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Thoughts about the penis (2)

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Thoughts about the penis (2)
Social history of the penis
Sperm competition

But suppose that the medical and drug industry, as well as the urologists, who together created an industry around the male erection, do have more insight into the relationship between a man and his sexual organs than the therapists have understood? The penis is a complex but well-understood organic part of the body, and mankind can now alter how it functions, with Viagra - and the simple truth is that most men like it that way. And if they like Viagra, they will undoubtedly find even greater affection for Cialis, which is a once-a-day pill that will get your cock erect on demand - a fact which literally changes the life of men with erection problems.

It's easy to see that a man who loses his potency may feel like he has lost a part of his mind, part of his identity even; for he can no longer hold his erect penis in his hand, nor can he fuck with it when it refuses to become erect - which most likely means it will not ejaculate his semen either, the fluid that creates life. These are powerful symbols of masculinity, and so erection problems are a vital issue for men. And consider this: men are rarely seen as masculine men solely on the basis of their ability to provide, their ability to build a home, their prowess in hand-to-hand combat, or by the fact that they can dig a well anymore. These were once the things that marked out a man, in the eyes of society and his mate, yet nowadays technology and machines of one kind or another have made much of a man's traditional work, and therefore the sources from which he drew much of his identity, unavailable to him. Does this not mean that symbols of masculinity such as an erect penis are more important than ever in a man's fight to identify his masculinity? I know when I suffered from erectile dysfunction, I felt that my life as a man was somehow "over", erectile dysfunction having take away those things I valued most: my self-respect, sexual ability, sexual intimacy, and my feeling of male power and presence in the world. Yes, we men certainly see our masculinity as revolving around our penises.  

This penis-centered approach to life may be something innate, or it may be something learned, but which? If it is learned, it presumably can be unlearned. In one view, a male-centered script is written by the wider culture and reinforced by most males' first sexual act. Masturbation, according to this theory, proclaims a boy's independence (from women?), and centers male sexual desire in the penis, which then imbues the penis with a central role in the definition of masculinity - so much so that a man's capacity to become erect is one of the most, if not the most, important and significant signs of masculinity and male power.

With such a powerful impetus to put the penis at the center of the concept of masculinity, it's no surprise that this organ has been subject to psychoanalysis, political analysis, and nowadays a creeping process of "medicalization" by what has been called "the erection industry"; each type of analysis can be seen as an attempt to make some intellectual and emotional sense of the over-powering, extraordinary relationship between man and his penis. Of course Freud had a major impact on society's perception of the penis, but what we term the medicalization of the penis may have an even greater impact. But just what does this mean? In essence, it refers to the way in which the penis has become an addendum to other industries - the medical industry and the drugs industry in particular. When urologists and drugs become a man's first port of call when his erection fails, then he is in the grip of those two industries, and the relationship between him and his penis has been changed. To some extent he is no longer in complete control of his own dick....he has given away some of his power to other men, and some to organizations and corporations far more powerful than he is.

The medicalized penis is only about twenty years old, and the time for which Viagra has been available is even less than that. And while science has unquestionably helped men with complete impotence or erectile dysfunction, the long-term consequences of PDE-5 inhibitors on the cellular chemistry of the penis have yet to be established. For example, is it not possible that exposure to these compounds will make the body produce abnormal levels of PDE-5? We have no way of knowing what the effect of that would be  on a man's own body chemistry, nor indeed of the possible impact on his sexual behavior. In essence, a man can now hold his penis, erect or not, in his hand and he knows what relationship they have. If it is flaccid, and he wants it to be erect, then when he sees a doctor or when he takes the chemical products of the erection industry, he retains control of his penis. We have not always had this power, and we should perhaps be grateful for it: we have, in effect, the ability to override the statements that the penis can make for us about our sexual desires or wishes, and impose our own will on it.