Wow! How interesting. Here in brief a personal experience:
I was prescribed some contraceptive pill in the mid 1970s. I was 21 years old. A month or two later I went back to the gynaecologist and told him that this pill was making me depressed. Instead of listening, he ridiculed me. I stopped going to that doctor and never took another contraceptive pill.
My life has had its ups and downs, but depression didn't become part of the picture.
good for you! i took "the pill" - ortho novum 21 (interesting name, eh) for 3 months - terrible side effects: i cried every day, gained 10% above my normal trim weight and got reddish-purple stretch marks on breasts and hips. that was enough for me so i quit and went back to my normal not-depressed self. i had a friend in the 1970s who got terrible, crippling thrombo-embolism in her 20s in one leg which we surmised was from the pill, since that was one of the then-known side-effects.
WHAT LIZ SAID!!! Also, child-rearing, gathering with other moms and their babies, playdates, gathering for visits while kids are in preschool, and forward, don't happen so much any more. Motherhood has become more isolating with women eager to get back to jobs as soon as possible. There are some things lost. Farming kids out for childcare with non-family members all day is necessary for some families, but it all comes at a cost to the moms and the kids. When I was in college, I heard young women talk about how they could and should be able do the jobs men did. Of course they could, but they never considered the cost, the loss of family relationships and a degree of freedom. All along they kind of had it made in the natural order of things, and they sacrificed that.
The 60's and 70's were the wonder years for boomers, raised by moral parents who understood the roles of men and women since whence time began. I watched and listened to my elders and saw for myself the marriages they made and kept. I wanted that.
During this time came pornography, books like The Happy Hooker, Feminism where women felt they could take on a man's role. I was in the presence of many of these women as they denigrated men, as the men sat there and said nothing. How insulting, yet they stayed quiet.
It was their rejection that became my acquisition and my happiness.
Women today are far too propagandized and brainwashed by media and Hollywood. They expect so much while giving so little. Chores must be divided equally or they'll go off the rails and complain as the man is resting while she has to prepare dinner. The poor thing is depressed. She has no control. She relegates her duties to others. Is that strength?
It's funny to me that feminism has delivered the exact opposite of what their proponents said they would deliver. Weak, shallow cry babies who divorce good men, take them to the cleaners, get the freedom they desire on their ex's dime, that they no longer need or want. Are you happy now? Feel strong and empowered? Do you even care about the children? I doubt it.
so-called "feminism" always sounded like a bit of a scam to me - even though i grew up highly propagandized in the 60s. (like we all were, but i have only really become aware of recently). i didn't know it was all scripted, including of course the bc pills. now they are again thumping the pharma hormonal drum, trying to get all menopausal women on HRT for life! including the so-called MAHA part of HHS.
Great article (and my husband agrees). I remember how happy I was to get the pill in high school after it became widely available at planned parenthood, without needing parental consent. Promiscuity was ‘cool’ then. I rapidly felt the humiliation and stopped it, as well as the pill, and never looked back. It was the horrific emotional experience of what ‘free sex’ really meant.
Thank you, Unbekoming. Grim and tragic and, as a 1958 incarnation, I have certainly garnered scars from the multidimensional assault on feminine humanity. I wish for much better for all young women and men who are on the front lines of this ongoing assault at present.
This is one of those essays that makes people uncomfortable — not because it’s loud, but because it connects dots that are rarely placed on the same page.
For decades we’ve been told the story of progress: more education, more career access, more “choice,” more freedom. Yet female happiness has declined across the same timeline. Chemical Feminism asks a question most institutions refuse to ask: what else changed in the 1960s besides culture?
The argument isn’t that feminism caused unhappiness. It’s that mass hormonal intervention may have reshaped stress physiology, mate preferences, and relationship dynamics in ways we still don’t fully understand — and then those altered patterns became the cultural norm. When 80%+ of women have used the Pill, there is no clean baseline left for comparison.
Whether you agree or not, the core issue is transparency. If a drug affects cortisol response, emotional regulation, partner selection, and long-term relationship satisfaction, that deserves serious longitudinal study — not silence.
At minimum, this piece forces a harder question:
What happens when chemistry reshapes culture — and we mistake the result for nature?
The feminist feedback loop exhibits symptoms of the triple threat women have faced and now reaching its logical zenith effects with the polarization of women against men.
The psychological, pharmaceutical and economic pressure points have now fucked up such a huge percentage of the female population globally, that I believe there is no reset to normalcy until the sum total of population reaches a point of very near extinction whereas without hyper masculine males and nurturing feminine females to protect and develop the surviving remnants, the species will in fact go extinct.
I have a sister who is about 11 years older than me. She was on the pill for a decade easily, from the late 70's through the 80's. She was valedictorian of her highschool class, but got with a boy who was more of a hoodlum. They had a huge marriage ceremony, but were divorced in just a few months. She had reproductive issues after that, and had a hysterectomy by about 30. So I am in agreement that being on the pill can really mess with people's lives in ways that are not advertised.
This is a bit off of the subject, but another thing that has happened over the last 40 years - Huge increase in childhood vaccines. In boys, it is correlated with a virtual explosion of autism.
But what about girls? Less autism, but otherwise, we have no idea . . . and the medical industry does not want to know.
Wow! How interesting. Here in brief a personal experience:
I was prescribed some contraceptive pill in the mid 1970s. I was 21 years old. A month or two later I went back to the gynaecologist and told him that this pill was making me depressed. Instead of listening, he ridiculed me. I stopped going to that doctor and never took another contraceptive pill.
My life has had its ups and downs, but depression didn't become part of the picture.
You're about 5 years younger than me when I stopped as well in the 70's.
good for you! i took "the pill" - ortho novum 21 (interesting name, eh) for 3 months - terrible side effects: i cried every day, gained 10% above my normal trim weight and got reddish-purple stretch marks on breasts and hips. that was enough for me so i quit and went back to my normal not-depressed self. i had a friend in the 1970s who got terrible, crippling thrombo-embolism in her 20s in one leg which we surmised was from the pill, since that was one of the then-known side-effects.
crazy! Thank you for sharing. I was never told about any 'side-effects' but fortunately was sensible enough to draw my own conclusions early on.
WHAT LIZ SAID!!! Also, child-rearing, gathering with other moms and their babies, playdates, gathering for visits while kids are in preschool, and forward, don't happen so much any more. Motherhood has become more isolating with women eager to get back to jobs as soon as possible. There are some things lost. Farming kids out for childcare with non-family members all day is necessary for some families, but it all comes at a cost to the moms and the kids. When I was in college, I heard young women talk about how they could and should be able do the jobs men did. Of course they could, but they never considered the cost, the loss of family relationships and a degree of freedom. All along they kind of had it made in the natural order of things, and they sacrificed that.
The 60's and 70's were the wonder years for boomers, raised by moral parents who understood the roles of men and women since whence time began. I watched and listened to my elders and saw for myself the marriages they made and kept. I wanted that.
During this time came pornography, books like The Happy Hooker, Feminism where women felt they could take on a man's role. I was in the presence of many of these women as they denigrated men, as the men sat there and said nothing. How insulting, yet they stayed quiet.
It was their rejection that became my acquisition and my happiness.
Women today are far too propagandized and brainwashed by media and Hollywood. They expect so much while giving so little. Chores must be divided equally or they'll go off the rails and complain as the man is resting while she has to prepare dinner. The poor thing is depressed. She has no control. She relegates her duties to others. Is that strength?
It's funny to me that feminism has delivered the exact opposite of what their proponents said they would deliver. Weak, shallow cry babies who divorce good men, take them to the cleaners, get the freedom they desire on their ex's dime, that they no longer need or want. Are you happy now? Feel strong and empowered? Do you even care about the children? I doubt it.
so-called "feminism" always sounded like a bit of a scam to me - even though i grew up highly propagandized in the 60s. (like we all were, but i have only really become aware of recently). i didn't know it was all scripted, including of course the bc pills. now they are again thumping the pharma hormonal drum, trying to get all menopausal women on HRT for life! including the so-called MAHA part of HHS.
BRAVO!!!!!! They had no clue how good they had it!
Great article (and my husband agrees). I remember how happy I was to get the pill in high school after it became widely available at planned parenthood, without needing parental consent. Promiscuity was ‘cool’ then. I rapidly felt the humiliation and stopped it, as well as the pill, and never looked back. It was the horrific emotional experience of what ‘free sex’ really meant.
Thank you, Unbekoming. Grim and tragic and, as a 1958 incarnation, I have certainly garnered scars from the multidimensional assault on feminine humanity. I wish for much better for all young women and men who are on the front lines of this ongoing assault at present.
This is what happens when women try to interfere with nature.
It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature: https://open.substack.com/pub/lizlasorte/p/its-not-nice-to-fool-mother-nature?r=76q58&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
to my mind, there is nothing feminine about "feminism", whether or not chemically-induced. and i btw am a woman.
This is one of those essays that makes people uncomfortable — not because it’s loud, but because it connects dots that are rarely placed on the same page.
For decades we’ve been told the story of progress: more education, more career access, more “choice,” more freedom. Yet female happiness has declined across the same timeline. Chemical Feminism asks a question most institutions refuse to ask: what else changed in the 1960s besides culture?
The argument isn’t that feminism caused unhappiness. It’s that mass hormonal intervention may have reshaped stress physiology, mate preferences, and relationship dynamics in ways we still don’t fully understand — and then those altered patterns became the cultural norm. When 80%+ of women have used the Pill, there is no clean baseline left for comparison.
Whether you agree or not, the core issue is transparency. If a drug affects cortisol response, emotional regulation, partner selection, and long-term relationship satisfaction, that deserves serious longitudinal study — not silence.
At minimum, this piece forces a harder question:
What happens when chemistry reshapes culture — and we mistake the result for nature?
Worth reading with an open mind.
The feminist feedback loop exhibits symptoms of the triple threat women have faced and now reaching its logical zenith effects with the polarization of women against men.
The psychological, pharmaceutical and economic pressure points have now fucked up such a huge percentage of the female population globally, that I believe there is no reset to normalcy until the sum total of population reaches a point of very near extinction whereas without hyper masculine males and nurturing feminine females to protect and develop the surviving remnants, the species will in fact go extinct.
I have a sister who is about 11 years older than me. She was on the pill for a decade easily, from the late 70's through the 80's. She was valedictorian of her highschool class, but got with a boy who was more of a hoodlum. They had a huge marriage ceremony, but were divorced in just a few months. She had reproductive issues after that, and had a hysterectomy by about 30. So I am in agreement that being on the pill can really mess with people's lives in ways that are not advertised.
This is a bit off of the subject, but another thing that has happened over the last 40 years - Huge increase in childhood vaccines. In boys, it is correlated with a virtual explosion of autism.
But what about girls? Less autism, but otherwise, we have no idea . . . and the medical industry does not want to know.
Planned parenting is directly from Eugenics mob. Margaret Sanger was one of them.