Introduction:
For someone who once said she wasn’t a “big fan of Women’s Liberation,” country star Loretta Lynn sure did record a lot of songs that served as this movement’s soundtrack. On January 27, 1975, she released one of her most notable—and controversial—songs of this ilk: “The Pill” from her 25th studio album, Back to the Country.
The song was groundbreaking in more ways than one. Neither the mainstream nor country music worlds were strangers to sexuality, but these discussions still largely centered on a male perspective. Not only did “The Pill” put the matter of a woman’s sexuality back into her own hands. It did so with the help of oral contraceptives, which were an even bigger taboo than the idea of a sexually active woman.
Mini-skirts, hot pants, and a few little fancy frills, Lynn sings defiantly. Yeah, I’m makin’ up for all those years since I’ve got the pill.
These lyrics, though tame today, were saucy enough to cause many country radio stations to ban the song altogether. But according to Lynn, the song still made a significant impact (and not just in the country music world).
Loretta Lynn Recalled What a Rural Doctor Once Said About “The Pill”
At a time when women’s healthcare was still woefully ill-researched and inaccessible, women living in rural, secluded areas were at a double disadvantage. Even if a woman did know about contraceptive methods, religious stigmas surrounding women’s sexuality shrouded these resources with such shame that most women wouldn’t dare to ask for them if they knew what to ask for. When they heard Loretta Lynn singing, “The feelin’ good comes easy now since I’ve got the pill,” in her loud, proud Southern drawl, it was like a lightbulb flicked on.
Suddenly, more and more women wanted to know what the pill was and how to get it for themselves. In a 1975 Playgirl interview, Loretta Lynn recalled a rural doctor telling her that her song “had reached more people out in the country and done more than all the government programs together” in terms of sharing women’s health information.
Although “The Pill” would become an anthem for liberated women determined to regain their bodily autonomy, Lynn wasn’t eager to categorize herself as a liberal woman. She understood the wear of having multiple children year after year could do to a woman’s mental, physical, and emotional health—especially while the husband continues to live life unencumbered. Lynn never intended to use her song to fall in line with the Steinems and Friedans of the day.
In many ways and, indeed, by her own admission, Lynn didn’t fit into the typical definition of a “feminist.” The fact that “The Pill” and other songs would become such anthemic tracks for the movement is a testament to art’s ability to transform into something bigger than the artist. Lynn might not have agreed with the Women’s Liberation movement, but she was certainly an effective mouthpiece for them.