Do you remember some of the top stories in 1998? Clinton & Lewinsky, Marjory Stoneman Douglas died (ugh, RIP marj), ....Viagra
Yes, Viagra- in 1998 the pharmaceutical company Pfizer developed and marketed Viagra to "treat" erectile dysfunction in men- and angina (chest pain, who knew right?). In 2001, the drug had already made over a billion dollars in sales and the scientists who developed the drug shared a Nobel Prize for their extreme efforts. Men awarding men for their "extreme efforts" in helping male sexual dysfunctionality. [The alliteration wasn't intended, men just actually love themselves that much.]
Now almost 12 years later, one pharmaceutical company almost succeeded in distributing a drug called flibanerin- considered the Female Viagra- which is supposed to act on brain chemicals to stimulate female libido. A couple weeks ago the FDA rejected the drug for approval after their "health experts" on the reproductive panel, unanimously agreed, that the side effects (fainting spells, fatigue) outweighed the benefits of the drug- high levels of female sexual satisfaction. Well, the FDA really fell short of the mark this time (no, I don't mean their manhood)- I mean really, since when do they care about the side effects of drugs? Wasn't Viagra causing blindness in some cases?
Quite literally though, males in this country are still using their *ahem* and not using their vision. I think this is way more than an issue of protecting society from the detrimental side effects of drugs. Doctors prescribe Adderall and Ritalin to our CHILDREN- and those drugs cause side effects like hair loss, anemia, heart palipations, changes in liver function?! The FDA's decision to strike down female viagra was actually influenced by the male ego and his primitive view on gender roles. We can create two types of male views on sexuality for female viagra's sake. There is the Puritan view and there is the Playboy view.
Why should a woman get pleasure out of sex? This is all too 1800s Purtanist view on female sexuality. The idea that woman should be able to experience sex just as satisfying as a man does is out of the question. A woman's role is to cook dinner for husband and then satisfy him at the end of the day, of course male contraception is out of the question, and as a result females bare the weight of a man's sexual desires for 9 months afterward. And then what does approving female viagra actually imply? That men can't satisfy women? This sounds all too, "yeah, babygirl, you haven't had it till tried me"- of course men just need to cradle their egos. The fact that some little pink pill is responsible for their woman's pleasure and not them is just too much for some men to handle. Which is why we could argue some women have to fake it. And as a result, women must continue to fake it in this world. The glass ceiling has quite literally stopped women from being able to reach their peak.
