And sometimes the gentleman drops off his hat
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Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:15 AM EDT
When Rachel excused the ladypeople from the room last night so she could explain a few things to Mitt Romney in the man cave, ladyperson Alex Alvarez hung around. And that's really so good, because her description of the lesson Mitt Romney in the man cave got should go on its own poster:
Maddow ... gave a very thoughtful shout-out to us straight ladies, noting that, at times, we engage in activities where sperm — courtesy of a gentleman — may find itself approaching an egg — provided by the lady — even though neither party hopes for these two elements to come together and form a blastocyst. Hormonal birth control can stop this by, say, stopping the production of eggs (ovulation), so that the sperm have no one to welcome them. They also make it more difficult for a gentleman’s sperm to even get close enough to a lady’s egg to drop off his calling card. It’s all incredibly civilized, I assure you. Now, should a gentleman manage to leave his calling card successfully, some forms of birth control work to make sure the resulting blastocyst doesn’t implant itself on the uterine wall, a thing for which I don’t have a nice metaphor. Dropping off his coat and hat? That works, yes?Mama said don't drop off your coat and hat unless you're invited to stay.
This blog post is dedicated to Beth Schopis of Iowa, who heroically asked Mitt Romney about birth control and his support for personhood and would not let the question go, in the best possible way.
The man cave guide to lady parts - Romney edition
'This is for Men who do not understand what contraceptives do. This is for Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, Paul, all GOP Governors, and Mr. Rush Limbaugh, especially' Peggy said this I swear
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Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:36 PM EDT
See also The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists FAQs on birth control pills and the intrauterine device (IUD).
What we're talking about with both the pill and the IUD are two hormones either individually or in combination, estrogen and progestin (and also, in the case of some IUDs, copper, which I just learned tonight - see the FAQ link above). So a woman might take a mix of estrogen and progestin or else they do a progestin-only program - sometimes because the estrogen reacts poorly for them.
From what I've read, the progestin is the real root of the matter in terms of where anti-abortion one-upsmanship crosses into birth control territory. One of the effects of progestin is the thinning of the lining of the uterus, making for poor conditions for implantation. So the freshly fertilized egg, already a baby according to some GOP candidates, doesn't stick and grow, it just passes on out. Or it might stick, but just not take and pass out anyway. Of course, you don't need progestin to make any of this happen. A fertilized egg can just not implant sometimes and the woman might not even realize it. And, something I've come to learn anecdotally, it's not at all uncommon for the uterus to shed its lining in the early stages of pregnancy anyway (before I knew this I generally thought of a miscarriage as an unsuccessful birth).
It's also worth knowing that the pill isn't just about birth control. Because the progestin thins the lining of the uterus, that can make a woman's period lighter. (Less stuff to pass I guess?) So a woman may take the pill for reasons that have as much to do with her period as preventing birth (see, for example, dysmenorrhea [not as gross as it sounds]). Furthermore, as a woman gets older, she'll sometimes need to take hormones just to keep her body's levels in the right balance. I'm not just talking about menopause, I'm talking about the time leading up to that too - perimenopause. So a woman may be fertile (needing birth control) but also hormonally irregular (in need of hormone supplements). My point here is that we keep using the term "birth control" as though the only purpose is so we can boff away without fear of pregnancy, but for many women the pill is medicine.
Obviously the TRMS man cave is a relatively inexpert place to find gynecological information, so I appreciate any corrections and clarifications you can offer to the material presented here. I've even saved the psd file of the graphic in case changes are warranted.
Lady Parts legislation disseminates through GOP state legislatures
Government Free VJJ
Who Are We?
We are women, we are strong, we are smart. And we have a sense of humor.
We do not need government interference with our doctors or our healthcare.
We do not need government probing our vaginas to help us make decisions about abortion.
We do not need government to give us guidance about whether or not to take birth control.
We do not need misogynistic pundits calling us sluts and prostitutes.
We are half of the population and we will not be treated as children or a disenfranchised minority.
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Tell your male government representatives:
“Hands off my uterus! Here’s one of your own!”
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