Margaret Sanger

Margaret Higgins Sanger (September 14, 1879 – September 6, 1966) was an American birth control activist and an advocate of certain aspects of eugenics. Initially meeting with fierce opposition in both areas, Sanger gradually won the support of the public and the courts for a woman's right to choose for family planning. Though her selective support of eugenics was less well received, Margaret Sanger was instrumental in opening the way to universal access to birth control.

Philosophy

Although Sanger was greatly influenced by her father, a freethinker, her mother's death left her with a deep sense of dissatisfaction concerning her own and society's medical ignorance. She also criticized the censorship of her reproductive literacy message by the civil and religious authorities, justified on moral grounds, as an effort by men to keep women in submission. An atheist, Sanger attacked the Christian church for its opposition to her message, blaming it for obscurantism and insensitivity to women's concerns. Sanger was particularly critical of the lack of awareness of the dangers of and the scarcity of treatment opportunities for venereal disease among women. She claimed that these social ills were the result of the male establishment's intentionally keeping women in ignorance. Sanger also deplored the contemporary absence of regulations requiring registration of people diagnosed with venereal diseases (which she contrasted with mandatory registration of those with infectious diseases such as measles).

Related Topics:
Atheist - Obscurantism - Venereal disease - Measles

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sanger was also an avowed socialist, blaming the evils of contemporary capitalism for the unsatisfactory conditions of the young working-class women. Her views on this issue are evident in the last pages of What Every Girl Should Know.

Related Topics:
Socialist - Capitalism

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Psychology of sexuality

While Sanger's understanding of and practical approach to human physiology were progressive for her times, her thoughts on the psychology of human sexuality place her squarely in the pre-Freudian 19th century. Birth control, it would appear, was for her more a means to limit the undesirable side-effects of sex than a way of liberating men and women to enjoy it. In What Every Girl Should Know, she wrote: "Every normal man and woman has the power to control and direct his sexual impulse. Men and woman who have it in control and constantly use their brain cells thinking deeply, are never sensual." Sexuality, for her, was a kind of weakness, and surmounting it indicated strength:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Though sex cells are placed in a part of the anatomy for the essential purpose of easily expelling them into the female for the purpose of reproduction, there are other elements in the sexual fluid which are the essence of blood, nerve, brain, and muscle. When redirected in to the building and strengthening of these, we find men or women of the greatest endurance greatest magnetic power. A girl can waste her creative powers by brooding over a love affair to the extent of exhausting her system, with the results not unlike the effects of masturbation and debauchery.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Her thoughts on human development were also laden with racism:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:It is said that a fish as large as a man has a brain no larger than the kernel of an almond. In all fish and reptiles where there is no great brain development, there is also no conscious sexual control. The lower down in the scale of human development we go the less sexual control we find. It is said that the aboriginal Australian, the lowest known species of the human family, just a step higher than the chimpanzee in brain development, has so little sexual control that police authority alone prevents him from obtaining sexual satisfaction on the streets.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sanger also considered masturbation dangerous:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:In my experience as a trained nurse while attending persons afflicted with various and often revolting diseases, no matter what their ailments, I have never found any one so repulsive as the chronic masturbator. It would be difficult not to fill page upon page of heartrending confessions made by young girls, whose lives were blighted by this pernicious habit, always begun so innocently, for even after they have ceased the habit, they find themselves incapable of any relief in the natural act. Perhaps the greatest physical danger to the chronic masturbator is the inability to perform the sexual act naturally.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For her, masturbation was not just a physical act, it was a mental state:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:In the boy or girl past puberty, we find one of the most dangerous forms of masturbation, i.e. mental masturbation, which consists of forming mental pictures, or thinking obscene or voluptuous pictures. This form is considered especially harmful to the brain, for the habit becomes so fixed that it is almost impossible to free the thoughts from lustful pictures.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Eugenics

Sanger found supporters among believers in eugenics, a social philosophy (ultimately embraced in Nazism) that led to the rise of such practices as compulsory sterilization to discourage unsuitable persons from breeding in the name of perfecting the human race. In 1932, for example, Sanger argued for

Related Topics:
Eugenics - Nazism - Compulsory sterilization - 1932

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:A stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"...certain dysgenic groups in our population," she continued, should be given their choice of "segregation or sterilization." http://www.hli.org/bcr_1932.html. While considered enlightened in some circles at the time, today such measures would be regarded as violations of human rights.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And yet in "The Birth Control Review of February" 1919, she clarified her position:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Eugenists imply or insist that a woman's first duty is to the state; we contend that her duty to herself is her first duty to the state. We maintain that a woman possessing an adequate knowledge of her reproductive functions is the best judge of the time and conditions under which her child should be brought into the world. We further maintain that it is her right, regardless of all other considerations, to determine whether she shall bear children or not, and how many children she shall bear if she chooses to become a mother."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In a mix of socialist and eugenic thought, Sanger blamed economic factors involved in choice of spouse for contributing to suboptimal human reproduction, and argued for more assertive public health and eugenics measures.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sanger's writings often make use of the loaded terms "moron", "imbecile", and "feeble-minded", which were then used to refer to individuals affected by mental retardation or the "developmentally disabled". The later use of these terms as pejoratives has put them out of favor and diluted their original meaning. In the context of eugenics, the terms did not refer to physically and mentally normal people who were disadvantaged or considered by other groups to be inferior.

Related Topics:
Loaded - Mental retardation

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With advances in biology and genetics, it has become clear that at least some of the "negative eugenic" policies Sanger advocated to prevent the "feeble-minded" from reproducing would in practice be ineffective. For example, it is now known that Down Syndrome is, for the most part, not heritable.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~