Bring yourself back up to speed with Viagra

Pfizer’s target market is heterosexual baby boomers and aging Xers. But when Jack Hitt explains in the New YOrk Times Magazine how “the practice of poly - pharmacy, taking a couple of different rave drugs … kills the sex drive,” it is no surprise that the “club kids in the big cities use it as a party drug. “109 It is also no surprise that Pfizer damns these uses but, once again, is unwilling to make any edifying improvements, either to its package insert or through marketing strategies. In her article “The ‘Sextasy’ Craze,” Karen Breslau of Newsweek writes, At Pfizer, … officials take a dim view of the surging recreational popularity of their product …. The company … rejected a request from officials in San Francisco to put a warning on Viagra about high - risk sexual behavior. “This is a public - health issue that needs to be addressed by public health campaigns on safe - sex practices, not by focusing on one drug,” says spokesman Geoff Cook.110

Finally, nonimpotent heterosexual males are portrayed as illegitimate users and scapegoats, but in a different way. From the “be careful what you ask for” department appear the cautionary tales of men who “just want some fun. »

These stories stress the fact that Viagra is not an aphrodisiac and only intended for “the clinically impotent patients for whom it was intended.”1l2 These men, too, are subject to side effects - in particular, priapism, a prolonged, painful erection that, if untreated, can cause permanent impotence. But there is a wink - wink, nudge - nudge quality to these warnings, as well.1l3 Indeed, many of these articles fully acknowledge Viagra online nefarious uses. One such user proclaimed that Viagra “helped him last twice as long as usual.”1l4 Another discloses, “My girlfriend always knows when I use it …. Instead of this carefully choreographed single episode, suddenly I’m a nuclear reactor of 10ve.”1l5 Such exposure is, without question, good for Viagra’s reputation among men. Indeed, my own unsolicited informants have revealed a similar response. None of the people who’ve told me they’ve used Viagra has ever had it prescribed to them personally - such a revelation would be tantamount to admitting that they had erectile dysfunction - rather, it is always acquired through a friend or relative, giving the “street” distribution of Viagra an urban legend quality. Susan Brink writes, Tested and approved for erectile dysfunction, [Viagra] is almost certainly being used to enhance sexual performance, a purpose for which it has never been tested …. It’s practically impossible to curtail such “off - label” drug use, since physicians can prescribe drugs for any purpose they choose and drug companies are always looking to expand their rnarkets.

Pfizer can (and does) play both ends against the middle here. By condemning these off - label uses, Pfizer demonstrates its corporate responsibility even as it enjoys the financial benefits of such underground talk - true or false. The illegitimate users are already society’s scapegoats: drug users, homosexuals, and, to a lesser extent, lascivious heterosexual single men and some married men (who use Viagra only with mistresses). Meanwhile, the popular press legitimates the rightful users, even those whose penchant for risk taking earned them the final reward.

As these news sources allay the possible detrimental effects of Viagra, they create the likelihood of risk - taking behavior. For legitimate users, the possibility of regaining lost erectile function trumps the threat to general health and well - being. Because the loss of erectile function so threatens a loss in masculinity, many men turn uncritically to the promise of technoscientific marvels like Viagra. Likewise, the news stories legitimate its use among men at risk, equating the FDA’s approval with objectivity and ignoring the subjectivity of individuals.