The Viagra phenomenon is an important event in the modern medical, cultural, social, political and economic life that marked the change of the people’s views on the role of drugs in healthcare, as well as the boost in the development and use of the life-style drugs, as opposed to the previously prevalent use of the life-saving drugs. The subject of impotence became increasingly popular at the beginning of the 20th century, when famous psychologists and psychoanalysts developed a range of theories claiming that the primary reason for the male sexual dysfunction is rooted in the mental health and psycho-emotional state of the men, who suffer from the condition. For many years, men, who wanted to cure the erectile dysfunction, had to undergo psychotherapy or accept their condition as a normal part of the aging process. However, the invention of the first drugs, such as penile injections, whose success was demonstrated by Dr. Giles Brindley during the 1983 American Urology Association meeting, gradually leading to the discovery of the sildenafil citrate side effects on men’s sexual functioning helped to alleviate the tension on the masculinity that men have been feeling since the inception of psychoanalysis (Loe 36). Viagra is now one of the best-selling and most counterfeited drugs in the world, and these facts demonstrate not only the brilliant marketing strategy conducted by Pfeizer, but also the prevalent social views on the masculinity and man’s sexuality closely connected with the ongoing emancipation, feminism movement and pressure on men in the current socio-economic order.
The Viagra phenomenon is primarily connected with the increased popularity of the “essentialist thinking about sexuality” and the “trend of looking towards biology for the ‘most basic’ explanations of complex human behavior escalated in the 1990s along with the mania for genetics and molecular biology and their magical promises” (Tiefer 282). Indeed, after psychoanalysis has proven that impotence is caused not by the wife’s problems, but rather by the man’s state of mental health, including various anxieties, fears and insecurities, men sought to find a biological explanation for the dysfunction. Pfeizer used this factor and started marketing Viagra as a drug that can be used even in very mild erectile dysfunction cases, thus claiming that the problem is solely connected with the body issues, and mental condition is not involved (Lexchin). The proof for this desired misperception about impotence has been provided by Tiefer in 1981, as she wrote that out of 800 men who have been receiving impotence treatment, 90 percent believed the problem was physical; at the same time, their examination proved that only 45 percent had predominantly medically caused problems, while the erectile dysfunction of the rest has been caused by psychological factors (qtd. in Loe 33). As the experts in public relations working for Pfeizer realized men’s insecurities, their advertising campaign downplayed the psychological discoveries by creating a legend, according to which impotence has been a living death for men since the recorded history of humanity, even citing the Bible as a source to prove the point (Tiefer 280). As the baby boomers have started aging at the time Viagra has been introduced, the success of the drug has been pre-determined. In their marketing campaign, the company started using famous athletes, doctors and women to promote the blue pill, while the company’s website shows pictures of men in their 30ies, thus hinting on the expanding target audience (Lexchin). Men feel more and more pressure due to the sexualization of the relationship through modern media, and this pressure creates more anxiety and fear of losing masculinity if men will not show interest in women through erection. Moreover, aging men fear the loss of their appeal due to the natural decrease in sexual abilities.
Viagra set the stage for many other life-style drugs, thus depriving people of the acceptance of the nature of human body. While the public relation professionals of Pfeizer have made a huge shift in the social perception of male and female sexuality, they have also changed the way people viewed medication. The Viagra phenomenon led to the increased use of drugs and the patients’ expectations that all of their health issues can be cured by the pills or injections, as opposed to other healthcare measures. Unless the popularized social views on sexuality and relationships go to the deeper level, the sexualization of both men and women will inevitably lead to the increased profits of Viagra and diet pills, the two kinds of drugs that currently define sexuality through physical appearance and functions.
Works Cited
Lexchin, Joel. "Bigger and Better: How Pfizer Redefined Erectile Dysfunction." PLoS Medicine 3.4 (2006): e132. PLoS Medicine. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.
Loe, Meika. The rise of Viagra: how the little blue pill changed sex in America. New York: New York University Press, 2004. Print.
Tiefer, Leonore. "The Viagra Phenomenon." Sexualities 9.3 (2006): 273-294. Print.
