“Viagra stories”: challenging ‘erectile dysfunction’
Section snippets
Introduction: The medical construction of sexual response
“Erection is defined as a physico-pharmacological penile stiffness resulting from the relation between vascular, cavernosal and neurological structures” (Basar et al., 2001, p. 403).
“The sexual act is a continuum of separate but linked processes; libido, erection, ejaculation, orgasm, detumescence, refractory period” (White, 1997, p. 41).
The medical model of sexuality subscribes to a mechanistic view of the body, in which ‘sexual response’ is broken down to a series of consecutive stages as
Sample
In early 2001, advertisements calling for participants for an independent national study on the social impact of Viagra (funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand) featured on radio and in local newspapers and popular magazines throughout the country. In response to these advertisements, 33 men volunteered for a study on men's experiences of using Viagra. With the exception of one man who had experimented with Viagra for recreational purposes (MP33), the men had all been prescribed
Participants challenge the idea of ‘sexual dysfunction’“Erectile dysfunction is a medical condition” (Pfizer pamphlet targeting NZ consumers, 2000).
“Erectile dysfunction is a medical condition” (Pfizer pamphlet targeting NZ consumers, 2000).
While the narratives of some participants were firmly positioned within a medical framework, and accepting of the portrayal of erectile difficulties as part of a ‘disease process’ or ‘disorder’ of the male body, others did not subscribe strongly to this perspective; some men and women explicitly resisted the idea that erectile difficulties were ‘abnormal’ or ‘dysfunctional’. In this section, we present a variety of viewpoints and experiences that challenge the medical representation of erectile
Participants complicate representations of Viagra as a ‘quick fix’“Viagra: Love life again” (Pfizer advertisement, NZ Listener, 2000).
“Viagra: Love life again” (Pfizer advertisement, NZ Listener, 2000).
Viagra has been promoted as a ‘quick fix’ or a ‘magic bullet’ for erectile difficulties (Loe, 2001). This representation is assisted by the prevalent division in western culture of human subjectivity into mind (psychological) and body (physical) components. Accordingly, the medical model views an individual man's ‘physical’, bodily sexual responses as distinguishable from his ‘desires’; if anything, medications like Viagra are understood to facilitate the ‘matching’ of a man's taken-for-granted
Conclusions: Diversity disrupts ‘dysfunctionality’
The medical model of male sexuality assumes the universal application of the sexual response cycle and therefore the commonality of experience of the separation of desire, arousal, and orgasm; the imperative of orgasm; and the centrality of penetrative intercourse for men, masculinity and sexual relationships. Our analysis of the accounts of men in this study, who have experienced erectile difficulties and women whose partners have experienced such difficulties, indicates, however, that the
Acknowledgements
We are immensely grateful to the men and women who participated in this study, and to the Health Research Council of NZ for funding this research. We thank Philip Armstrong for helping with the interviews with men, and for his valuable feedback on this paper. Thanks also to Roxane Vosper and Sharon McFarlane for transcribing interviews.
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