Vatican in rampant misogyny shocker!
Vatican releases official statement saying that women’s wee is unholy.
“We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill,” he said, without elaborating further.
Another day, another scare story designed to misinform the public about the dangers of oral contraception when the real problem here is that the forces of conservatism just don’t dig female reproductive self-determination.
Let’s make one thing sparklingly clear: in every sip of tap water you imbibe very tiny traces of mood stabilisers, heart medication, hormones that are added to fast-food and packaged meat in significantly higher doses than the hormones left over from the contraceptive pill in waste, factory run-off, tranquilisers, fluorine, and hundreds of other chemicals – almost all of them in doses too small to make any medical difference.
Oestrogens are present in drinking water from a host of sources, most notably from the by-products of plastics production, and studies have shown that most oestrogens in drinking water are natural – not the synthetic oestrogens present in oral contraception.
Oestrogens and xeno-oestrogens in water are a by-product of: petro-chemicals such as car emissions, vaseline based skin creams, many common detergents, wax floor polish and paints; synthetic hormones and oestrogenic compounds found in meat, pesticides such as DDT,DDE which are still used all over the developing world, dieldrin, toxaphene, mirex, heptachlor and kepone as well as hundreds of other herbicides and pesticides, all of which have an ability to mimic natural oestrogen, polycarbonated plastics found in baby bottles and water jugs, cling wrap and polystyrene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used in the manufacture of electronic devices, and – minimally – from hormonal contraception in human waste.
Apparently, though, it’s only the oestrogen from contraceptive pills which is evil, at least as far as the Pope is concerned. Even though the dilution still isn’t enough to be an effective dose unless you were to drink, just for instance, the Thames.
Furthermore, contemporary causes of male infertility are infinite: traffic pollution, laptops, mobile phones, tight trousers and hot tubs, nappies, smoking, overeating, seafood, fast food and driving. In fact, being overweight actually increases levels of oestrogen in the bloodstream anyway, especially if you eat a lot of non-organic meat- meaning that if you’ve got moobs and want to shift them, back away from the cheesburger and stop pointing the finger at us self-sterilising ladies.
I don’t see the Pope asking us to stop eating so much junk in order to protect some sacred ideation of male potency. I don’t see that increasingly unfunny former Hitler Youth member and his friends asking blokes everywhere to wear looser trousers and stop smoking. Why would they, when they’ve already decided that by daring to decide for ourselves whether we want to have kids, we’ve symbolically castrated men?
The contraceptive pill is one of the most important inventions of the last three centuries, and doesn’t damage the environment so much as the status quo. I’m not a Christian, but if I were I’d get down on my knees every night to thank Ratzinger’s God for the miracle of contraception. We have the right to determine when and if we conceive as far as is technologically plausible, and if that makes you want to clutch your balls, then go right ahead – just don’t claim that there’s any scientific basis for it.
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Laurie Penny is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. She is a journalist, blogger and feminist activist. She is Features Assistant at the Morning Star, and blogs at Penny Red and for Red Pepper magazine.
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Reader comments
You’ve got to hand it to them. They’re not short of imagination at the Vatican. They’d make excellent comedians!
They’re against abortion, condoms, homosexual rights and now the pill. It’s pretty obvious they want every woman to breed for Jesus, many, many times. They’re a bunch of fruitcakes who don’t believe in any kind of moderation of their medieval world view.
Wee is unholy and environmentally damaging? God, this stuff is beyond parody.
Somebody call Greenpeace and ask them to demand the banning of golden showers.
I personally think overpopulation, caused by these reactionary dickheads blocking contraception and education, is a far more severe environmental problem.
So ludicrous, it almost seems unfair to attack ‘em, because it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Almost, but not quite.
Heh, love the photo Laurie.
Out come all the anti-Catholic bigots, who, undoubtedly imagine themselves paragons of liberal prejudice-free values. There’s no way Laurie Penny would be able to get away with such a disgraceful piece of distorted bigoted badly-written crap if the word Moslem or Islam were inserted in place of Catholic. She should be ashamed of herself.
It’s hardly surprising is it? If you can believe in one absurdity you can believe in any number of others. If you can accept that the universe was created by an all powerful superbeing who impregnated a virgin so that she’d raise a child who would die by crucifixion in order that our souls can enter the kingdom of heaven, then believing that having some control over your own body will have terrible effects sounds almost rational by comparison.
What’s depressing is that many of those attacking God’s Rotweiler on this case will still real him out as a moral authority if he just happens to share our opinion on other matters, such as the Invasion of Iraq.
The same happens with the Royal family: one minute Prince Charles is a reactionary old fart, the next he’s an authority on GM food.
Red Maria –
Even if that were true, it wouldn’t on its own make her wrong on this specific point, would it? If that’s the extent of your argument you may as well say “The Pope is wrong, but it’s unfair to say so”.
Red Maria,
Um – piss off, as it were.
Islam is indeed an acceptable target for mockery, as are all religions. I will personally commit to blogging on the topic myself if one or other ayatollah around the place comes out against girl piddle. It just so happens that Popey is the one making a sexist arse of himself today. Why do you Catholics insist on punishing the rest of the world for the fact that your leader is a twat? I mean – you chose him, not us.
Etc.
On other topics – was interested to hear nappywearing is making men infertile. Freaky. How many of you wear nappies?
LMAO.
Both at the picture and at the story.
Although really, Laurie, there was almost no need to write it out. You could’ve stopped at:
‘Vatican releases official statement saying that women’s wee is unholy.
The president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, said the pill “has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature” through female urine.
“We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill,” he said, without elaborating further.’
I mean, I for one would find a man in a dress with four different names (Jose? Maria? Simon? Pedro?) inherently untrustworthy. As, I suspect, would most of the people on this here blog.
Out come all the anti-Catholic bigots, who, undoubtedly imagine themselves paragons of liberal prejudice-free values.
Actually, Red Maria, I am a Catholic. By upbringing, anyway.
Laurie,
Though I feel you make many valid points on the matter, I would argue that you are missing some crucial points and most importantly I would like to question whether you have actually read the Vatican statement or taken your source as 100% authentic.
You can read more at my website – direct link to the blog I have written on this is here:
http://lucasweatherby.blogspot.com/2009/01/unholy-urine.html
I would like to draw your attention to this and I would greatly appreciate a reply.
I do not believe or agree with your view that the Vatican is being sexist. One could say that your reference to the Hitler Youth is irrelevant to your line of argument. I do however, feel that the views on contraceptives in general are important to consider and one that we should bring into discussion and debate so that religion and state laws can reconcile.
Read my blog for more, I address other issues as well. Very much enjoyed reading this – I will definitely come back for more…
Lucas
Lovely piece.
Amrit: Having four names is quite common in Spainish-speaking countries. I’m sure the Spanish think our two-name system is quaint and odd as well.
Kate Belgrave:
Um – piss off, as it were.
Er – no , so to speak.
You are perfectly free, madam, to say that any religion is an acceptable target for mockery, as I am equally free to point out that the kind of mockery meted out to some of them is indicative of certain ignorant parochial prejudices and free furthermore, to observe that daring young iconoclasts are apt to pull their punches when it comes to some religions while making others their whipping boy.
Hence your fatuous comments about “Popey” making a “sexist arse of himself”, simply because prominent Catholic scientists, not, nota bene, His Holiness himself, pointed out the deleterious effects of the contraceptive pill on the environment.
And hence your vulgar choice of words about someone you clearly konw very little about. You may imagine that referring to the Pope as a twat is mockery, I’d just call it childish.
I mean – you chose him, not us.
Perhaps that’s one of your feeble attempts at mockery. In point of fact we believe that the Holy Spirit chooses Peter’s successor; we do not flatter ourselves that we have any role in the matter.
Well that’s Kate shown. But the Pope is still just a guy in a silly hat. And just to show I’m not parochial, the Dalai Lama is basically a guy in a silly nappy. Although I’d rather have the Dalai Lama over for dinner (easier to cook for, for one thing)
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