A Birth Control Pill for Men
By Sarah Z. Wexler
Photo Credit: Ben Goldstein/Studio D
We found it curious when ads for Seasonique, the Pill that reduces periods to just four times a year, started popping up on Spike TV, home of the Hooters' swimsuit pageant and Pam Anderson's Stripperella. And when the same ads ran in the laddish mag Maxim, next to strategies for getting "the ladies" to skinny-dip with you, we were downright skeptical. Why was Seasonique marketing its Pill to the dudeliest of dudes? Lauren Barrish, a spokeswoman for the company that manufactures Seasonique, said the move was meant to "spark a dialogue between men and women about contraception" and pointed out that the commercials are the same ones seen during woman-in-jeopardy movies on Lifetime. Seasonique also cites a Kaiser Family Foundation study that found 70 percent of women think men need to play a bigger role in choosing the method of contraception.
Uh-huh. And maybe this is just a clever way to get guys who are skeeved out by the bloat and the mood swings to sell the Pill for them. At the very least, we hope it will make our boyfriends cough up their half of the contraception copay — no matter what kind we choose.
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