Why is the male birth control pill so hard to understand?

Seems every time the issue of pharma releasing a male birth control pill comes up, the first thing that pops on everyone's lips, regardless of gender, is a joke or quip about how men can't be trusted to take the things, so why would we even make them?

Some lady over at BlogHer thinks that since men cancel dates, they can't take a pill. What?

Do I really want to trust a man to be reliable enough to take a pill on a daily basis? I mean seriously, some men can't even commit to canceling a date, returning phone calls, etc., etc. So I'm supposed to think there are men out there responsible enough to take a pill?

Hmmm.

I don't think I'd take those chances.

I cancel dates. I forget to clean out my fridge. Once I found my keys in the bathtub. I will ignore certain emails for days.

But you know what? I can manage the monumental task of popping a pill every dinnertime so that I don't have a baby if I don't want to. Look, I know men are portrayed as bumbling buffoons in cleaning product commercials and on sitcoms, but most of the ones I know manage to get out of bed every day and lead mostly normal lives. I'm betting they can take a pill.

This dismissive attitude isn't just bad for men. It's bad for women. And it's not feminist.

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Feminism champions every individual's right to make reproductive decisions about their own bodies. If men pooh-poohed women's contraceptive pills because women cancel dates sometimes and said we really should only use condoms so that men have proof they're safe (women's health be damned!), the uproar would be ... uproarious. As it stands, making a male pill sound ridiculous just serves to absolve men of taking reproductive responsibility.

Also, are women supposedly only taking birth control pills for their partners? I take my pill because I, Andrea Grimes, don't want to have a baby. If a guy wants to take a pill because he, Some Dude, doesn't want to have a baby, are we really just going to laugh away that right? Because men are bumbly or something? Please. If a male pill existed, I would absolutely still take my pill until I was in a monogamous relationship with a dude who wanted to continue taking his--or get a vasectomy. Because I don't want to have a kid. And, like women, guys deserve to have a variety of options when it comes to reproductive health.