FROM NAUGHTY GOODS TO NICOLE MILLER: MEDICINE AND THE MARKETING OF AMERICAN CONTRACEPTIVES

In the rich history of modern pharmaceutical advertising in the United States, few medical objects have been as controversial as contraceptives. Condemned in the 1870s as lascivious devices whose commercial visibility would tarnish female sexual purity, contraceptives have in the late twentieth century been repackaged by pharmaceutical companies as the smart, progressive, and fashion-conscious woman’s ally. This article explores evolving perspectives on the place of birth control in public spaces from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. In so doing, it elucidates the changes and continuities in the long and contested history of marketing, medicine, sexuality, and reproductive control.