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Add this to your list of black feminist scholarship on sexual and reproductive health
Littlejohn uses a black feminist lens to examine the concept of something she identifies as "compulsory birth control" wherein women, mostly in heterosexual relationships, are disproportionately burdened with the responsibility of ensuring a couple does not become pregnant. Littlejohn also considers how problematic this is in public health practice as health messaging excludes the prevention of STIs from broader conversations about sexual and reproductive health (that should be based on people’s needs and preferences). I think this book highlights the need for offering contraceptive methods that better meet people’s needs, including more options for people with penises AND continuing to improve people’s experiences of contraceptive care. Having women's stories is a powerful mode for communicating such an important topic and for changing the sociocultural structures that have created the problem. Excellent resource and highly recommended read!
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Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2021
Add this to your list of black feminist scholarship on sexual and reproductive health
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2021
Littlejohn uses a black feminist lens to examine the concept of something she identifies as "compulsory birth control" wherein women, mostly in heterosexual relationships, are disproportionately burdened with the responsibility of ensuring a couple does not become pregnant. Littlejohn also considers how problematic this is in public health practice as health messaging excludes the prevention of STIs from broader conversations about sexual and reproductive health (that should be based on people’s needs and preferences). I think this book highlights the need for offering contraceptive methods that better meet people’s needs, including more options for people with penises AND continuing to improve people’s experiences of contraceptive care. Having women's stories is a powerful mode for communicating such an important topic and for changing the sociocultural structures that have created the problem. Excellent resource and highly recommended read!
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2021
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Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
Littlejohn interviews women of various backgrounds about contraception and finds that people are socialized to use certain types of contraception that results in a gendered organization of birth control. There is a gendered burden of contraception that discourages or de-prioritizes the use of male/external condoms because women have been socialized to believe that they are solely accountable in contraceptive use. This finding has huge implications, namely that it undermines women’s rights, reproductive autonomy, and the ability to engage in safe and non-coercive sexual experiences. It also affects women’s livelihoods outside the sexual encounter, as women are expected to simply put up with side effects ranging from inconvenient to debilitating. What’s more, emphasis on non-barrier prescription methods (the pill, patch, IUD, etc.) leaves women vulnerable to STIs.
Littlejohn’s mindfulness in her intersectional approach provides key findings and implications that will undoubtedly strengthen and enhance reproductive justice movements. Especially striking is Littlejohn’s statement that “prevention justice is reproductive justice,” (123) and that emphasis on pregnancy prevention that neglects STI prevention worsens reproductive health disparities among populations of women.
Overall, I appreciated Littlejohn’s deliberate intersectional approach (prioritizing women of color instead of simply including them), her keen abilities to turn taken-for-granted practices (for example, women “just taking birth control”) on their head by grounding them in broader social contexts and inequalities, and clearly stating what her findings mean for reproductive justice movements, society, and, most importantly, real individual women.
While you’d expect it to be more of an academic or teaching book, this text is quite accessible to many readers and would also be a great “leisure read.” Many women reading this book will find themselves nodding their heads while reading the participants’ stories, and, more importantly, this book leaves the reader wanting to spark social change.
Insightful, relatable, important!
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
Given Littlejohn's strong track record of peer-reviewed, published research, I was not surprised to find that this book was an EXCELLENT read.Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
Littlejohn interviews women of various backgrounds about contraception and finds that people are socialized to use certain types of contraception that results in a gendered organization of birth control. There is a gendered burden of contraception that discourages or de-prioritizes the use of male/external condoms because women have been socialized to believe that they are solely accountable in contraceptive use. This finding has huge implications, namely that it undermines women’s rights, reproductive autonomy, and the ability to engage in safe and non-coercive sexual experiences. It also affects women’s livelihoods outside the sexual encounter, as women are expected to simply put up with side effects ranging from inconvenient to debilitating. What’s more, emphasis on non-barrier prescription methods (the pill, patch, IUD, etc.) leaves women vulnerable to STIs.
Littlejohn’s mindfulness in her intersectional approach provides key findings and implications that will undoubtedly strengthen and enhance reproductive justice movements. Especially striking is Littlejohn’s statement that “prevention justice is reproductive justice,” (123) and that emphasis on pregnancy prevention that neglects STI prevention worsens reproductive health disparities among populations of women.
Overall, I appreciated Littlejohn’s deliberate intersectional approach (prioritizing women of color instead of simply including them), her keen abilities to turn taken-for-granted practices (for example, women “just taking birth control”) on their head by grounding them in broader social contexts and inequalities, and clearly stating what her findings mean for reproductive justice movements, society, and, most importantly, real individual women.
While you’d expect it to be more of an academic or teaching book, this text is quite accessible to many readers and would also be a great “leisure read.” Many women reading this book will find themselves nodding their heads while reading the participants’ stories, and, more importantly, this book leaves the reader wanting to spark social change.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2021
As someone who is interested in reproductive justice, I appreciated her discussion of how people’s experiences with the birth control pill were shaped by social expectations and gender inequality. This book is not just about people’s ability to access birth control or their decisions to use it; it provides a more nuanced analysis of why we collectively think some women should “just get on the pill” and the various ways that women contest and push back against that belief.
I loved reading all the quotes from the people she interviewed and the book was well-researched researched without being too academic or hard to read. Overall, I recommend this book!!
Great read for anyone interested in contraception and reproductive justice!
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2021
I really enjoyed this book! There is so much controversy and discussion over birth control use especially among lower income women and women of color. People often think that if women just used birth control pills then they wouldn’t have to worry about unintended pregnancies. Krystale Littlejohn’s books demonstrates that it is more complicated than that.Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2021
As someone who is interested in reproductive justice, I appreciated her discussion of how people’s experiences with the birth control pill were shaped by social expectations and gender inequality. This book is not just about people’s ability to access birth control or their decisions to use it; it provides a more nuanced analysis of why we collectively think some women should “just get on the pill” and the various ways that women contest and push back against that belief.
I loved reading all the quotes from the people she interviewed and the book was well-researched researched without being too academic or hard to read. Overall, I recommend this book!!
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Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
Important Addition to Reproductive Justice Scholarship
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
"Just Get On The Pill" is an excellent read, and a necessary addition to reproductive rights literature. Anyone who says this book is anti-birth control has not read the book. On the contrary: arguments made in this book supports a more balanced, fairer approach to pregnancy prevention, and provides new ways of thinking about the ways in which we shoulder the burden (both the direct, and emotional burden) directly onto women. If we were to adopt these practices more widely, and shift our narratives, women/people who can get pregnant, will GAIN greater reproductive freedom. Lastly, readers will more than likely see their own lives reflected in the personal stories used in the book, and will hopefully shift their own thinking about their reproductive rights.
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
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