Meaning of Margaret Sanger's 15-20 million soldiers
Upvote:1
Who are these 15-20 million soldiers? Are they literal soldiers enforcing the "stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation"? or are they the people prevented from reproducing? or are they the people allowed to reproduce? or something else that I can't think of?
It seems crystal clear to me that she is talking about the previously mentioned categories of undesirable people, which she estimates at about 15 to 20 million. They are not literal soldiers; she is just using military language and symbolism. These 20 million people would form a figurative army to wage war on society's ills by... not passing their undesirable traits on to any children. To quote Wikipedia:
During the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th century, eugenics was considered a method of preserving and improving the dominant groups in the population
...
Early proponents of eugenics believed that, through selective breeding, the human species should direct its own evolution. They tended to believe in the genetic superiority of Nordic, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon peoples; supported strict immigration and anti-miscegenation laws; and supported the forcible sterilization of the poor, disabled and "immoral".[12]
So the basic idea was to improve society by preventing undesirable people from having children who would inherit their parents undesirable traits. And, lest we judge Mary Sanger too harshly, this form of Eugenic ideology was wildly popular at this time in the US, and found its way into legislation, supreme court decisions and even scientific journals and studies, and advocates were not always content to give anyone a choice, or confine their methods to birth control. I'll end on a couple excerpts from the same Wikipedia page I quoted above.
Eugenics was widely accepted in the U.S. academic community.[7] By 1928 there were 376 separate university courses in some of the United States' leading schools, enrolling more than 20,000 students, which included eugenics in the curriculum.[17]
...
One of the most prominent feminists to champion the eugenic agenda was Margaret Sanger, the leader of the American birth control movement. Margaret Sanger saw birth control as a means to prevent unwanted children from being born into a disadvantaged life, and incorporated the language of eugenics to advance the movement.[24][25] Sanger also sought to discourage the reproduction of persons who, it was believed, would pass on mental disease or serious physical defect. She advocated sterilization in cases where the subject was unable to use birth control.[24] Unlike other eugenicists, she rejected euthanasia.[26] For Sanger, it was individual women and not the state who should determine whether or not to have a child.[27][28]
More post
- 📝 Why is Lal Bahadur Shastri's death in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, still a mystery?
- 📝 What evidence is there of tank-vs-tank combat in Asia during the second world war?
- 📝 Who are the people walking with Hitler?
- 📝 How did early America collect taxes?
- 📝 Why did so few militaries use semi automatic rifles as their standard issue infantry weapon?
- 📝 Looking for good documentation about daily life under Stalinist USSR
- 📝 Is there any record of the Ebionites outside of the antiheretical polemics of the church fathers?
- 📝 How did corn become the most produced crop in the world?
- 📝 What is the flower-like motif appearing right on top of the arches of structures built by Qutb Shahi dynasty?
- 📝 Why is it that the maiden name is traditionally dropped when a woman is getting married?
- 📝 What was more expensive to lose in a gladiatorial fight: a gladiator or a rare animal?
- 📝 What acts of violence happened during the Nazi German annexation of Austria in 1938?
- 📝 How did gold come to symbolize lower ranks than silver in the United States Air Force?
- 📝 Why was the BEF so ill-prepared for WW1?
- 📝 How much firepower did the British navy represent in 1940?
- 📝 Napoleon's medals
- 📝 Was there an alcohol abuse problem among monks and priests in the High Middle Ages in England?
- 📝 How would one refer to/address a Shogun?
- 📝 Has the strength of the historical-archaeological method ever been tested experimentally?
- 📝 What was the extent of Japanese control after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and before surrender?
- 📝 Languages spoken by Josephus?
- 📝 In the American civil war, did junior officers join the battle with a rifle?
- 📝 Did Hongwu Emperor flay 5000 women, and why?
- 📝 What was the plan for an abort of the Enola Gay's mission to drop the atomic bomb?
- 📝 Is this artwork (used in a video game) real?
- 📝 How much faster were the printing presses than hand writing?
- 📝 Why didn't cheese spoil when it was given as rations to soldiers?
- 📝 How were little children dressed in medieval times?
- 📝 Were pregnant women regarded as particularly attractive in 19th century Europe?
- 📝 Can a source be considered 'primary' if it is not written by an eyewitness and partly based on another source?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Meaning of Margaret Sanger's 15-20 million soldiers
- 📝 Why didn't Wehrmacht soldiers refuse to kill civilians?
- 📝 Why couldn't soldiers sight their own weapons without officers' orders?
- 📝 Why did the German army execute so few soldiers in World War I compared to most other armies?
- 📝 WW2: Did US marines and soldiers really go into action with unbuckled helmet chin straps?
- 📝 Were there any high-ranking female soldiers during the Middle ages?
- 📝 What's the meaning of a knight fighting a snail in medieval book illustrations?
- 📝 What is the meaning of people "looking elsewhere" on medieval paintings?
- 📝 Are there incidents of ronin travelling outside Japan as soldiers of fortune?
- 📝 Rape perpetrated by American soldiers during WWII?
- 📝 Is there evidence Muslim soldiers fought in the Continental Army?
- 📝 Were soldiers in the World Wars paid?
- 📝 Why did Nazi soldiers do Hitler's bidding?
- 📝 What is the meaning of a glove on the tail of monsters in illuminated manuscripts?
- 📝 Why did Soviet soldiers who plundered occupied territories during WW2 prefer watches to other valuables?
- 📝 What is the name and meaning of a World War 2 CCC Medal with both the Polish Eagle and British Statant Gardant Lion?
- 📝 What is meaning of 4 letter abbreviations in Roman names like Titus Flavius T. f. T. n. Sabinus?
- 📝 What was the meaning of the following Neville Chamberlain quote?
- 📝 Was the Soviet Union in 1945 seeking to capture German soldiers and civilians, or drive them west?
- 📝 What were the individual soldiers motivated by during World War 1?
- 📝 Korean DMZ Soldiers
- 📝 "The signal on the Zibby is dead" - what is the meaning of "Zibby"?
- 📝 What kind of armor did the soldiers use in pre-gunpowder Southeast Asia?
- 📝 When did the use of "Contact!" by soldiers emerge?
- 📝 What is the meaning of the hand gesture performed by King James II in the portrait by Peter Lely?
- 📝 What were the factors that aided Margaret Thatcher in her victory against the trade unions when her predecessors failed?
- 📝 What is the meaning of the cross on a Chinese bronze Gu Chalice?
- 📝 Is it true that Spartan soldiers fought naked?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of German junior enlisted soldiers surviving the siege of Stalingrad and subsequent captivity?
- 📝 Do we know the names of the German soldiers entombed at Babie Doły?