Imagine with me, for a moment, the setting: The year is 1969. The Canadian Prime Minister is about to have an affair with Barbra Streisand; hair is long and flowing and is also a musical; and, one day in May, contraception, abortion, and homosexuality are all legalized at the exact same time. (Surprise! ‘Summer of 69’ actually could be about the year.)
The journey to get this point, where folks could procure both birth control and (some) abortions without legal consequences, indirectly involved a Royal Commission on the Status of Women. For those unfamiliar with Canadian political history, let me explain a Royal Commission: basically, every time there’s an issue the incumbent government doesn’t really want to deal with, they hire independent researchers (who aren’t paid very well and so never get anything done on time) under the Queen’s authority (who doesn’t even go here, who gets anything done when their boss is out of town) to take a year (read: several years) to look into things, basically so they can delay the issue until the next guy gets into office. Lester B. Pearson enacted this strategy in 1967, and by the time Pierre Trudeau pirouetted his way into office in 1968, there was already enough research done to show that women were gonna start some shit if something wasn’t done about their rights.
For example: four days before Pierre Trudeau took office in 1968, a woman named Norma Ellen Verwey (pictured left) proposed to the Royal Commission that since men insisted on being in charge of everything, instead of legalizing contraception for women, why don’t men take charge like they do with everything else and just all get vasectomies?
Boy howdy, did the men ever get scared.
The Commission itself, admittedly handled mostly by women who might’ve also seen this as a good idea, took her suggestion surprisingly well. Since her assertion was that vasectomies are reversible, there probably didn’t seem much wrong with her idea. The main comment from them at the time actually had nothing to do with the logistics behind compulsory vasectomies, but instead was that vasectomy was mostly being suggested over a male birth control pill because it’s much harder to forget about a vasectomy than it is to forget to take a pill.
The media, on the other hand, had a field day. A few newspapers in particular seemed to get a real panic brewing. The Toronto Star published an article right after Norma made her suggestion titled, “Sterilize ‘unready’ males at 16, woman doctor urges.” It was on the front page, so it probably caused a riot somewhere. Meanwhile, the Ottawa Citizen didn’t bother to contain the sentiment to Norma – instead, all women “wanted men sterilized,” which was probably accidentally a more accurate statement than intended. Most strikingly, in Montreal, La Presse published Norma’s photo with the caption, “Men Beware!” The accompanying headline said that all men were going to be sterilized.
Yes. All. Men.
(Vancouver Sun, April 18 1968)
I would love to be able to tell you that Norma Verwey, MD, had a completely serious plan to solve the problem of birth control and that this plan actually was compulsory vasectomies. She would have had support; some guy called Ken Huband, who was actually a civil servant, approached the Commission six months later and said he thought that compulsory vasectomies were a great idea. However, he also thought that people should be able to marry themselves to whomever they wanted, wherever they wanted — “on a beach, at a party or in a church, I don’t care.” Probably this thing about marrying yourself to people at parties made everyone realize that he was not the best guy to be giving advice, so the newspaper coverage just called him “courageous” and then described how colourful his outfit was.
(From this ‘courageous’ descriptor, I, a historian and therefore an expert, surmise that a man stating his views about contraception to a room full of women has always been a very dangerous thing to do, and strongly advise that men should not do that thing in order to avoid certain peril, possibly unless they are wearing a really pretty outfit.)
(Vancouver Sun, April 20 1968)
Still, the point stands that more than one person in 1968 suggested compulsory vasectomies in order to solve the birth control problem, and Norma started it, and if the colourful courage man hadn’t fucked it all up by talking about party marriages she might’ve changed this nation’s history and there might’ve been vasectomy centres on street corners now.
The thing is that the media was wrong about a few things – actually, most things – and Norma Verwey, as it turns out, was just a tremendous prankster.
First of all, Norma Verwey did not have a medical degree. She had a doctorate; she was, as she explicitly stated both aloud and in writing, a sociologist. Accordingly, this entire thing was a massive social experiment to see just how mad people would get when she suggested that men be the ones to have an invasive procedure to control family sizes.
No – I know what you’re thinking. I doubted it at first, too. Couldn’t she have been serious about this? Some of us might be a little bit serious about this now. Fortunately she wrote a book in 1991 called Radio Call-Ins and Covert Politics that was mostly unrelated, but thanks to the subject of covert politics she managed to sneak in a couple pages about her time trolling the nation about vasectomies.
Listen – I think it’s pretty clear that Norma was at least partially serious. I personally want to believe that Norma was sitting at home at her typewriter positively crying with mirth as she thought of all the shit she was about to start. She acknowledges that this plan was mostly to generate media attention for herself just to see how many radio shows she could get herself on – also a worthy goal – but she also characterizes the vasectomy idea as “an extremely anti-male suggestion,” and if that’s not an acknowledgement of her true motives then I don’t know what is.
This theory that she was partially serious is supported by her statement that she “wished to ‘smoke out’ medical opinion on the question of vasectomy reversal. Male doctors had always been very reluctant to suggest vasectomy,” she writes, “and even more reluctant to admit that it was reversible.” So basically what I am reading here is that she wanted to find out if her vasectomy plan was actually viable, and therefore completely considered this idea to be a potentially reasonable solution to the problem of birth control as she knew it.
Everything, according to Norma, went exactly as she’d hoped. After being called onto talk show after talk show – “as expected, the moderators who contacted me were either impolite, chauvinistic and sarcastic, or patronising and full of good-humoured male upmanship,” she writes – she eventually got more than one medical doctor to call in, amidst the vulgar phone calls and personal attacks aplenty, to admit that, even in 1968, vasectomies had 60-70% reversibility. Some men phoned in to admit they’d had a vasectomy, and that they were happier for it, while others phoned in to express a wish to get a vasectomy; and soon, the conversation about vasectomies began to change.
By the end of it, she says, no matter what else you wanted to say about it, “No listener in the Vancouver area, male or female, could claim that they had never heard of reversible vasectomy.”
So please, never forget, if you are Canadian or even if you are not, this courageous woman who almost single-handedly changed the landscape of the Canadian birth control story with what began as a social experiment. She endured a great deal of ridicule in order to give this gift to us; the threatening phone calls did not end, though she received several in her support as well, and she was a topic in the papers for years to come.
In the end, one sociologist – who referred good-naturedly to the positive outcome of the experiment as the fact that women were now able to convince their husbands that his “tiny tubes were more easily cut” than any invasive procedure she might have to endure to stop the damn babies already – simultaneously pranked the men of the nation and gave women a new set of ideas to work with when considering whether or not to get her tubes tied, all a year before contraception and abortion were even made legal.
I think we all know that the vasectomy suggestion directly caused the legalization of birth control for women with the sheer amount of fear it generated in the hearts, minds, and ballsacks of the nation’s leaders, so I won’t bother to prove the connection here. But I do hope from now on, if you’re ever having trouble convincing someone – you know, legislators, your best friend’s horrible boyfriend, the queen – that birth control should be both free and absolutely everywhere, consider pulling a Norma and arguing for compulsory vasectomies instead. You never know; you might trigger the nation’s next big push for more comprehensive birth control.
Tags: feminism, history, leigha ariana, misandry, reproductive rights, something something canada
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I… I want to print this and send it to every young woman I know.
Brb, writing a letter to my senators…
This is the best story I have ever heard. When women do trolling, we do it right: at the end there’s significant social change.
Seriously, why do men troll; they’re so bad at it.
The Toast should do a series. WHEN WOMEN TROLL.
eta: I have belatedly realized that the Toast, generally speaking, is an entire website devoted to this concept.
It could be the new slogan!
#notAllTrolls
This is marvelous, and should be taught in every 20th century history class! (Of course, the US would never do that)
What else could we accomplish via pranking?
Dudes keep their legs together on public transport following terrifying reports of invisible yet accurate gonad-targeting gremlins?
pleased do this, I beg you
What a great story to read first thing in the morning, bless Norma. Going to slip reversible vasectomies into every birth control conversation from this day forward.
Norma Ellen Verwey is my new hero!
When I find myself of times of trouble
Norma Verwey sings to me
Speaking words of wisdom
COMPULSORY VASECTOMIES
That is perfect. I’ll never hear that song in the same way again
Sorry, can’t type much, hands are occupied clapping forever for Norma.
Several hours later and I have switched to *Nelson laugh*.
All of this is amazing, but especially thank you for digging up those cartoons. Those are gold.
I LOVE THE SAD MAN PUTTING ON HIS JACKET. LOOK HOW SAD AND DISENFRANCHISED HE IS. Listening to women talk is awful enough, but now he has to put his OUTSIDE CLOTHES ON TO DO IT. The sympathy the men of 1968 must have felt with this poor guy. Just frickin putting on his jacket like some kind of peasant. Unbelieveable what the women have done to this once proud and noble chap.
I love how rambunctious the small girl-child is.
This is a most excellent idea and whenever some troll suggests that women just keep their knees together I will say Mandatory Vasectomy.
I like this because it doubles as a valid argument and an immediate threat.
My dad (who was a teenager in 1969) still ABSOLUTELY DESPISES Trudeau and the entire Liberal Party, and has been known to opine at length about how ~Pierre~ was only voted in because women thought he was good-looking. I’m convinced that the root of his hatred is that all of a sudden, he was surrounded by WOMEN and THE GAYS demanding things like equal treatment under the law and his tiny teenage boy brain never recovered.
(Side note: Pierre Trudeau was considered good-looking . . . ? If you say so, Dad.)
Trudeaumania! Thanks to charisma oozing from him.
“The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation”
I disagree with a lot of his politics and decisions, but at least he had that right.
LOL goddamn I love Trudeau, but I was born in 84, so you know, second hand knowledge.
My ex’s dad DESPISED Trudeau and adored Mulroney (yes, you heard me right, even after the most recent scandal), and so thank god I didn’t marry into THAT family.
ETA Trudeau is a sex god and you know it. Stop playing coy.
I acknowledge and celebrate Trudeau’s sex godliness.
I have heard A LOT from my coworker about how Justin Trudeau only has any political power because women think he’s hot. Trying to convince him that Justin’s success with women maaayyybe has something to do with his female-friendly policies and the fact that everyone else sucks has been unsuccessful.
I’m not such a fan of JT – I get the impression he is trying to build his father’s unpredictability into a family brand and is using sensationalized politics to get enough media attention to get elected next year, but that’s just my own wee cross to die on – but I really find it interesting that people are more likely to focus on his looks than the fact that he’s basically representing our nation’s Clinton dynasty equivalent. More likely he’s riding family connections than any alleged sexy qualities. Say what you like about Pierre – he pushed through some pretty major legislation in addition to being a media mainstay. JT is trying to look like he’s gonna do the same, but in a much more ‘family-friendly’ way than his pops.
Uh, yeah, Pierre Trudeau is the father of our modern constitutional nation, and that’s a huge deal.
I’m not a fan of JT either ugh ugh ugh the manner in which he panders to women is a huge turn off. Not the actual pandering, mind you, I like to be pandered to, but he has this weird condescending quality I can’t stand. Nevertheless, I will vote for him because anything to stop Harper.
Yeah, I’m not his biggest fan by any means and I’m not going to vote for him, but I love the way he reduces Conservatives to spluttering rage. I also find Conservatives attempts to feminize him as an attack method fascinating (“he’s pretty! he was a teacher! he took his shirt off! he has nice hair! here, let’s write his name in sparkly purple writing just to make sure you’re picking up what we’re putting down!”)
I absolutely loved those Conservative attack ads that showed the footage of Justin taking his shirt off. In slow motion. Again and again.
Dang son, with arms like that he can run whatever he wants to as far as I’m concerned.
I also wonder how much of his popularity stems from how many people remember him growing up while Pierre was prime minister? I’m only a few years older than Justin and I remember him (and his brothers) as children. I’m not going to vote for him, but it does dispose me kindly towards him. (And, as a lesbian, his hotness or not doesn’t make a difference to me.)
I thought Buzzfeed and The People I Know Who Are Into Dudes had determined that John Turner (also Liberal) was the sexiest PM of all time. Also, marrying a 22 year old at the age of 52 is creepy. ‘There should have been a charivari’ is the appropriate caption for that wedding photo.
It was creepy…
Although, I do like how Canadian politican’s personal lives aren’t commented on for the most part. We’ve had a lot of PMs with really dysfunctional personal/family lives, and it’s not necessarily viewed as a hindrance on their ability to govern. (I remember being astonished when Chretien’s son’s conviction received so little attention).
It was really lovely how the last Ontario election was fault with very few digs at Wynne’s sexual orientation or gender….
Many years ago, I (an American) was being a smartypants to my mom with some Canadian trivia, and asked her if she knew the name of the first Canadian Prime Minister. She answered Pierre Trudeau. It wasn’t until many years later when I learned about his portion of Canadian history. To which I thought, “Well played, Mother. Well played.”
Why do they not teach this in Canadian schools?? I studied Canadian history and gender studies and this has never come up.
Another life changing moment from The Toast.
Not only is the subject matter AMAZING, but the way you wrote made me laugh a lot, so thanks for everything about this post, it’s great.
I sometimes wondered why the U.S. has significantly lower vasectomy rates in comparison with Canada, but now I wonder if maybe I should have instead been wondering why Canada’s vasectomy rates are higher. I would normally be reticent to trace such a widespread cultural/health trend all back to one single person, but in this article, Verwey really seems to have been that jumping-off point for a whole national conversation? Very cool.
Real Talk: I alllllmost asked my boyfriend to get a vasectomy instead of getting an IUD. But we’d only been dating for like 3 months so I thought that would be slightly crazy (considering how non-invasive an IUD is by comparison). But if this relationship thing works out & we’re still together in 5 years when my IUD needs to be switched…
Totally reasonable. I know a lady who has always required her sex partners to get vasectomies. She’s kind of my hero.
The only thing that stops me from doing this is that a lot insurance companies (stupidly) don’t cover vasectomies, so the cost can be prohibitive. My IUD, on the other hand, only cost me my doctor’s visit copay.
I’m not 100% convinced that IUDs are less invasive than vasectomies. I have never asked my male partner to get a vasectomy though, and trot off to the doc every 4 years or so to get my cervix opened up [not so tiny screams].
My definition of “invasive” is probably not medically accurate – I just mean that getting an IUD inserted doesn’t involve actually cutting me open, and it’s a lot easier to reverse than a vasectomy.
…Also I had a freakishly easy experience with getting my IUD? It basically felt like bad menstrual cramps and then it was over. Although I have chronic pain and therefore a very high pain threshold.
Nah man, you’re right, I’m just complaining about IUDs.
My husband was in the room (though not, like, watching) when I had my IUD inserted. He has since had a vasectomy and has said he considers it less invasive than my IUD.
He also pointed out, though, that women are used to yearly exams* and men rarely have their junk handled by doctors, so there is a bigger mental hurdle to the procedure. I think there are also other factors at play regarding men’s reluctance to do it, but that is a valid point.
* I briefly couldn’t remember this word and all I could think was “inspections”
By the time your IUD is up, we’re going to be living in the post Vasalgel world! http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/09/…
ITS GOING TO BE AHMAAAZING.
Although I like my IUD thus far for period control.
Yo, I am SUPER excited for Vasalgel. If I’m not in a committed relationship I’ll probably get a new IUD because in general I don’t trust men & wouldn’t put it past one to claim he had the injection… but if I’m still with my current partner or with a new committed one, goodbye IUD!
This article is very enjoyable. “This is nothing short of Occam’s Razor for your testicles.” 😀
Yeah, I just got my IUD replaced today and it was even more incredibly painful than I remembered- but that’s it for another five years and it means I never get my period. It would be worth it even if it didn’t provide birth control.
HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THIS WOMAN BEFORE? Everything about this is outstanding.
I have never been prouder to be a Canadian woman with a vasectomied husband.
Yes. All. Men.
Mmmmhmmm
My favorite part about this is how, because of Hark! A Vagrant!, I now have some cartoonish ideas about famous Canadians in history.
Lester “Mike” Pearson, of course! The nerd with the bowtie! Pierre Trudeau! His wife went clubbing a lot! Yes, yes.
Anyway, wasn’t there a plan some time ago to do a sort of radio-wave remote control vasectomy? Like, you get a thing implanted that interrupts the tubes, but you transmit a signal that reopens them when it’s time to breed?
I’d sign up for that, that sounds good.
that sounds like a scenario from a dystopian sci-fi novel tbh
people’s fertility being controlled remotely via radio wave? what happens if you’re waiting by the microwave for your popcorn and it zaps your tube implant?
I don’t know, I’d assume the microwaves are deflected by the chromium that your vas deferens are laced with.
There was one that was like some kind of plastic that got injected into the vas deferens and then could be injected with something that dissolves the plastic when it is, as you say, “time to breed”.
Saddle up boys, time to breed!
“Sterilize ‘unready’ males at 16, woman doctor urges.”
LITERALLY CACKLING LIKE A WITCH RN.
I got a Nexplanon in my arm which is rad as fuck, you can pretty much tell if I think a social interaction is going well because I will be like “HEY DO YOU WANNA TOUCH MY BIRTH CONTROL IMPLANT? *wiggles implant under skin to demonstrate*”
The needle to put the thing in was ENORMOUS but it makes my periods way less painful (and way more erratic which I do NOT love) AND as far as I’m concerned a giant needle is WAY less invasive than a speculum for IUD insertion. I didn’t have to take off my pants!
I LOVE trying to get people to touch my implant (HA). If they refuse, I simply offer to show them the video 🙂
Yeah, I mean they hurt going in, but I figure it hurts less than a baby coming out.
Many years ago, I (an American) was being a smartypants to my mom with some Canadian trivia, and asked her if she knew the name of the first Canadian Prime Minister. She answered Pierre Trudeau. It wasn't until many years later when I learned about his portion of Canadian history. To which I thought, "Well played, Mother. Well played."
It was creepy…
Although, I do like how Canadian politican's personal lives aren't commented on for the most part. We've had a lot of PMs with really dysfunctional personal/family lives, and it's not necessarily viewed as a hindrance on their ability to govern. (I remember being astonished when Chretien's son's conviction received so little attention).
It was really lovely how the last Ontario election was fault with very few digs at Wynne's sexual orientation or gender….
This is fascinating.
Last year I spent two months doing an obstetrics and gynaecology placement and one thing that struck me was that whenever a patient came in looking for a tubal ligation for birth control, a vasectomy had never even been considered. Vasectomies are more reliable, less invasive and can be reversed but there wasn’t a single situation where it had even been discussed by the couple. We need a Norma of our own!
Very Very Lol’d at ” which was probably accidentally a more accurate statement than intended. “
Norma Verwey is still alive, nearly 99 and I had no idea she had caused such a stir. I was only 10 at the time!
Her niece.
Wow!! Thank you so much for commenting, I’m sorry I’m only seeing it so late! If she’s able to talk about it, it would be wonderful to hear what she has to say about all this now.
Wow!! Thank you so much for commenting, I'm sorry I'm only seeing it so late! If she's able to talk about it, it would be wonderful to hear what she has to say about all this now.