Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

IMO, this is a status norms thing; possibly an overcorrection on old norms that dictated that having a lot of cool stuff but no kids probably meant there was something wrong with you. Now, a massive collection of status goods gets you further than having a middle-class family

or maybe norms weren’t needed to incentivize children before there was birth control

Birth control opened the door for childless family norms, but was that trajectory necessarily inevitable? My read on the pill's history is that it was initially intended as a tool for planning/limiting family size, not avoiding children altogether — that was unthinkable

Remember that eugenicists were very split on birth control ("good" couples could use it, gasp) & Sanger's central point (people should govern themselves re: BC) was not popular. Very interesting (& messed up) point in history, w/ forced sterilizations + an effective ban on sex ed

it seems like once the pill was out there, the creators’ intentions didn’t have any further effect on society

I also suspect it looks like more of flash point than it actually was. Tons of forms of BC already existed & were improving; anti-contraception Comstock laws weren't preventing the public sale of condoms & cervical caps. The gentry, in particular, knew how to avoid pregnancy

The proximate cause of dramatically reduced fertility rates is highly effective & available BC + abortion, but one layer up the stack it's "people very desperately want to avoid children. certainly beyond one or two" and the ultimate cause(s) have to do with why that's the case