America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation by Elaine Tyler May

the pills.” Playboy replied by suggesting that complaints of side effects were merely old wives’ tales: “It’s always a bit

    galling when a scientific discovery threatens a long-cherished religious or moral notion.” 19
    Some letters to the editor appeared to be written by the edi- tors themselves, in order to provide an opportunity to respond. One allegedly female writer asked, “I am told that birth-control pills bring on many of the discomforts found in early pregnancy: sore and swollen breasts, excessive appetite and weight gain and sometimes even morning sickness. Does Playboy have anything to say about these disadvantages?” It is unlikely that an anony- mous woman from Long Beach, New Jersey, would write to Playboy , of all magazines, for advice about contraception. In their response, the editors quoted a psychiatrist who claimed, “Women will tolerate side effects . . . if they enjoy sexuality, do not perceive their husbands as being excessively sexually demanding and feel generally responsible for managing family planning.” 20

    With experts providing legitimacy fo r their claims, the editors of Playboy embraced the pill as a key to sex- ual liberation and pleasure, especially for men. Other experts, however, claimed that men were not necessarily liberated when their sexual partners took the pill. Indeed, some authorities warned that men might experience negative side effects. Ac- cording to a psychoanalyst writing in Redbook , many men “see their virility in terms of what they can do to women. A man like that used to be able to give his wife babies—lots of them— whether she wanted them or not. But the pills take this last bit of masculinity away from him.” 21
    The noted psychotherapist Rollo May agreed: “Being able to get a woman pregnant is a much deeper proof of manhood

    than anything else our culture has to offer.” Because women take the pill, “Men are withdrawing from sex. . . . Impotence is increasing. Men feel like drone bees.” 22 Psychiatrist Andrew Ferber added to this dismal view of contemporary manhood: “The male libido depends on culture. In our culture, the ability of the man to procreate is perhaps irrevocably tied to sex drive.” Sounding one note of optimism in this otherwise grim view, a male physician opined that it may be too late for today’s middle-aged men, but younger men might be more receptive, because they are “tuned into the population problems and are minus some of their parents’ sex hangups.” 23
    Dr. Robert W. Kistner, the Harvard professor of obstetrics and gynecology quoted at the beginning of this chapter and a leading expert on the pill, wrote in Ladies Home Journal in 1969 that when the pill first became available, many expected hus- bands to rejoice because the pill would “liberate the act of love from the specter of pregnancy and release pent-up womanly passion. . . . These assumptions, unfortunately, may not be uni- versally true.” Kistner warned his female readers that some hus- bands may experience “frustration, worry, fear and occasionally impotence” when their wives take the pill and become more sexually eager. He explained that for some men, sexual arousal results from competition and conquest of a reluctant wife. Some of his female patients “complained that their husbands would become sexually aroused when they undressed before them, only to lose their desire if the wives assumed the dominant role in the sex act or became the least bit animalistic.” 24
    Other experts echoed this concern. One noted that the typ- ical overworked husband comes home “mentally and physically

    spent—in no mood to satisfy his newly libidinous, pill-taking wife.” No longer the “virile attacker,” he becomes the “docile partner rendering mere service to his peer—or at least he feels that way.” Another described a woman who began taking the pill and “enjoyed her newfound sexual freedom almost to the point of nymphomania,” causing