The birth control pill was introduced in 1960...but maybe Angie wasn't 'experienced' yet.,,i.e., maybe she was still a virgin. It only takes once!
Just because the Pill was introduced in '60 doesn't mean that every sexually active woman was taking it. The introduction of the Pill was only the
beginning of sexual liberation of women. It's taken decades for attitudes to change. There were still strong moral and ethical issues women must have struggled with that many of us today would find quaint and outdated. Just the act of visiting her GP for a prescription would have seemed an admission of shameful rampant promiscuity for many young women. Much the same as today where there are still people too embarrassed to buy condoms, even though they are on supermarket shelves.
Secondly, I think the film made it quite clear that Angie was a virgin prior to her encounter with Rocky. In the scenes in the warehouse where they were hiding from her brothers, Rocky asked why she had slept with him (not in those exact words of course). She replied that it was an experiment, and that it had not gone particularly well. She said in a paraphrased way, "It is not like you read about in books or see in movies. They brainwash you to think there are bells and banjos".
That wasn't very sporting, using real bullets.
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carmen_corral
14 years ago
For Catholics even today it's as grave a sin to use the birth control pill or any other contraceptive method aside from the rhythm method (and some priests are even against of that one too, since the basic dogma behind the contraception ban is: "be fruitful and multiply", so having sex -or not having it- without the intent of populating the world with more Catholics is against God's mandate) as it was 40 years ago (or 1000 years ago, for that matter). There are still GPs that refuse to prescribe it (even to married women) due to "moral issues".
Of course abortion for the Catholic church is a mortal sin, way worse than using the pill, but one is a direct consequence of the other.
Nowadays I'll venture to say that the majority of Catholics (myself included) wish the church would revise its stance towards birth control, and even abortion (I'm pro-choice and a lot of Catholics are)...Some polls say that about 90-96% of all sexually active Catholic women have used some form of birth control *other* than the rhythm method at some point in their life; another shows rhar 82% of Catholics (men and women) felt even in the current state of affairs, you could use birth control and still be a "good Catholic". This even though the Catholic Church has repeatedly stated without uncertainty that the use of contraceptions is a grave sin.
The point is now we can openly question the Pope's decisions about how we live our life vs. how we live our faith (and due to that some things are slowly beggining to change e.g. on Nov/2010 Pope Benedict XVI lifted the ban on condoms as a last resort tool to prevent disease) but back then: forget it! That was strictly taboo.
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