Fantasy birth control talk

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce. Alana (the FMC) uses an amulet that was given to her by a maternal figure the first time she menstruates. Those books are YA so they are light on any in depth description so there is no mention of STD's, just that the amulet prevents pregnancy (as well as doing a few other things if I remember right). The amulet is a bit of an easy way out (as someone else mentioned in relation to magic), and it still left the birth control as the responsibility of the girl, but at least in a YA novel it was mentioned and discussed... so that's good, but I would expect much more from a novel geared toward adults.

All of the comments on teas/potions/concoctions of some sort, feel the most realistic to me and the most relatable as a reader (other than barrier protection). Like in the real world, perhaps a combination of the two would work best... and they both fail? It happens.

 

On the flipside of things, there's also Pushing Daisies, in which the two lovers can't even touch each other, and invent all manner of cute ways around this. I don't think that style and genre necessarily needed PIV (an acronym that here does not stand for Parent Identity Verification.)

Still, it's your story, and you make the call.

 

I haven't read it, but I completely understand what you are saying. I guess it all rests in the matter of the relationship development. To me, it isn't the sex that is important. It's the implication of it, and good writers can portray a very strong character bonding without even getting to that part. It seems that you like the concept of risk and reward though, and that's okay. You know your characters way better than I do, and in your story, it may very work ok.

Hmm, it very much depends on the characters I suppose. If the human female cannot bear a child and die in the process, then some may very well consider a very irrational thing to do. Will they go to such great length to satisfy their lust alone? I think you should establish what sort of personalities your characters are before taking this leap. Are they ready for it in the first place?

 

This might seem like an obvious solution, but why not just make one partner or the other sterile? They don't have to know about it before they try to have sex, but it could come as a relief when they find that there's no risk of endangering the female's life with a baby that would otherwise kill her.

 

This is more about the discussion on birth control than the birth control itself, I've just realised. My bad.

I would probably have the characters address it at various points leading up to it. It could cause tension or arguments. It could aid some plot. There could be a scene where the man has to source this herb for her, because he so desperately doesn't want to kill her. Even better, he accidentally gets the wrong herb and the herb fails.

 

That's being rational, AnnaBlixt.
The sex/death aprodisiac thing works for some people. (What was that Normal Mailer quote? Something about women not respecting a man who has sex with them non-reproductively, because there's no threat of death involved?) Not my whimsy, but it's out there, and I think readers would cope if there's a fair bit of heavy-duty chemistry involved.

 

In the books you'll notice that the characters (including Cersei and her brother) are a lot younger than on the TV series!

If you read Jack Vance at all, many of his books have quite explicit scenes in, including rape, which is sometimes carried out by the protagonist! (Cugel's saga for example). He is/was* a truly fantastic writer though.

Sorry, veering a bit OT, so...

In my latest one, a sci-fi, the characters have genetic modifications so they don't become pregnant if they don't wish it.

*If he's still alive he's pretty old now.

 

That's what I always think of when I think of fantasy birth control. To this day, I envy Alanna: she has such an easy method. If only it were real!

You might recall that of the three partners she has over the course of the series, one knew about the charm before they got romantically involved, one asks her about it before making his move, and while there's no explicit discussion with the third - just a reference to them sharing a bedroll - it's implied that he knows about it too. And further implied that none of these men would go there if she were unprotected. In all of those relationships, too, there's some discussion of what it means to them emotionally, before they do the deed. Which is no less important a discussion than birth control, and as a literary device, having an easy method of birth control leaves more room for the emotional focus.

Teas/potions/concoctions of some sort are the main kind of birth control that's been used throughout history. Barrier methods as we know them couldn't be made until the smelting of rubber, invented in the mid nineteenth century. Older types of barrier method existed, but they weren't as comfortable.

 

I haven't read that (minority me!) but there's no need to invent one, just use something historical. Post coital contraceptives have existed forever. Before modern methods came along, taking something to ensure menstruation happened as expected was the usual go-to. Whether that actually prevented pregnancy or caused a very early abortion is a toss up - an extremely early abortion is indistinguishable from a heavy menstrual period, and in times past, no distinction was necessarily drawn. It would just have been viewed as a contraceptive measure. Possibly, those methods could work in either way.

One method I've worked into some of my fiction is eating seeds of Queen Anne's lace. That has both historical precedent and some modern research backing it up.

 

Here's an exercise: what are the genders (if known) of the fantasy authors who include a mention of birth control when their characters have sex that is not intended to be procreative, versus those who don't?

Seems to me that the authors who do think about it and put it in the story are overwhelmingly female.

 

I don’t go into it, because the stories don’t call for it, but birth control exists both as a medicinal herbal thing and via magic. It is very easy for a priestess to keep herself from becoming pregnant while at the monastery no matter how busy their social life… on the flip-side, she’d also be able to make herself fertile as heck, if so inclined, LOL. The big trick for any priestess dealing with Elemental Life on a regular basis while pregnant would be side effects, hence pregnancy during their early years of training is frowned upon because control or abstinence from Life would be required in order to carry a baby to normal term without potential problems.