Vivus was one of the first companies to get FDA approval to treat erectile dysfunction with a pill, and as the founder (an extremely ol'd dude with a vibrant bowtie) put it, the company's riches were made "bringing life back into dead penises," so they eagerly entered the race to find the female Viagra, the "cure" for female sexua dysfunction (FSD). Characterized by a lack of desire, lack of pleasure, and inability to reach orgasm the interesting thing about this "disease" is that no new medical discoveries were made regarding female sexuality to prompt the medicalization of this loose category of traits By creating a disease, the FDA crated a market, prompting women who see sex in the movies (which usually goes: two minutes of kissings, rip clothes off, penetration, INSTANT ORGASM) and wonder what's wrong with them that they don't cum in that way to begin to feel abnormal.
An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association launched the statistic (which was touted heavily on the news and Oprah) that 43% of women suffer from FSD based on a survey from the 90s in which a group of women responded to questions about if they had experienced any of the following symptoms within the last 12 months for a period of several months: pain during sex, no climax, climaxing too fast, no interest and several other traits that could all be perfectly reasonable responses to stress (except for pain, pain during sex=go straight to gyno, do not collect $200). A yes to any of these listed above yielded a diagnosis of FSD, turning healthy normal women into patients. As Canning put it it shifts the meaning of sexuality into a commodified way of being, and if you don't experience if that way, you need help (which, as you may have guessed, flies in the face of everything the Sheriff believes about sex).
One of the facts that he film revealed that I was familiar with (but not enough people, especially men) are is that 70% of women need direct clitoral stimulation to climax. This Hollywood/porn way of sex of just thrust-thrust-thrust-CUM is just unrealistic and impossible and downright unpleasant for most women. Carol Queen put it thusly when asked if a prescription could help women climax "maybe it'll help if they put a map of clitoris on the box." Word.
The big takeaway? Sex drive is an incredibly individual, unique thing and often relies on social context (had a baby lately? Sleeping badly? Body image worries? Happy with your partner? Stressed out of your mind?), not just blood flow or hormones, for most women.
Much love,
The Sheriff
PS-The film overall was great! Funny, informative, and provocative in a good way, and it included a lot more information than I'm including here, but I didn't want this post to be too enormous....and I'm saving stuff to mine for future posts!
That film sounds awesome. I remember when I started having sex and realized I couldn't orgasm what I thought was the "normal" way I definitely suffered some pretty low self-esteem about it. My bf at the time would say that "we'll figure it out someday" and that we'd keep trying "until it worked". Constantly trying to achieve this near-impossible goal (I've only orgasmed ONCE vaginally, and I was drivin' the car myself if you know what I mean) made me feel like a freak (and not the good kind). I finally realized after a few years I wasn't, in fact, broken--my time at Smith and my ever-improving self-image have helped me reach a great place where I'm happy in my own skin and not constantly fretting about what my body can and can't do. Instead, it's all about what my body likes or dislikes. :) I love being the one in charge of how I view my own body, and it drives me nuts to hear about "FSD" so I'm super glad someone's finally taken on the myth.
ReplyDelete