Hi Georgia, thank you for doing this AMA!

I think everyone's first question upon seeing this AMA title is how on earth did you end up specialising in vasectomies?

I want to hear more about your experiences as a woman interviewing older men about their vasectomies. Is there a lot of performative masculinity?

Thanks so much for doing this AMA, Ms. Grainger! I'm familiar with some of the history around the relationship between women, notions of femininity, and infertility and I was curious if your research has uncovered anything related to masculinity and men voluntarily limiting their fertility. That is, how did those who encouraged vasectomies deal with any perceived threats to a man's virility?

Hello! Thank you for coming to answer our questions. Did the Church of England support or oppose vasectomies when they began to gain greater traction as a form of birth control? Was it seen as equivalent to other methods of contraception?

Apologize in advance for my complete lack of knowledge on the subject. Could you tell us more about what eugenics programs Britain operated and what was their goal (ie, what traits were they trying to eliminate or promote)? Was there a racial component to it?

Of everything youve learned about in your very specific research, what is something (or a few things) that people would find most surprising??

Many childless women have struggled with getting sterilised because 'just in case'. Has there been the same for vasectomies?

Anecdotally, I have heard it was hard for childless men to get them, particularly if young. For mine, all I said was "I have four children now" and that sealed the deal.

Were there insecurities about masculinity historically, similar to our modern hangups?

A lot of work has been done on deconstructing masculinity, especially toxic masculinity. What work have you seen that focuses on reconstructing it? And what notions or principles of masculinity would you identify as important to a reconstructed, healthy, positive masculinity?

Discovered any really surprising eugenicists in your research? I was surprised to find out Keynes was a giant eugenicist.

Hi! What was the popular awareness of vasectomies like in the UK in the early 20th century? Was it mistaken for castration in the popular consciousness?

Why after all these years, we have only been able to create condoms for men? Surely something is in the works.. I always thought they’d create a condom spray or something.

Have you interviewed men who have negative views about vasectomies? What is the reasoning behind it?

Does your research include anything about abortion and is there any work you'd recommend me reading if I wanted to know more about the history of abortion?

This is a really neat AMA! I do actually have a question... I know a handful of people who have had a vasectomy, and I'm pretty sure that in literally every case they had it done (or claim to have had it done) at the request or insistence of their wife rather than because they decided that they wanted to. Does your experience say anything about whether women are more likely than men to be the ones pushing for it, or if a lot of men do actively want them but perhaps not want to act like they do?

I live in Vermont, where we've recently rediscovered our long history of eugenics.

We've removed portraits of formerly-revered now-tainted notables from the statehouse walls, changed the titles of awards and foundations, done a bunch of hand-wringing and -- what seems to me -- a lot of public-performance soul-searching and self-congratulation, made a nice smug pile of

"Those People were awful but we're all woke now, isn't it great that we're more enlightened in this 21st century, we educated well-meaning liberals?"

The thing is, if you look at the eugenecists of the turn of the last century, they don't look like a bunch of white-supremacy right-wing fascists.

They look -- to me -- like maybe a bunch of well-meaning forward-thinking science-based upper-class academics and social reformers.

Ex-abolitionists looking for a new cause.
Wealthy, principled, thoughtful, college-educated Quakers and Unitarians from good families -- who had kept up with the emerging theories of Darwin et al and realized -- OMG! Now that we know how true species-wide change happens, we can speed it up!

"We can take our philanthropy, our education, our best intentions and eradicate poverty within a few generations by applying the latest science!"

Am I missing something here?

Or are we blowing it when we assume that Those People would be evil Trump/Bolsonaro/Brexit-fan extractive-capitalist right-wing racists today, and that actually a good number of them were a lot like, well, us?

tl;dr: were past eugenecists red or blue?

have reproductive issues/rights always been related to religion?

Thanks for doing this, I’ve enjoyed reading the comments and your replies. I’m wondering when the first condoms were used and what materials? In the US there’s jokes about using buckskin, sheepskin when it’s cold out or small intestines of a large animal but I’ve often wondered if there really was something before rubber became common.

How have vasectomies changed from the first time the surgeries have been performed, or what is the difference in recovery time now as compared to 40/50 years ago?

Do you follow the success rates of reversals (vaso-vasostomies)? And how that affects men's attitudes towards vasectomies. I got a vasectomy in good faith, then my wife went nuts and women I was dating afterwards wanted the children option, so I got a reversal. It worked, but at the time (late 1980s) the reversal rate was far from a guarantee.

Hello, thank you for doing this AMA.

Considering what happened in many countries, were there cases of state ordered vasectomies? If yes, can you tell us a bit more?

also, is there data by social / class background?

Do you notice any difference in the motivations for vasectomies in your research across the categories of race, class, region, religion, political leanings, and sexual orientation?

I had a really horrible vasectomy experience and was left with chronic pain that required multiple additional surgeries. (For me personally, it was a complete nightmare)

What are the real percentage of men that end up with chronic pain as a result of the vasectomy procedure?

To what extent was Victorian sexual 'repression' motivated by the desire to have fewer children? In the 19th century, the UK and US birth rates halved, and this is usually credited to later marriage. But we also know that couples sometimes practiced abstinence (or at least sexual restraint) within marriage. Did this also contribute to the declining birth rate, and was it intentional?

Also, did the average person have access to information about natural family planning methods?

Very interesting topics! I am curious about the connection between popular eugenics ideas in the early and mid 20th century and how modern contraceptive and family planning came out of that. Also how, for example, being associated with figures like Margaret Sanger, has been a way that anti abortion activists have attacked Planned Parenthood in contemporary times as being rooted in eugenic ideology. Can you comment on any of these connections or does any of your research shed any light that might help rebut theses assertions?

Do you study male circumcision as well? Any thoughts on it and how much it is normalized in some countries

I had vasectomy when i was 30. Mainly because it was easier and cheaper than my wife getting a hysterectomy. We had two children by then and decided that two were enough. She did not have to worry about getting pregnant.I did not feel that there was any reflection on my masculinity. Still can perform at age 72. May even have affected prostate health. What do you think?

Interesting specialty! I have a series of questions centered on the effects of high-demand, fundamentalist religions on vasectomy or other forms of birth control. I wonder if your data show correlations with factors like regular service attendance, adherence to outward dogmas, or self-assessed faithfulness and birth control? Does religious scrupulosity impact people’s willingness to talk with you about the subject? Do you see differences in an individual’s perceived masculinity between those who have only had one sexual partner vs multiple partners; or between those who consciously control number of children vs those who might reproduce until the female partner’s menopause? In highly religious people, does masculinity correlate with self-worth? With these same factors, how does the religious female partner view the vasectomized male?

As a formerly faithful Mormon, my sexuality was, by Church policy, explicitly assessed by the local bishop (usually a neighbor with no formal religious training) annually beginning at age 12. Any permanent solution to reproduction is a major issue--chemical, physical, behavioral less so today than it once was—and is expected to be discussed with the bishop. Transgressions will result in a range of penalties from public (eg. prohibition from taking communion) to private, including removal of temple/ordinance participation privileges (termed loss of “worthiness.”) Mormons who are “worthy” when they die expect to be able to reunite with the family they had on Earth and to reproduce with their spouse (including, possibly, multiple women) for eternity. Though these issues have nothing to do with why I left, I now view it as one of the measurable harms the religion imposes upon members.

When I was regularly attending, I probably would not have participated in an interview with you (though I would have responded to anonymous questions) because perceived transgressions would result in an unpredictable degree of shunning by the congregation.

Thanks for this great AMA, its been a blast so far.

I'm very interested to hear about "oral history theorising around intersubjectivity of research and of my role as a young woman interviewing older men about their vasectomies." First off, oral history is a subject I really like and this sounds like it would be a very interesting experience collecting this kind of material. What was it like?

Secondly, and perhaps more humorously, how did it go interviewing so many older men about such a personal subject?

Have you learned anything of interest regarding fertility/pregnancy *after* vasectomy in your research? Either failed or reversed vasectomy? When did reversals become available?

please keep this open for questions because I have SO MANY but it’s almost 1am

Do you having any data about bodily autonomy. I was refused discussion (!) of a vasectomy by my NHS doctor unless I brought my wife in with me despite having enough children and having already discussed it. We ran our own business and were living a little below the poverty line (with young kids) so getting time for both of us to attend a doctor's appointment [with the baby!] was basically impossible. I was pretty flabbergasted that given the massive focus that's been put on bodily autonomy and "a woman's right to choose" that this wasn't something that the NHS would apply to men getting vasectomies. I can only imagine how short a doctor's NHS career would be for insisting a woman who was already a mother should bring her husband in to give their consent to getting contraception.

Anyway, sorry if that was rant-y. Do you have evidence of this going back, or is this a recent thing. If men used to be able to just ask for a vasectomy; was that ever used in campaigns as a comparative for people fighting to allow women to make the sole decision on conception? Interested in how this has changed and how we got to be in such a position now. Maybe feminists have successfully argued women should have the right to veto male contraception? It's interesting to me that you've indicated women are often the instigators/initiators of the idea, as this was the case for us; the irony was lost on my wife who, when I got home, did not take the doctor's refusal with good humour.

What do you think of Alexander Graham Bell's history with eugenics and do you wish more people knew about it?

When was the vasectomy introduced in the UK (or at least widely implemented and discussed by the health community) and how invasive were the early practices in comparison to today's procedure

What caused you to choose this area of study?

Ok, here's one:

Why do you think there has been so little effort put into developing an oral birth control pill for men? Currently, the options available to men for birth control pale in comparison to those available to women, yet men's legal exposure to claims of paternity have only increased.

Legislation and de-stigmatising of abortion has been accredited to lower crime rates and has reduced the numbers of children born with severe conditions like Down syndrome (the only data I saw was the Nordic counties and the Netherlands)

Would you say.

Social Eugenicists ever had point about eugenics and society?

Would you consider selective abortions of deformed foetuses or from economically deprived mothers a form of soft Eugenics?

And where is the future of eugenics headed?

Hi Georgia, in your research was Charles Lindbergh enough of a disciple of Eugenics that he would arrange to have his son 'kidnapped' and sent away to live elsewhere (orphanage, foster home) because he couldn't abide his sons genetic imperfections?

Would you be willing to to do a thread on /r/collapse? There is often talk about population control, but fruitful conversation runs into roadblocks of eugenics and eco-fascist genocide.

I advocate for ethical state sponsored birth lottery, with economic framework including childrearing consumption taxes (like a carbon tax on daycare) that subsidize lottery births. With all due respect to slippery slopes, 11B humans projected will certainly entail massive suffering. There has got to be a better way than just runaway population precipitating malthusian collapse. Could you offer insight on future potential using history as a guide?

Love to hear from you. Cheers!