The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: diagnostic expansion, pill culture, erection pill, Boston Forum, Working Group, Irwin Goldstein (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From The New England Journal of Medicine

Sex is by definition a social business -- the basic design presumes two. But the marketers of Viagra (sildenafil) would have us believe that sex is an individualist, male pursuit. Meika Loe's core argument is that the unprecedented success of Viagra in America is not the result of an exciting scientific breakthrough bringing relief to the desperate or dying. Rather, commercial interests have created a socially desirable but medically limited product -- ironically, by denying the fundamentally social nature of sex. By reducing sex to penile performance, then equating penile performance with masculine identity, a man's self-worth and social worth are reduced to the hardness and sustainability of his erections. To use Loe's example, Senator Bob Dole just had to pop a blue pill and all would turn out right at night -- except that no one asked Elizabeth. (Figure) Loe's "institutional ethnography" sets this right. She weaves together excerpts from interviews with Viagra users and their partners and friends with commentaries and illustrations of how Viagra is sold in the popular press and discussed in academic journals and at conferences. The real success of her approach is the juxtaposition of glimpses into people's intimate lives with analyses of the inner workings of large corporate institutions. Viewed through the lens of her interviews, particularly those with elderly women, Loe's analysis of the Boston Forum and its role in the search for a female Viagra is especially compelling. She concludes that this time the marketers struggled. Perhaps women's sexuality is just too complicated, or perhaps the well-honed feminist critique of the medicalization of women's bodies is too strong. Whereas American men have bought the message wholesale, women have not. Viagra is an example of the growing phenomenon that Loe calls the medicalizing of discontent. Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Prozac (fluoxetine), she suggests, are others. It involves reinventing complex sociopsychological problems as simple medical conditions. To create the market for Viagra, impotence is reinvented as erectile dysfunction and frigidity as female sexual dysfunction. In each case, the identified problem is shorn of its social, cultural, emotional, and psychological elements, leaving a core physiological dysfunction that is intrinsic to the individual and independent of society. This can be "cured" with a specific medical treatment. In short, the problem is designed to fit the treatment, not the reverse. In the case of Viagra, this "cure" actually exacerbates the wider problem, cynically ensuring the continuing growth of the condition, the treatment, and the profits from drug sales. Loe shows how in America, this medicalizing of discontent has been facilitated by the passage of legislation permitting direct-to-consumer drug advertising, online drug sales, and the entanglement (even merger) of health professionals and drug marketers. The central argument gains pace through the book, becoming increasingly compelling as the ominous implications of Viagra for American society unfold. Yvonne Marshall, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2004 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Beyond the lame jokes and self-conscious double entendres, how do women really feel about Viagra? How should they feel about a pill and an ad campaign that play upon the deepest, most personal fears of the men in their lives? Armed with sociological skill and a sense of humor, Loe takes on those and other questions in a slim volume exploring the meteoric success of, and the social fallout created by, Pfizer's little pill. She points out how the word normal has supplanted common in defining behaviors or conditions with which people ought to feel comfortable. In other words, even though reduced sex drive is common for half of all men older than 40, those who make and market Viagra--and Cialis and Levitra-- would have us believe it isn't normal. There, Loe says, begins a campaign to redefine sexual dysfunction and broaden the market for a sexual elixir. In interviews with several female partners of Viagra's target population, however, Loe learned--surely not surprisingly--that their feelings about the pill range from delight to disgust. She also learned about and reports on the pharmaceutical industry's thus-far vain attempts to create a female version of Viagra. Freely acknowledging her personal bias, Loe raises important issues, which her heavily documented research suggests are real, regarding America's "quick-fix pill culture." Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 287 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press; 1 edition (August 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814752004
• ISBN-13: 978-0814752005
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,375,294 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Case study on Big Pharma's influence over doctors, May 7, 2008

By	Karen Franklin "Forensic Psychologist" (El Cerrito, CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America (Sociology) (Paperback)

Good case study of the enormous influence wielded by BigPharma over modern culture. Loe describes how the application of the medical model turns sex into a commodity, with quality measured by speed of erection, efficiency of ejaculation, and ability to perform on demand and in the absence of relational connection. "Normal" is defined more and more narrowly until any variation becomes a "dysfunction," and such dysfunctions take on epidemic proportions. Meanwhile, men feel more and more pressure to attain the unattainable. Just as Prozac is used to medicate modern angst and stress, Viagra is used to relieve men's insecurity in this age of sexual McDonaldization. The irony is that antidepressants reduce sex drive, so men are more in need of Viagra in order to perform at the level of their (and their partners') increasingly high expectations.

Loe's section on how BigPharma is extending the Viagra model to "Female Sexual Dysfunction" (FSD) is eye-opening. Look for "FSD" in the upcoming Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V).

Also providing food for thought is the growing emphasis on sex as a purely physical act, ego-centered, non-relational and even alienated from others. When I see this focus in the sex offenders I evaluate, I see it as deviant. But according to Loe, it's market-driven and increasingly normative. Interesting.

I gave it only 4 stars because the writing is somewhat pedantic and jargon-laden, and you have to wade through lengthy and tedious quotations. I wish she'd had the confidence to write more in her own voice.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Little Blue Pill: Problem or Miracle, May 8, 2008

By	Frederick S. Goethel "wildcatcreekbooks" (Central Valley, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America (Sociology) (Paperback)

The subject of the book is, of course, the story of the little blue pill and how it changed sexuality and medicine in the United States. Written by a sociologist, the book looks at the pill and its effects from a sociological standpoint.

The author starts the book with a relatively short history of the medicine and the disease process it is designed to cure. This is followed by a look at how this has been received by men and by women. Finally, the author looks at the medical industries attempts to find a drug to "fix" FSD syndrome.

The author seems to have a problem with the creation of the drug. Her attitude seems to indicate disgust with the major pharmaceutical houses that are "curing" a disease that the author does not view as a disease, but rather as a social condition. While recreational use of the pill is unwarranted and a problem, the author believes erectile dysfunction is nothing but a fancy name for impotence and that it is a natural part of the aging process. While delving into the history of impotence, and some of the attempted cures along the way, the author misses one big point. Life expectancy 50 years ago was much lower than today, and it wasn't uncommon for men to die in their 50s and 60s. With men living longer, they expect to be able to enjoy relations well past their 50s, which the author sees as a problem.

I would say that I agreed with about 50 percent of the content of the book. Her interviews with men certainly didn't reflect my attitudes towards the issue and I doubt they would reflect a majority of men.

The writing is scholarly and, at times, difficult to wade through. That makes this a book for those who need to read it or a willing to read through a rather heavy tome. If you are looking for a quick, light book on the subject, this isn't it.