The Viagratization of Sex

I just made that word up, if you can believe it.

The more “correct” term would be medicalization, and my favorite debunker of hack sex science, Dr. Petra Boynton, has a very nice outline of the medicalization of sex. Check out the article, the links to more information, and follow that up with her appearance on the BBC2’s Horizon series, where she attempts to bring this knowledge to the general public:

I was keen to outline how some sex drugs (such as the contraceptive pill or antibiotics for sexually transmitted infections) have undoubtedly enhanced our lives. But the medicalisation of sexual behaviour is another matter. While I agree men with chronic erectile dysfunction as a result of a health problem such as MS or diabetes benefit from an erectile dysfunction drug, attempts to classify a lack of desire have proved highly problematic.

But is it too late? Are these ads for pills and herbs and cures already so deeply embedded in our collective psyches that it’s too late to go back and figure out the true roots of the desire issue? Read the article. Let us know what you think

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This entry was written by eden, posted on January 25, 2010 at 12:59 pm, filed under science, sexual health and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
  • Guest
    I don't think it's too late. One thing that's true about all people is that we can be re-educated to know just about anything. It's all a matter of who controls the information since, unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of people who have the second nature to question (or at least research) everything that they hear...either because their personality doesn't allow for it, or they've had that part of them neutralized.

    Pill culture relies on two things -- the idea that quick fixes exist (for the most part, they don't), and the ignorance people have about their own issues. It's why people have such a hard time understanding how effective therapy or self-solving your own problems can be, and corporations know this. Pushing the information to the surface can change this, and I believe that it's possible to change how people feel about all of these things (even though I doubt it'll happen in our lifetimes), and that's why I think it's more important to keep the focus on getting (and keeping) the information out there than worrying about what effect it's currently having.

    I don't speak very well when I'm excited so I hope this makes sense. :)
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