“No Gods, No Masters”, Margaret Sanger on Birth Control
In 1914, women in the United States did not have the right to vote in most states, and they were not educated the same way; Anti-obscenity laws or Comstock laws were the double standard type of laws allowing unfaithful husbands to obtain condoms to protect themselves from venereal diseases but prohibited its contraceptive use by couples. Margaret Sanger had experienced the horrors and dangers of home abortion when she was a nurse in the immigrant neighborhood of New York’s Lower-east-Side, also, her experience as a labour organiser during the Lawrence Strike of 1912 taught her how to protest and reach a wide audience and slogan on her magazine “No gods no masters” which was used during the demonstrations. She started defending women’s rights thereafter. This first issue of Margaret Sanger’s The Woman Rebel marks the beginning of her fight for birth control; it followed a trip to Europe where she had conducted research on abortion techniques. Here, Sanger is trying to rally working-class women to her fight for contraception, as for her, women needed to break away from servile traditions such as unfair divorce regulation and be masters of their own bodies before even considering further rights.
In her introduction, Sanger emphasizes the fact that most women between 14 and 18 had a misperception on sexuality. Sanger uses very striking images such as “white slavery” l.21; it is a clear parallel to the inhuman former African-American slave’s condition which still resonates among her contemporaries; it is also a reference to the separation of spheres between civilized and uncivilized, educated opposed to uneducated, Sanger implies here that women are in the same position as black slaves were before the emancipation. Indeed, women's condition was meant to be submissive, their role was limited to conception, childcare and housekeeping. According to Sanger, men instigate fear in adolescent girls by feeding them “foul conception of sex” so as to maintain them in the illusion that sex is dangerous; sex education was considered inappropriate, obscene and therefore was not 6ju1xz, or twistedly given; Comstock said “Framed sex as an immoral temptation and worked to silence most public talk about sex” and that was still the norm in the early 20th century. It is also clear that the re-use as a title of the Industrial Workers of the World’s political slogan, “No Gods, No Masters”, chanted during Lawrence strike in which Sanger was involved, explicitly directs her writing to working-class women. Her Time with the IWW gave her the rhetorical ammunition that she fires in this text, women “will obstinately refuse to be adjusted”, this is a direct call to protest. Margaret Sanger then mentions prostitution and accuses men of “throw[ing] off responsibility, she denounces the “hypocrisy” of society toward women and claims that sex is a positive experience that gives women a “larger vision of life, stronger feelings and a broader understanding of human nature”.
In her introduction, Sanger emphasizes the fact that most women between 14 and 18 had a misperception on sexuality. Sanger uses very striking images such as “white slavery” l.21; it is a clear parallel to the inhuman former African-American slave’s condition which still resonates among her contemporaries; it is also a reference to the separation of spheres between civilized and uncivilized, educated opposed to uneducated, Sanger implies here that women are in the same position as black slaves were before the emancipation. Indeed, women's condition was meant to be submissive, their role was limited to conception, childcare and housekeeping. According to Sanger, men instigate fear in adolescent girls by feeding them “foul conception of sex” so as to maintain them in the illusion that sex is dangerous; sex education was considered inappropriate, obscene and therefore was not 6ju1xz, or twistedly given; Comstock said “Framed sex as an immoral temptation and worked to silence most public talk about sex” and that was still the norm in the early 20th century. It is also clear that the re-use as a title of the Industrial Workers of the World’s political slogan, “No Gods, No Masters”, chanted during Lawrence strike in which Sanger was involved, explicitly directs her writing to working-class women. Her Time with the IWW gave her the rhetorical ammunition that she fires in this text, women “will obstinately refuse to be adjusted”, this is a direct call to protest. Margaret Sanger then mentions prostitution and accuses men of “throw[ing] off responsibility, she denounces the “hypocrisy” of society toward women and claims that sex is a positive experience that gives women a “larger vision of life, stronger feelings and a broader understanding of human nature”.
However, to reach this elevated state of mind Sanger argues that all women need to have access to means of preventing conception. Again she denounces the double standard which had been set up by the Comstock Laws between middle-class women who “have all available knowledge and implements to prevent” it, whereas working-class women “struggle []” for it; she argues that giving this knowledge would improve lower classes living condition, which again is to reach her specific target audience. She goes on to defend further women right to their own body by stating that “marriage should be no concern of the State or of the Church”; she believes that the institution of marriage is to enslave women because it bounded them in a submissive state to a man for life. “The Woman Rebel” was soon banned by the post because it infringed the anti-obscenity laws of 1873 as it mentioned contraception; Sanger uses this ban to show that the State is not to be trusted in woman's matters, her last words are a call to rebellion against the tyranny of the State on women. Margaret Sanger fought to free women from the bounds that society was placing on them. Her struggle led her to face controversies and the State did not approve of her. She replied to women asking questions about their health, sexuality, and general fears about motherhood and morals, notably in her 1920 "Woman and the New Race" book.
However, she implemented birth control and it is thanks to her that a lot of American women can use the pill to prevent conception today. Now, in the Roe v.Wade case of 1973, Texas and the Supreme Court discussing about abortion will reuse the guidelines of Sanger's struggles and help to better the conditions of American women.
“Woman and the New Race”, Margaret Sanger, New York 1920 (read and summarized by Appoline).
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