PHARMACOLOGIZATION OF SEXUALITY AND SEXUAL RIGHTS
REFLECTIONS ON A POSSIBLE MISMATCH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35919/rbsh.v24i2.176Keywords:
erectile dysfunction, sexual medicine, pharmacologization, sexual rightsAbstract
This essay focus on the relationship between, on the one hand, the emergence of drugs indicated for erectile dysfunction and the consequent flourishing of sexual medicine, and on the other, the sexual rights field. I start presenting and discussing the context of the emergence of Viagra and similar drugs I argue that the emergence of these drugs have a close association with the establishment of erectile dysfunction as a diagnostic category, meaning that the construction of such a category was an important factor for the success of the new drugs and their intense diffusion. I then present some socio-anthropological discussions on how impotence, transformed into erectile dysfunction, became a relevant object of research. In my final remarks I discuss the way this pharmacological approach to sexuality can be problematic from the point of view of the WAS Declaration of Sexual Rights.