Contraception and the Control of the Body | Part 1

New Polity

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Maria and Marc read Humanae Vitae, the Catholic Church's decisive rejection of contraception, as a text which prophesies and makes sense out of the meaninglessness we ascribe to our male and female bodies today.

This episode is part 1 of a conversation on the Control of the Body. Listen to part 2 here:

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READINGS

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Introductory Episode

We don’t have any readings for our introduction, but it may be helpful to give Gender, by Ivan Illich, a read, to get hip to a medieval/pre-industrial vision of Gender. Here’s a pdf: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/libra...

Capitalism

We are reading Silvia Federici’s “The Accumulation of Labor and the Degradation of Women” in her book “Caliban and the Witch,” which is available in our magazine, Issue 4.4: https://newpolity.com/single-issues/i... But if you are POOR or CHEAP here’s a pdf. The essay in question starts on pg. 60: https://files.libcom.org/files/Caliba... This is also a great time to read Karl Polyani’s “The Great Transformation,” which gives a (non gender specific) account of the transition to liberalism/capitalism in Europe. Here’s a pdf: https://inctpped.ie.ufrj.br/spiderweb...

The Loss of the Virgin

We are reading Martin Luther condemning virginity, not because he was the only guy to do it, but because (a) he has a flair for exhortations and (b) we had to pick someone. The point is to understand how what had been an unquestioned symbol of perfection in Christendom is now being characterized as a merely individual calling. The only free source for this exhortation in English appears to be this pretty intense website: https://www.godrules.net/library/luth... If you need an example of previous Christian enthusiasm for virginity, try Gregory of Nyssa “On Virginity”: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/290...

The Beige World

The kids aren’t just bored, they are navigating a society of consumption through the power of efficacious vanity! For a primer on consumerism, we read William Cavanaugh’s “Being Consumed.” https://www.eerdmans.com/978146743829... Then we read Christopher Lasch’s “Culture of Narcissism.” Available wherever books are sold a momentarily at this link: https://thezeitgeistmovement.se/files... Marc mentioned Eberstadt’s “Primal Screams.” Here’s his review: https://humanumreview.com/articles/ma...

Contraception, Abortion Episode (I-II)

Donum Vitae: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/co... (All hail the parchment background) Humanae Vitae: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-v... (All mourn the loss of the parchment background) The Problem of Individualism We read the meanest book in the world so you didn’t have to. You will learn very little from Otto Weininger’s effort to destroy the woman and her sign, but here it is if you want to: https://brittlebooks.library.illinois...