The Implications and Psychological Dynamics of Anti-Birth Control
Rhetoric on TikTok
At a time marked by mounting threats to women's reproductive rights and autonomy, a
concerning trend continues to emerge: young women are propagating anti-birth control
rhetoric on social media platforms.
In July 2022, a month after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, Vice published
an article stating that TikTok videos using #naturalbirthcontrol had been viewed over
30 million times. Now, almost a month out from the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling
declaring embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) should legally be treated
as children, this trend continues.
The majority of this backlash is targeted specifically towards hormonal forms of birth
control such as contraceptive pills and patches, and intrauterine devices (IUDs), and is
accompanied by a growing trend of medical mistrust and holistic health advice on social
media platforms. As TikTok has steadily increased in popularity since its inception in
2016, many young women turn to the platform to share their own experiences and learn
from the experiences of their peers.
Indeed, many of the videos critiquing hormonal birth control are being made by young
women speaking to their own experiences being on, and subsequently coming off of
birth control. Yet, there are also a sizable number of videos being made by
self-proclaimed “holistic health coaches” as well as medical doctors speaking to the
harms of hormonal birth control and suggesting that going off them will improve
women’s lives in a number of ways.
While few of these videos explicitly state that women should stop using hormonal
contraception, the implication is clear. These videos tend to blame hormonal birth
control for a variety of maladies such as weight gain, acne, low energy levels, depressive
and anxiety symptoms and “imbalanced hormones”.
In a video featuring a segment from influencer Arielle Lore’s health and wellness
podcast, “The Blonde Files”, Dr. Jordan Geller, a board-certified endocrinologist, states,
“I always say that the birth control pill makes the doctors’ lives easier and the patients’
lives worse”. He goes on to explain that he’s seen many patients that have been
prescribed birth control despite having health conditions that would make this decision
potentially dangerous. As in this clip, many of these videos spouting anti-birth control
rhetoric focus on instances where birth control is prescribed to aid underlying health
conditions such as PCOS and acne, with the critique that birth control addresses the
symptoms without remedying the underlying condition. Generally, these videos do not
acknowledge birth control’s use as, well, birth control.
These videos do not exist in a vacuum. They coincide with a rise in content encouraging
women to re-align with their femininity in its most “natural” state and exist as part of a
decades-long push back to birth control. Across time and culture this tension has existed
between sex, sexuality and gender as being both ‘natural’ and ‘innate’ and something to
be policed and constrained. As such, sexuality has continued to inform the science and
technologies that aid and/or control it, just as scientific and technological advancements
have informed people's sex lives (Drucker, 2020). Indeed, the FDA approval and
subsequent distribution of the oral contraceptive pill for women in America, in 1960,
was both informed by womens ongoing sexual lives and desires, and informed those
sexual practices and the ability to act out those desires with greater freedom (Tryer,
1999).
However, just as women have led political movements to gain access to agentic
reproductive technologies, both conservative and liberal women have pushed against
them. In 1969, journalist Barbara Seaman published a book titled: The Doctor's Case
Against the Pill, in which she provided testimony from women using the pill, as well as
doctors and researchers as evidence that the pill was not as safe as had been stated by
the pharmaceutical industry. A senate hearing followed, in 1970, with further
testimonies, leading to some feminists turning against the pill and labeling it as yet
another patriarchal form of control, and an example of drug companies harming women
in the pursuit of profit (pbs.org).
While 64 years have passed since the pill was first widely available to women, many
other forms of hormonal birth control have appeared on the market, and safety issues
have been addressed, this ongoing trend of anti-birth control rhetoric on TikTok and
other social media platforms does, in part, stem from similar and legitimate concerns.
The women sharing their personal experiences of being on hormonal birth control are
exposing the failures of the medical system to adequately educate women about their
reproductive options and that pharmaceutical companies, in developing technologies
that aid in controlling fertility, may not prioritize women's best interests. Yet, it is
partially the legitimacy of their concerns that makes the increasing propagation of this
content so dangerous.
Social media influencers act as powerful social and economic persuaders through
building trust with their audiences as ‘real people’ sharing ‘real experiences’ as opposed
to obviously marketing products, or representing experts from fields that may be
mistrusted (Lee & Theokary, 2021). While these women’s intentions in sharing their bad
experiences with birth control may not be political, their effects have the potential to be.
Or, rather, these videos may be co-opted by those with more explicitly political agendas
to further their aims. TikTok, and other social media creates echo chambers in which
one is fed information supporting one’s existing beliefs and/or suspicions. Indeed,
women having health issues questioning if birth control is to blame for their health
issues are likely to find videos supporting birth-control as the problem. Further, almost
none of the anti-birth control TikTok videos offer counter-narratives such as insight into
the health benefits birth control may offer women outside of just limiting the capacity to
become pregnant, or the risks of ‘natural’ birth control methods.
While promoting and furthering messages that align with conservative agendas, the
creators of this content are not always explicitly conservative and often claim to be
a-political. Yet, these creators repeatedly rely on the co-opting of feminist language and
the perversion of ‘choice’ and ‘empowerment’ discourse, while espousing essentialist
views of femininity and womanhood. Indeed, empowerment and liberation rhetoric has
often been used to disguise neoliberal ideas of consumption or patriarchal ideas of
coercion (Fahs, Swank & McClelland, 2018). While women should have the choice to
opt-in or out of any form of birth control, the language used in anti-birth control TikTok
videos is often aligned with patriarchal ideals of ‘natural’, ‘feminine’ women. The
highlighting of weight loss and a reduction of acne as a possible result of going off birth
control acts as an effective fear mongering tactic, relying on patriarchal standards of
beauty and desirability.
Additionally, many of the women creating these videos come from privileged social
backgrounds, which enhances their access to and safety in making such choices. Instead
of encouraging other women to go off birth control, the focus of these videos should be
on more accessibility to a range of birth control options, the development of better
forms of birth control with fewer side-effects, and access to more education on the topic.
Many of the women in these videos do not mention what they have done to avoid
becoming pregnant since going off of birth control. Those who do, tend to cite close
tracking of their menstrual cycles or the ‘pull-out method’ – both of which are famously
unreliable. They do not address what may happen if they were to become pregnant, nor
do they acknowledge pregnancy as a non-health-neutral event. The choice to opt-out of
birth control is only present because of the fight for the right to opt-in to it, and at a time
where women’s access to technologies that aid them to have more control over their
fertility are under attack, this rhetoric is problematic and uninformed at best and
dangerous at worst. There is no agentic choice making, if choices are taken away.
On her Substack, abortion rights activist Jessica Valenti outlines Alabama’s embryo
decision as part of a broader effort of the Republican Party to establish fetal
personhood, which includes restricting contraception (Abortion, Every Day). Valenti
further explains other efforts in this vein such as Indiana legislation (HB1426), aimed at
expanding contraception access for Medicaid recipients, being altered to remove
references to IUDs due to lobbying by anti-abortion activists who equate them with
abortifacients. This highlights the trend of redefining certain contraceptives as abortions
within the anti-abortion movement. Valenti states, “This is how they’ll ban birth control
– not with a single explicit law, but a slow chipping away process just like they did Roe”.
Further, Valenti highlights that Republicans can effectively prohibit contraception
without making it illegal by creating circumstances where it becomes unobtainable.
While these TikTok videos may not be made as part of a Republican agenda, they can be
used to further it. Rhetoric promoting women embracing their ‘natural state’ has
historically been employed to imply that bearing children is a woman's primary purpose.
While concerns about birth control are valid, it's crucial for women creating such videos
to consider the broader implications. Public discourse advocating for women's decision
to discontinue birth control can ultimately contribute to the erosion of choice altogether.
References
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Fahs, B., Swank, E., & McClelland, S. I. (n.d.). Sexuality, pleasure, power, and Danger: Points of
tension, contradiction, and conflict. APA Handbook of the Psychology of Women: History,
Theory, and Battlegrounds (Vol. 1)., 229–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000059-012
IN HB1426 | 2024 | Regular Session. (2024, February 29). LegiScan. Retrieved March 04, 2024,
Lee, M. T., & Theokary, C. (2021). The Superstar Social Media Influencer: Exploiting linguistic
style and emotional contagion over content? Journal of Business Research, 132,
Lorre, A. (Host). (2018-present). The Blonde Files [Audio podcast]. Dear Media Productions.
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Public Broadcasting Service. (n.d.). Senate hearings on the pill. PBS.
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Seaman, B. (1969). The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill. P. H. Wyden.
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Valenti, J. (2024, February 23). Abortion, every day (2.23.24). jessica.substack.com.
Zoledziowski, A. (2022, July 22). “holistic healers” on Tiktok want you to quit birth control.