Building masculinity: Viagra and the performance of sexual health.

摘要

In late March of 1998, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of Viagra, an erectile dysfunction treatment manufactured by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. By the end of 1998, Pfizer's stock values had soared and analysts projected Viagra as a billion-dollar product. Meanwhile, by the Fall of 1998 the FDA had confirmed that at least 130 deaths had resulted from taking the little blue pill in the United States alone. This discovery prompted changes in product labeling and calls for more careful screening in clinical trials and by physicians. It also raised suspicion over Viagra's rapid FDA approval.; The purpose of this research is to tell the story of Viagra as reported in our nation's news outlets and by Pfizer's marketing materials. Using discourse analysis, I uncover the meaning of Viagra and its relationship to cultural performances of masculinity. The first chapter of this study addresses the social construction of normalcy, particularly as it relates to health, sexuality, and the body. Chapter two evaluates news stories about Viagra in Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and the New York Times. Chapter three scrutinizes a variety of Pfizer's marketing and promotional advertising.; The analysis reveals the major themes of hierarchy, heteronormativity, and the preservation of the mind/body split in biomedicine, indicative of Viagra's vertical architecture. In addition, the rhetorical switch from "impotence" to "erectile dysfunction" reveals an architectural metaphor of modernism. In so doing, Viagra stalls a potentially transformative moment for male sexuality.; As a corrective, I suggest a metaphor of horizontal architecture for male sexuality, a non-hierarchical form of sexual play that is focused, not on a heterosexual model of penetration and male orgasm as the ultimate goals of sexual expression, but on the horizon, for possibilities and changes. Such a metaphor allows for the positioning of communication and pleasure as equally significant and important aspects of intimacy, performed in an infinite variety of ways---in bed, in conversation, in play. Not only does this re-visioning hold great promise for the future of sex in the United States, it implies the possibility of a life beyond crisis---one that does not rely upon retaliation, oppression, separation, and exclusion.