Birth Control

Introduction Birth control or control of population growth has been a raging debate for centuries because it is a sexual issue that religion, traditions, politics, and the entire society has silenced and laden it with lots of taboos.Advertising We will write a custom thesis sample on Birth Control specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More During the ancient times, sex and sexuality had been under immense silence as no one was supposed to talk about it in public places. According to Foucault, sex has been a secret affair because there has been so many forces that reduced it to silence, but has recently loosened up and allowed people to question the intricacies of sex (78). Realizing that sex has been secret and silenced for centuries, modern society is struggling to unravel the mystery behind sex through various discourses. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, population growth rate of the world was growing exponentially. For in stance, in the United States, women had an average of seven children, and thus, necessitated control of population. Although governments saw the need to control population growth, various religions and cultures were against it, for they perceived reproduction as a natural process that needs no interference. Religions, cultures, and politics have been grappling with the issue of population growth because while some perceive it a societal issue, others perceive it as a reproductive issue of women. Discourses in culture, religion, politics, education, health, feminism, sexuality, gender, race, and class show that birth control is an issue that touches on women’s health, and therefore, women have the right to control population growth. Culture and Traditions During ancient times, culture and traditions imposed many taboos on sex and sexuality in that societal values determined matters related to reproduction. Since men dominated society, they had powers to determine the number of children that their wives should have in marriage. Men had powers to decided ethics regarding sex as they imposed taboos to restrict how women perceive their sexuality and reproduction. Foucault asserts that sex exists in a binary system of right and wrong, legal and illegal, permitted and forbidden, which shows that it is subject to law and power (83). The law and power associated with sex gave men powers to have control over women and decide their sexuality, gender and reproduction.Advertising Looking for thesis on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Cultures and traditions suppressed women, for they did not give them freedom to champion for their rights as members of the society with reproduction capacity (Berreman 400). Due to male chauvinism that dominated the society, issues involving sex and women were in deep silence and under the domain of men because taboos imposed many restrictions. Evolution of cultur es and traditions from ancient times to modern society has led to empowerment of women and diminishing of taboos, which restricted women from advocating for their rights. The adoption of various cultural and traditional practices, from various parts of the world, led to development of civilized culture and traditions that recognize exceptional needs of women and empower them. Sex and sexuality transformed from silence state into public debates due to the emergence of many discourses. Discourses have significantly enhanced perception of gender, sexuality and humanity, which subsequently led to the emergence of the need to control population. Luker argues that, counter normative approach to sexuality is an effective discourse that has empowered women by restructuring and configuring societal power (29). In spite of cultural taboos that restrict women from having power to control their sexuality and reproduction, modern society has made significant strides towards empowering women in m atters of birth control. Society has different members with different attributes that classify them into races and classes. Race and class influence how people perceive the essence of population control. In the society, race and class determine social status and power of an individual. Ability of women to control their sexuality and reproduction in spite of societal pressure depends on racial and class prejudices of the society. Conventionally, whites are privileged race relative to blacks, hence making them to have a higher social class than blacks. Luker debates that, due to diversity of race and classes, people have used different contraception methods because of their unique beliefs, traditions, and cultures (54). Since whites have a high social classes and race, their family lifestyles of having few children has formed the basis of civilization. Blacks are aping whites’ culture because they have empowered their women to have control over their reproduction and sexuality. Trends of population growth show that, blacks have high growth rate, yet they have lower social class because most are living below the poverty level.Advertising We will write a custom thesis sample on Birth Control specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Critical analysis of race and class shows that, white women have control over their sexuality and reproduction; thus, they have low reproductive rate. On the other hand, black women have limited control over their sexuality and reproduction, which explains why they have high reproductive rate. Therefore, it means that privileged race and high social class are factors that empower women to regulate the sexuality and reproduction. Religion Regions have played a critical role in restricting control of population through their teachings on morality and spiritual matters. Dominant religions of the world like Christianity, Islam and Hindu have been against control of population using contra ceptives and abortion. Religious leaders assert that, the use of contraceptives and abortions as means of controlling population is contrary to divine teachings, and thus an abomination to God. Nevertheless, diverse religions perceive control of population as a moral, as well as, a spiritual issue that an individual or political entity has no power to dictate. Therefore, religions perceive that women have no right over their sexuality and reproduction because they fall under family, which is an integral unit of society. A moral society has responsibility of ensuring that every family adheres to religious principles that reflect divine values and virtues. According to Teltsch, Pope Paul IV issued encyclical banning artificial birth control methods because there are against Christian teachings (17). The encyclical triggered mixed reactions not only among Catholics but also in healthcare systems across the world. Many Catholics perceived banning of artificial methods of family planning as a bold move that deserves praise, while others perceived it as retrogressive move that would deprive women of their sexual rights. Mixed reactions among population showed that, birth control would continue to be a raging debate until women attain right to their sexuality. Religions perceive procreation as a divine gift that God gave to humanity; thus, they have a responsibility of ensuring that families should comply with divine principles to respect marriage as a divine institution. According to Islam, use of contraceptives and legalization of abortion is an abomination and sin that God does not support.Advertising Looking for thesis on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Muslims believe that control of population using contraceptives is unspiritual because it promotes prostitution and promiscuous behavior in the society. Moreover, abortion is not only an immoral act but also a crime because it involves murdering of innocent fetus, which has no power to protect itself unless religion and society protect it. Srikanthan and Reid explain that, Muslims believe that a family is a basic unit of society, which depends on sex for procreation purposes according to the will of God (132). They believe that use of artificial methods in control of the population is contrary to the will of God and detrimental to humanity due to loss of morals. With time, religions have come to realize that population control is a critical issue in the society that is subject to many factors apart from religious teachings. Ancient religions depicted sexuality from divine perspective, but current religions have reduced it to moral levels where people can have their own opinions. Thu s, in modern society, there are no explicit religious principles that outline recommended contraceptive methods except abortion. Various religions agree that abortion is a crime unless done under a medical condition that threatens life of mother and baby. In response to economic, legal and social pressures, diverse religions have recommended different methods of population control. According to Srikanthan and Reid, catholic recommends abstinence and rhythmic method, while Islam supports coitus interruptus and some contraception methods that are safe, legal and temporary (132). Hence, disparity in religious beliefs has led to diversification in contraceptive methods. Trends of contraception methods among religions show that women have ultimate decision on the nature of contraceptives that they use in controlling population. Although religions can recommend kinds of contraceptives that women should take, they cannot force anyone, hence women have the power to decide their reproductive health. Political Economy Population control is a political issue since it relates to economic growth and welfare of population of a country. Demographic experts are warning that exponential growth of population signal impending disaster since economic resources are diminishing gradually. Since population growth is going to strain diminishing resources, many countries are trying to use various means of contraception to slow down population growth and stabilize economic growth sustainably. Increase of population in one country threatens the sustainability of resources in other countries since resources flow according to factors of demands and supplies. To achieve a stable political economy, politicians are formulating policies and regulations, which are essential in regulating population growth. A country with the capacity to regulate its population has assurance of better economic growth and improved welfare of the people because there is sustainable utilization of resources. A cou ntry with uncontrolled population growth has no future prospects because it cannot sustain its own people with time. Michelle asserts that, empowering women to advocate for their rights, and have access to family planning methods are ethical and most effective means of controlling population growth (34). Stable economy requires that every woman should have an average of two to three children to guarantee both sustainability of resources and maintain stable growth rate of population. From a perspective of political economy, control of the population is a matter that is in the sphere of women, and thus they deserve to have right to their sexuality and reproduction. Countries with exponential growth of the population are now advocating for birth control by use of contraceptives and abortion to eliminate unwanted or unplanned pregnancies. Unplanned pregnancies are a serious burden to women because it affects their welfare state by restricting them to childbearing lives. Siow argues that , availability of birth control pills and legalization of abortion has significantly improved welfare of women because they can postpone marriage, pursue their careers and accumulate wealth while indulging themselves in sexual activities (3). The importance of the contraceptive pill became evident in 1970s when number of women who join universities and colleges increased markedly. Hence, use of contraception and legalization abortion is an effective way of not only regulating population growth but also empowering women to focus on their careers as their male counterparts. For centuries, childbearing has been basic responsibility of a woman in the society because men dominated their sexuality. However, advent of contraception methods and legalization of abortion has enabled women to make an informed decision on when to have children without any undue pressure from men. Gender and Sexuality Realizing that men have been dominating society, as well as their sexuality, women began to adv ocate for their empowerment through ideology of feminism. Feminism is an ideology, which asserts that, men and women have equal capacities in the society for it seeks to dispel cultural and traditional beliefs that have led to marginalization of women. The society had perceived women as weak and different from their men counterparts, hence weaker gender. Such perception led to the emergence of gendered roles in the society because women had limited roles of childbearing, but men had unlimited roles, which allowed them to pursue their careers and develop their human capital leaving women behind. According to Seidman, Fischer and Meeks, feminists advocated for equal treatment before the law and socio-economic terms (44). Feminists argued that gendered roles emerged in the society because men correlated their sexuality with gender, yet they are quite different entities. They claim that sex is biological condition while gender is a social construct that men created, so that they can det ermine their place and roles in society. Thus, if men perceive women as equal partners in the society, then they will not impose unnecessary restrictions on their sexuality and reproduction. Gender inequality is restricting women from advocating for their rights and accessing various family planning methods. To emancipate themselves from dominance of men, feminists targeted political arena as means of fostering their feminism agenda. In 19th century, women in the United States did not have the right to vote; therefore, feminists struggled extremely hard to ensure that they obtained the right to vote. After attaining the right to vote, women continued advocating for their rights by competing for political positions. With time, more women joined politics so that they could exercise their power effectively towards empowering themselves in the society that men have dominated. Political positions accorded powers to women, which significantly transformed the perception of women as mere we aker gender, since they demonstrated that they had equal capacity as men. Seidman, Fischer and Meeks state that, women who entered politics made marked contribution to emancipation of women since they advocated for affirmative action (45). Affirmative action enabled formulation of policies and laws that led to empowerment of women in the society, for it recognized their vulnerability to dominance of men. Thus, making women have reproductive rights by allowing them to have access to contraceptive methods and abortion is also going to support affirmative action. Education has also empowered and liberated women in modern society. During ancient times, women have been groping in darkness because they had limited education regarding sexuality, reproduction and careers. Men dominated various fields of knowledge and restricted women to childbearing because culture and tradition dictated so. However, as more women went to school, they started gaining knowledge concerning sexuality, reproduc tion and career development that emancipated them from cultural and traditional shackles that men had imposed on them. Luker contends that schooling of women was a significant step that enabled them to compete effectively in family, community, and political spheres of society (56). Currently, it is quite evident that men and women have equal opportunities in the society because they perform similar duties, have same careers and equal rights. Given that birth control relates to women’s health, it is imperative that women should have reproductive rights of deciding types of birth control that they use. Health Care Improved health care services of reproduction have enabled women to make informed choices concerning methods of contraception. Healthcare system has provided numerous contraceptive methods that suit various needs of women, hence, allowing women to control conception and their sexual activity. Prior to the emergence of numerous contraceptives in the market, women relie d on their husbands to prevent them from conceiving. Then, common methods of preventing contraception were coitus interruptus, abstinence, and rhythmic method, which entirely depended on men; hence, women did not have the capacity to control of their sexuality and reproduction. According to Srikanthan and Reid, emergence of contraceptives such as pills and intra uterine devices gave women power to control conception and their sexuality (134). In modern society, women can decide whether to conceive or not without necessarily consulting their partners. Therefore, since contraceptives are readily available as over the counter drugs, women should have right to control their sexuality and reproduction. Additionally, healthcare system has provided an option of abortion following legalization of abortion. Legalization of abortion has considerably enhanced powers that women have in reproduction because statistics shows that out-of wedlock births have reduced significantly. In the modern soc iety, women cannot accept to give birth to a child out of wedlock because it is extremely expensive, and it is going to ruin their potential of getting another husband. The modern society has few single mothers, as compared to the recent past, because legalization of abortion has provided a means for women to terminate unwanted pregnancies. Siow reasons that, the availability of legal abortion has reduced the bargaining power of women for marriage, since they can control their sexuality and reproduction, unlike earlier when fear of pregnancy compelled them to get married (2). Hence, legalization of abortion has demonstrated that women need power over their sexuality and reproduction for them to control population effectively. Conclusion Control of population growth elicits immense controversy in the society since it clashes with cultural, traditional and religious beliefs of the people. Matters of sexuality and reproduction date back to ancient times when society held firmly to the taboos, which restricted women from exercising full control of their bodies. Religion strictly asserted that family is a basic unit of society with procreation powers bestowed on it; hence, control of population using contraceptives and abortion is detrimental to the society and family, as well. However, various governments across the world realized that control of the population has economic benefits for it promotes economic growth and sustainable utilization of resources. Feminists then emerged and advocated for empowerment of women through affirmative action, which enabled women to obtain more powers to control their sexuality and reproduction. Recently, improved healthcare system enhanced reproductive health by improving accessibility to various methods of contraception and abortion following legalization. In view of all these developments, it is quite evident that modern women have control over their sexuality and reproduction, thus have right to control population growth. Work s Cited Berreman, Gerald. â€Å"Race, Caste, and Other Invidious Distinctions in Social Stratification.† Race Class 13.1 (1972): 385-414. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality, Volume 3. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1990. Luker, Kristin. When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex and Sex Education  Since the Sixties. New York: W.W. Norton Company, 2007. Michelle, Goldberg. â€Å"Skirting the Issue; Debates about Population Growth are Missing the point: Women Need More Control over Their Fertility and Lives.† Los Angeles 17 May 2009: 34. Seidman, Steven, Fischer, Nancy, and Meeks, Chet. Introducing the New Sexuality  Studies. New York: Routledge, 2011. Siow, Aloysius. â€Å"Do Innovations in Birth Control Technology Increase the Welfare of Women?† University of Toronto (2002): 1-46. Srikanthan, Amirrtha, and Reid, Robert. â€Å"Women’s Health: Religious and Cultural Influences on Contraception.† Journal of Obstetrician an d Gynaecology 30.2 (2008): 129-137. Teltsch, Kathleen. â€Å"Rise in Birth-Curb Services Is Likely to Continue.† New York  Times 31 July 1968: 17. This thesis on Birth Control was written and submitted by user Mallory Oneil to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Social Networking Sites Essays

Social Networking Sites Essays Social Networking Sites Essay Social Networking Sites Essay Social networking sites Online social networking site is a very common tool for communicating and socializing with each other. Nowadays, most of the adolescent like to use Facebook. There is a rapid growth of the number of user of social networking sites. According the recent research, Kreutz (2009) stated that â€Å"starting from 1997 to 2010 there are some 1. 5 billion users of social networking websites† (p. 222). This shows that how popular the social networking site is. Although many parents think that there are many existing dangers in social networking sites, it is good for both education and interpersonal relationship for the teenagers. This essay will discuss the benefits and negative effects of using social networking sites for young people: enlarge and maintain the relationship, develop greater awareness of social issues and attract the online predators to conduct their criminal activities. One of the advantage is the teenagers can enlarge the friendship and maintain the existing relationship by using social networking sites. Social networking sites provide a platform for connecting with the friends. For maintaining the old relationship, social networking site is very convenient for teenagers to have conversation with friends, share their photos, videos and view others’ status. Dunne, Lawlor and Rowley (2010) pointed out that the purpose of most of the users that using SNS is to see what is new in their friends’ status (p. 53). In Facebook, one of the social networking sites, friend will share their current situation and their recent activities by uploading the new photos, videos and new comments in their profile pages. To the sum up, these sites provide an invaluable connection to our old life we had left. Although you go very far away, friends also know what you are doing by seeing your status. Apart from all this, these sites also have another important function. You can expand your social circle effectively. Before the appearance of the Internet, people just used some methods simple like sending letters, calling the others and even physically meeting each other to build the relationship. Nowadays these sites can help you to make new friends easily. Kate (2010) remarked that â€Å"it’s a good way of talking to boys, you can post a comment on their site or ask them to be your friend without being embarrassed or feeling stupid† (p. 53). On the social networking sites, users can build relationship with anyone they want. It is very easy for them to find the people who have the similar or shared interests with them. You can talk about yourself, your identity and your interests and make friends that way. Furthermore, they can present a positive self-identity in social networking sites. This is one of their methods to attract people to make friends with them. They will make themselves look good, such as pick the best photos, show off their coolest friends and just make fun. In conclusion, social networking sites is a form of connection to our old lift and also a good tool that making friends in online. The other advantage is more adolescents develop greater awareness of social issues because of social networking sites. Youth is the social pillars in the future; they largely contribute to the social development. They are playing the leading role in solving social problems, so it is important for increasing teenagers’ awareness of social issues. In Social Networking sites, the adolescents like to communicate with people sharing the same thought and interest. Except making friends, social networking sites also used to discuss the social issues. Jain, Gupta and Anand (2012) commented that â€Å"this is a pool of social problems which requires attention of majority so that we can fight against them as a united country and make the society more peaceful† (p. 36). For instance, there are more than 150 pages about social issues such as human rights, corruption, girls education have uploaded in the last few months in social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Orkut. According to the research of Jain, Gupta and Anand (2012), the main age group of participate in discussing these social issues is 20-40; they actively give their justification on these subjects (p. 42). This result shows that because of the social networking usages, youth were more active in discussing the social issues. In addition to discussion, the users also like to hold different political activities in Facebook for inviting others to join it, such as parade, hunger strike†¦ Various protests have been done by many social activists they gathered through social networking. Furthermore, social networking sites also provide a place for the groups from different countries including minority groups and subcultures who never physically get the space to express their opinion and belief. All the people can use these websites to participate and voice themselves. As these social issues need regular meeting for discussing and expressing their views, teenagers can use them to meet periodically or regularly depending on their and others’ requirement. Therefore, these sites is acting as an office, they can hold the meetings and political activities regularly and inviting new members to join the discussion. All in all, most of the information of social issues is obtained from social networking sites. Adolescents are getting more aware about social issues because of discussing the debatable topics and news articles on these sites. These sites are proving them chance to bring thoughts of people on these social issues. Therefore, social networking sites is good for educating the adolescants. Apart from advantages, there is also negative effect by using social networking sites for teenagers. The social networking sites attract the online predators to conduct their criminal activities. These social networking sites suggest people to put all their personal information on their profile page when they are registering as their new members; it is easy for criminals to get this information. In Facebook, teenagers like to put all the information including personal image, name, date of birth, hometown and ZIP code in their profile page. The criminal can use this information to find out a person’s sensitive medical information and security number. They also can easily estimate physical location of a person by using the information provided on Facebook profile page. People are least bothered about their profile privacy. Although there is an option of visibility on the user profile fields on these sites. This means user can decide which information can be seen by everyone on the network, but most of the teenagers tend to keep their profiles open to everyone. They are happy to share their personal information in online world. Fukuyama, Lewis and Weigert (2007) in their respected papers claimed that â€Å"trust is a critical determinant in personal or face to face relationships†(p. 48). This means trust is an important factor that determines the crime is success or not. It will not be very difficult for an online predator to gain trust from an individual by employing interactions, especially most of the online predators prefer to meet and entice their victims online. If an online predator is being trusted by a teen and successfully become one of his friend in Facebook, this means this online predator can find their victims in this teen’s friend list. There is a lot of reports about criminal activities involving the social networking sites can be heard. For example, according to â€Å"Facebook-crime† (2010), Ashleigh Hall, a 17 years old girl, was murdered by a man who gets acquainted in Facebook. Actually, that man is a 33 years old man and he created a Fake profile as a teenager. This shows that the major problem is that there is no method to verify the actual identity on online and it is too easy for online predator to gain access the personal information on these sites. In conclusion, these sites are a good way of maintaining relationship and building new relationship. However, there are many existing dangers of using these sites, so a user should be careful. Do not put too many personal data on these sites, it is risky that this data may being used in bad way. The teenagers should keep this data properly, do not get tricked by older people who lie about their age and who are online. The advantages of using these social networking sites outweigh its disadvantage, so I agreed the teenagers to use these sites. The growth of social networking sites shows a significant change in social and personal behaviour of Internet user. These sites largely help teenagers’ interpersonal relationship become closer, but everything can be used for a bad purpose as well as good. We need to be more careful, prevent getting trapped by online predators. Reference list Das, B. , Sahoo, J. (2011). Social networking sites a critical analysis of its impact on personal and social life. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(14), 222-226. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com. libraryproxy. griffith. edu. au/docview/904521761/13AEEEA44CD5BA312BC/1? accountid=14543 Datar, T. , Mislan, R. (2010). Social networking: A boon to criminals. Proceedings of the Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law, 48-50. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com. libraryproxy. griffith. edu. u/docview/856125630/Record/13AEEC9AE784B9975E7/1? accountid=14543 Dunne, A. , Lawlor, A. , Rowley, J. (2010). Young people. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 4(1), 53. doi: http://dx. doi. org. libraryproxy. griffith. edu. au/10. 1108/17505931011033551 Jain, R. , Gupta, P. , Anand, N. (2012). Impact of social networking sites in the changing mindset of youth on social issues a study of delhi-ncr youth. Researchers World, 3(2Part2), 37-42. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com. libraryproxy. griffith. edu. au/docview/1017533989/Record/13AEECBE3A9750E4AAD/1? accountid=14543