Viagra is the latest in popular medical treatments for men's erectile difficulties. Viagra does not affect sexual desire; it merely allows men to have and sustain an erection, to perform sexually the way they want or think they should. How much does the worry over impotence come from a cultural requirement that men be virile and an accompanying penis-centered definition of sexual activity and prowess?

“Impotence” is a stigmatizing label for men in this society. The medical literature on impotence suggests that millions of men, of all ages, suffer impotence—which begs the question, How normal is “normal sex” if erectile difficulties are that common? The definition of impotence is culturally constructed and depends on how, and how often, a man thinks he should be having sex. The technologies used over the past two decades to treat male impotence—testosterone injections, surgically implanted penile prostheses, penile pumps, electrostimulatory devices put in the anus before intercourse, and Viagra--have increased the medical attention on, and diagnoses of, impotence.

Do these medical technologies encourage men to question why they think anything is wrong with their bodies in the first place? Do these medical interventions encourage men to expand their notions of what sex and sexual pleasure might be? Do they encourage men to consider what their female partners might desire?

While medical treatments may relieve some of the embarrassment many men feel about erectile difficulties, they accept medicine as a source of authority on male sexuality and present technological solutions (some with unknown long-term effects) to what might be problems with the way we think about sex and gender. The absence of an erection is increasingly seen not just as unmanly but as unhealthy.

Viagra sells by promising hope and new options to men. But how might these treatments limit men, their sexuality, and their relationships while simultaneously insuring erections? And, what do these treatments offer to women in their decades-long attempt to reconstruct how men and women have sex?

Suggested Readings:
Sheila Jeffreys, Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution. New York: New York University Press, 1990.

John Stoltenberg, Refusing to Be a Man: Essays On Sex and Justice. Portland, OR: Breitenbush Books, 1989.

Leonore Tiefer, Sex Is Not a Natural Act & Other Essays. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995.

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