder why everyone else is so bent upon changing other people's beliefs to their own or degrading other people's opinions because they don't agree...but I guess me writing this is a bit of the same.</p> What a nifty article! That bit about the original heart-shape sounds pretty interesting. Too bad the discussion board has dissolved into mudslinging and off-topic jabs…people seem fairly happy believing what they want to; it makes me wonder why everyone else is so bent upon changing other people’s beliefs to their own or degrading other people’s opinions because they don’t agree…but I guess me writing this is a bit of the same.

]]> By: cybrbeast http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/#comment-16296 cybrbeast Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:31:57 +0000 http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=851#comment-16296 <p>Incognita, it sounds like they are from the USA. Some scary talk going on here. Most people aren't poor because they are lazy, they are poor because they were born into poverty and remained poor because the USA doesn't take care of its people. In most of Europe we have elaborate welfare systems, almost all people have basic health insurance, and everybody can get into college provided they have the intelligence. We take care of our people and we don't have such a great divide between the rich and poor. Poor people get chances and many use them. There is also a much smaller poverty problem in Europe. Sure we pay for it in high taxes, but the benefit of having a healthy society more than weighs up to it. </p> Incognita, it sounds like they are from the USA. Some scary talk going on here. Most people aren’t poor because they are lazy, they are poor because they were born into poverty and remained poor because the USA doesn’t take care of its people.
In most of Europe we have elaborate welfare systems, almost all people have basic health insurance, and everybody can get into college provided they have the intelligence. We take care of our people and we don’t have such a great divide between the rich and poor. Poor people get chances and many use them. There is also a much smaller poverty problem in Europe.
Sure we pay for it in high taxes, but the benefit of having a healthy society more than weighs up to it.

]]> By: Kao_Valin http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/#comment-16204 Kao_Valin Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:59:08 +0000 http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=851#comment-16204 <p>It's amazing how people in every era want to have their cake and eat it too. Really I doubt any large population wont have its career failures and potential dimonds in the rough. I'm glad there are people out there willing to sort thru them to help those who could use it, and kick the rest to the curb where they deserve. I dont believe in free rides. People ought to pull the weight they can pull, only after that should we bother to consider dragging them along.</p> It’s amazing how people in every era want to have their cake and eat it too. Really I doubt any large population wont have its career failures and potential dimonds in the rough. I’m glad there are people out there willing to sort thru them to help those who could use it, and kick the rest to the curb where they deserve. I dont believe in free rides. People ought to pull the weight they can pull, only after that should we bother to consider dragging them along.

]]> By: Incognita http://www.damninteresting.com/the-birth-control-of-yesteryear/#comment-16138 Incognita Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:58:33 +0000 http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=851#comment-16138 <p>Are you people ALL from the USA....?</p> Are you people ALL from the USA….?

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