Alex Henderson

The Culture Wars 

1Flesh: The Anti-Contraception Extremists Who Pose as Hipsters

By Alex Henderson
RealmNoir, July 29, 2012

Anti-contraception extremists are usually easy to spot in the United States. They have names like Focus on the Family and the American Family Association; they show up at Republican Party and "values voters" events, make frequent appearances on Fox News and insist that Sarah Palin is not an imbecile. But sometimes, anti-contraception extremists pose as hipsters—and the group 1Flesh is a perfect example.

1 Flesh’s website doesn’t look like a typical Christian fundamentalist website. The site is full of hipster-ish, MTV-like graphics and is aimed at a Generation Y/Echo Boomer demographic. And the site tells readers that if they want great sex and plenty of it, here’s how to accomplish that: get married and don’t use any type of contraception. No birth control pills, no condoms. Far-right Christian fundamentalists of the Republican variety love to preach “personal responsibility,” but in fact, what 1Flesh is preaching is very irresponsible—especially in light of the economic crisis that continues to plague the United States and other countries.

Sane individuals believe in the old adage “if you can’t feed them, don’t breed them.” They realize that becoming a parent is not something to be taken lightly; it’s an enormous responsibility. Therefore, using contraception is, for both married and unmarried couples, a perfect example of taking responsibility for one’s actions. But the anti-birth control crowd, truth be told, does not really believe in responsible behavior; if they did, they wouldn’t be discouraging the use of contraception and urging couples to simply let the chips fall where they may. 1Flesh is promoting reckless behavior, which is truly ironic in light of all the “personality responsibility” rhetoric that comes from the Christian Right and the modern GOP.

On one hand, many far-right social conservatives are very good at using blatantly racist language and bashing the poor in order to convince Republican voters that they believe in “personality responsibility.” But on the other hand, they oppose “personality responsibility” by discouraging the use of contraception—even for married couples.

Christian Right fundamenalists love to babble on about “Shanequa the welfare queen” who has five different kids by five different babydaddies. Never mind all the poor white women who have had out-of-wedlock births—for the Christian Right, out-of-wedlock births are always an inner-city problem or an African-American problem rather than a white problem. But truth be told, out-of-wedlock births in the United States are not a black problem, a white problem or a Latino problem; they are an American problem. And ironically, the same far-right social conservatives who claim to be in favor of responsible parenting are also anti-contraception and anti-family planning. It’s a total contradiction, but then, total contradictions are to be expected in the Bizarroworld that is the Christian Right.

Groups like 1Flesh typically promote absintence-only sex education programs, which have been an abysmal failure in the United States. According to United Nations statistics, Switzerland—a country with comprehensive sex programs in public schools and very liberal sexual attitudes compared to the U.S.—had a teen birth rate of 4.3 per 1000 females in 2008. That same year, the teen birth rates in Bible Belt states like Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas exceeded 60 per 1000. So in other words, places where the Christian Right’s absintence-only sex-ed programs are common tend to have roughly 14 times as many teen births as a European country like Switzerland. The U.S. also tends to have much higher abortion and STD rates than countries in Continental Western Europe. Leave it to the Christian Right to rail against teen pregnancies, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases while doing everything imaginable to promote them.

Of course, being right-of-center politically doesn’t automatically mean that one is a far-right Christian fundamentalist. The late Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater, who was considered an arch-conservative in his day, was a vehement critic of the Christian Right and made no secret of his disdain for the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. It is quite possible to be a fiscal conservative who is socially liberal; the Libertarian Party is full of people who fit that description. But these days, it is very difficult to get ahead in the Republican Party if one doesn’t embrace the Christian Right’s extremist agenda.

Economically, these are perilous times that we’re living in. Many married couples in the U.S. are putting off having children because they simply cannot afford them. And for 1Flesh to encourage those couples to quit using all contraception is absolutely appalling.

1Flesh would have us believe that they’re promoting responsible sexual behavior, but the exact opposite is true. 1Flesh are promoting reckless, irresponsible behavior, and all the pseudo-hipster graphics in the world won’t change that.

Alex Henderson is a veteran journalist whose work has appeared in The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, Billboard, Spin, XBIZ, Creem, Skin Two, The Pasadena Weekly, JazzTimes, Cash Box and a long list of other well-known publications. He can be followed on Twitter @alexvhenderson. 



The anti-contraception group 1Flesh claims to be promoting sexual enjoyment, but they're actually promoting reckless, irresponsible behavior.