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Good day ladies and gentle men, it is a great honour to lead a discussion on the sexual revolution today.  When you hear the term sexual revolution for the first time you expect to see some significant change in sexual practices since prehistoric time – people having more sex, more extreme sex etc.  So I decided to start with prehistoric man and came across this bit of “history” …

from this I realised that people were having wild sex since prehistoric time and are still at it…so the question arises what has changed and has it changed for better or worse?

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[after 2^nd bullet] So what motivated this change?  To understand the sexual revolution we need to focus not on sexuality per se, but on the consequence of sex – fertility.  Across the ages from primitive society to modern day societies people were trying to control their fertility.  Either to have children or not to have children or just to space the birth of children across time. 

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Many consider the sexual revolution as the substantial change in sexual morality and sexual behaviour brought about by modern contraceptives.  To understand this lets look at the history of contraception. In early history the Church and Christian teachings dominated western thought.  Sex was seen as a pro-creative act which should be shared between a man and a women within a marriage relationship to ensure the care of their offspring.  Although initially against any form of ‘artificial’ intervention in fertility as Martin Segalen pointed out “People had not even imagined the possibility of influencing the sexual act, which was an act of nature”, The church later under social pressures adopted what was considered closest to its teachings – Natural family planning – specifically the rhythm methods. Quoted from a church approved text of the time the rhythm method was seen as “Enabling married people to know when, by performing the married act, they are cooperating with God in the procreation of a new human being”.

Different forms of the condom was around since the early 1500’s mainly as a preventative measure against venereal disease in what could be considered sexual immoral acts. 

Modern contraceptives provided the ‘technological fix’ of contraception that sharply contrasted against the more natural methods like abstinence and extended nursing etc.  It therefore added to the conceptualisation of binary opposites like civilised vs primitive; culture vs nature and effective vs ineffective. 

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Seen within the context in which it was created modern contraceptives had a noble cause – to ensure societal stability

So lets evaluate its successfulness…

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When looking at a graph, based on research done by the INFO Project, in which the relationship between levels of fertility and levels of contraceptive use are illustrated it is easy to jump to the conclusion that modern contraceptives must have been successful. However, the contraceptive use figure is made up out of both modern and traditional methods.

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As can be expected the use of modern methods account for nearly 9 out of 10 contraceptive methods employed worldwide.

Contrary to what is expected however – a higher percentage of women employ traditional methods of fertility control in developed countries. 

A holistic approach which evaluates aspects such as urbanization and related changes in gender roles, societal norms etc. are therefore essential. 

Let us therefore look at these specifically within the South African context.

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Ironically white communities published extensively in the 1980s on the threat of the white race’s extinction, while black communities were considered as to blame for their own poverty and underdevelopment as a result of their high fertility rates.  

With the South African context it is easy to see that population control is philosophically and ideologically rooted in inequality, racism and patriarchy.

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(after bullet 1)Through the promotion of family planning, access to birth control or reproductive rights which rest on the notion of equality and informed decisions in the midst of multiple options.

Studies suggest that people are however not fully informed of all their fertility management option especially Natural Family Planning options because of health care professional’s scepticism regarding the effectiveness of these methods. 

But are modern contraceptives really as effective?  Are they enhancing life and personal relationships?

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(Teenage preg rate…) One reason put forward for this is that young women only receive adequate education after they have given birth to their first child.  A bit late don’t you think!!

(end) So we can see that firstly the population control and the premises on which it is based are flawed and give rise to misconceptions about the effectiveness of modern contraception.  Any method is as effective as the diligence with which it is used. 

So lets look at the Sexual revolutions promise to enhance committed / marital relationships…

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(opening line) To explore this we would need to look at the influence that the sexual revolution and the promotion of modern contraceptives had on gender roles. 

(closing statement) This begs the question who is supposed to be responsible – is it not both since both contribute to conception?

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Modern contraception is not delivering on its promises.

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This is the topic of my PhD, because I firmly believe that through understanding the implicit meaning of contraceptive choices we would be better geared at addressing them and ultimately be more successful not only in our family planning efforts but our HIV/AIDS youth prevention efforts too.

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Government has actually given us the guidelines to address the inequalities created by the sexual revolution, because if our health system promotes the enhancement of life and personal relationships they would acknowledge the divide that an overemphasis on modern contraception is creating amongst men and women. 

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Through doing this research I have learned that modern contraceptives have side effects which decreases ones chances of ovulation after discontinuing use. And in some cases it also encourages endometriosis.  Now generally when you go to a gyne they say use this contraceptive it will improve your skin, and balance your hormones and all the rest. Myself and friends are struggling through the experience of very expensive infertility treatment, which raises the question of what is driving the promotion of modern contraception – concern for patients or financial gain?

Also, If I had the appropriate education then about all the options, all the effects, I would have definitely chosen the option that would have a longer positive influence in my life. Knowing that I wanted children some day.

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