Effects of Viagra on Women and Female Sexuality

When women go through menopause, the hormonal changes they experience often lead to a drop in libido and less interest in sex. Its nature taking its course - just another phase in the female life cycle. Its the way were built and programmed, biologically speaking. So what do we do about Viagra and the other ED (erectile dysfunction) drugs that are now commonplace and marketed directly to men in TV commercials and magazine ads? Its an important question to ponder because as every woman knows, it takes two to tango. Viagras impact on mens sex lives also impacts womens sex lives. Meika Loe has pondered this very question in her book, The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America. And the answers shes uncovered are disturbing. Loe, who is Assistant Professor of Sociology Anthropology and Womens Studies at Colgate University, has also written extensively about sex and senior women. Viagra is marketed to aging men whose female counterparts are going through their own sexual crisis: menopause. These women want less sex but their partners now want more. Isnt this counter-intuitive? Doesnt this turn the bedroom into a battlefield at a time when women are already vulnerable (e.g., empty nest syndrome, feeling less attractive as we age, physical changes due to menopause including hair loss and weight gain, etc.) I recently visited my OB/GYN, and upon hearing about this research, she volunteered that many of her women patients have complained that Viagra has not helped their sex lives. The introduction of the pill has made sexuality, among other things, intercourse-focused and thus less satisfying. We hear this kind of thing over and over. My analysis of syndicated advice columns after Viagras debut in 1998 revealed many negative responses among women. Women writing to Dear Abby, for example, were either no longer interested in sex (and thus Viagra created new unwelcome pressure to be sexually active again), or fearing their husbands were having affairs in the context of their newfound sexual potency, and/or experiencing sometimes painful physiological effects of reigniting their sex lives later in life. It seems that Viagra raised quite a few questions for married women about marital obligation, for example. Then again, there were other letters that reflected excitement about husbands feeling healthy and confident after a period of impotence, so the response to Viagra in the population is quite complex. It would have been nice to see an explosion of people communicating about sexuality after Viagras release, but in our pill-for-everything culture, we tend to let the pill do the work and forget that it may not be an end-all be-all. Viagra tended to just exacerbate or throw light on already existing problems in relationships. It should be telling that at this point, almost 10 years after Viagras debut, only 50% of men who received prescriptions for Viagra end up refilling their prescriptions. Its not simply about a man being able to have pleasurable sex. Its also about power and dominance, virility despite aging. Its a way for men to deny that they are past their sexual peak. What are the long-term implications for a society that has Viagra in its drug arsenal? Viagra was the harbinger of things to come in the form of the pharmacology of aging and sexuality (sexual medicine is in expansion mode post-Viagra). All of this is due to a combination of, among other things, changing demographics (e.g. aging population), direct to consumer advertising/consumer-based medicine (Viagra being one of the first drugs to be advertised directly to the consumer) and pharmaceutical expansion. It is important to see that Viagras popularity fits in a particular cultural moment in our history, and there will be/have been plenty of other products to follow (including medications) that emphasize the holy triumvirate: youth, vitality, and performance. In short, as a sociologist, I see Viagra as a cultural product and thus a window onto our culture. It helps us see where we are when it comes to sexuality (and our ambivalence), gender (masculinity and sexual performance packaged together), medicine (quick-fix and lifestyle enhancement emphasis more than ever), and aging (we’re uncomfortable with it but do we all want to be 18 again?). Pfizer has helped to reinforce these traditional and not-so-traditional ideals with Viagra and it has been fascinating to see how successful they have been here and around the world with this youth, vitality, and performance-based message. Again, now that the initial curiosity factor has disappeared, it is unclear how successful sexual dysfunction medication really is. Viagra has spurred several like products – Cialis and Levitra. But the refill rate on all three is low. Viagra is certainly sociologically significant as it has highlighted many social problems in the way we do health and gender and sexuality in our society. Is Viagra Use Common Within the General Population? How does this affect behavior or alter men and womens sexual intimacy? It is difficult to find demographic information about who uses Viagra, but in internet chat rooms, doctors offices, pharmacies, etc. you find men of all ages interested in discussing the drug. We spoke with young men who had purchased Viagra out of insecurity—a just in case situation where they felt they had to live up to some social standard their first time and had purchased the pills (or borrowed them) to have some assurance of adequate performance. We also spoke with men in their 80s who felt like it gave them life again. Meika Loe, author of The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America, acknowledges that Viagra and other ED (erectile dysfunction) drugs create additional pressure in the already complex sex lives of men and women. She also noted how it underscores the sexual ambivalence present in our society—our obsession and disgust with sex. Viagra use has a dark side. John Jamelske, the 67-year-old man who held a number of young women captive as sexual slaves in an underground bunker, took Viagra. Two toxicologists, Harold Milman and S.B. Arnold, have stated in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy that the drug has been suggested as a contributing factor in 22 cases involving aggression, 13 involving rape, and 6 involving murder. Clearly, Viagra is linked to violence against women. In the course of my research I found that Pfizer had consulted with quite a few experts about possible litigation down the line regarding Viagra. A pill for sexual potency can be a dangerous thing in a culture that is highly ambivalent about sexuality—both obsessed and disgusted with it at the same time. This sexual ambivalence is what we have inherited from the Puritans. It is one reason sexuality itself is so emotionally charged and controversial in this country (we see this in regards to sex education, advertising, reproductive politics, etc.). In the U.S. we seem to spend just as much time and effort on censoring sexuality as we do encouraging it, which makes for a very confused populace! We see this confusion in our bedrooms and in the society at large, and when Viagra is added to the mix it can highlight the issues we have with sexuality as a society. Speaking of sexual ambivalence... were a culture thats afraid to talk about sex with our children. So how is it that Viagra and ED drug commercials run during primetime and no one bats an eye? At least one Pfizer TV ad was pulled off the air (the one where the man gets devil horns after taking Viagra) but you’re right—it’s everywhere. Or it was for many years. Viagra racecars. Viagra ads during the Superbowl—and Janet Jackson got flack for showing a breast when during the commercial breaks, ads discussing penises and erections, and beer ads promoting sexuality like crazy were considered appropriate! Viagra was even posted over home base when Pfizer was the primary sponsor of pro baseball. Now we see Levitra and Cialis advertised just as often. It goes back to that Puritan ethic. We’re obsessed with sex and also offended by it—it’s a fine line. An African American woman’s breast crossed the line for some people. Sexuality in the context of medical dysfunction (complete with scientific imprimatuer and legitimacy) seems to pass. When we look at the way men and women use pharmaceutical interventions, men focus on performance (Viagra) and women focus on appearance (Botox). Or is this a gendered generalization? Sociologists would say that these are the values/characteristics we teach each sex to value most. Men are about what they DO, women are about how they LOOK. We reinforce this constantly in our society (just look at ads – men are generally depicted as active, women as body parts, or still lives, or close-ups). So it follows that our drug use maintains these gendered distinctions. What would you like to stress to women of every age about Viagra and womens sexuality? Living in the pharmaceutical era it sometimes seems easiest and most expedient to turn to medication to enhance our lives or fix our problems. However, we can’t forget to attend to ourselves, our relationships, and our lives. Many men found that while Viagra may have helped them physiologically (although for many it didn’t work or came with a host of scary side-effects), it was no solution to general sexual or life satisfaction. In some cases it actually exacerbated existing issues in peoples’ relationships or sense of self. Men and women are wonderfully complex and diverse creatures when it comes to sexuality AND in general. Simple solutions can end up oversimplifying—and doing us a disservice in the process.

A Research Study On Risk Management - 1922 Words

Suggest the issues that could have developed had the team not had a risk plan. Determine the major impacts of risk that the team needs to understand for the project to be successful. After reading this case study, I’ve to notice so many poor decisions being made by this Satellite organization. The most noticeable issue was that they failed to plan initially. I noticed that there were unrealistic goals set, in which created a chaotic working environment. Because of this, the organization was bound to have nothing but an abundance of failure with this project and its success in the near future. As mentioned in the case study, the team faced many project failures. One being missed and overdue time standards, and then there is going beyond set financial plans. While reading this case study, the project manager noted that there had to be a lot of research completed before coming up with a risk management plan. Before coming up with a realistic set of guidelines, the organization had to conduct a day to day core risk assessment. They did so by dividing the assessments up into team developed projects, in which eventually led them to the implementation of putting their procedures into place. By definition, risk assessment is a systematic process of evaluating the potential risks that may be involved in a projected activity or undertaking. The team had to identify, evaluate, estimate the main levels of risk involved in this project. Then they had to compare each risk against theShow MoreRelatedA Research Study On Management Of Risk Management1647 Words   |  7 Pages1. Introduction: Project risk management these days is recognized as one of the important process of project management. Latest studies of project management has suggested that more focus should be on study of projects which are intra-alliance or inter-alliance networks. In the field of research about the risk management of project less attention is paid to the risk management in networked projects. The networked projects itself is a big concept, there are large number of people involved in a singleRead MoreA Research Study On Risk Management1800 Words   |  8 Pages1. Executive Summary A risk is any event which will have a positive or negative impact on the outcome of a project or phase. It may be caused due to several factors and if it occurs can lead to several types of impacts. Every project undertaken has some risk associated with it. Through risk management, we are able to track and keep a close watch on those events that can impact a project outcome. Risk management takes place continuously throughout the life of the project and can be classified intoRead MoreAn Empirical Analysis Of Supply Chain Risk Management1692 Words   |  7 Pagesthe paper titled â€Å"An empirical analysis of supply chain risk management in the German automotive industry† applied the practices of supply chain risk management by surveying sixty-seven manufacturing plants in German automotive industry. The need of real empirical research in supply chain risk management to help analyzing supply chain risk and test the previous research proposed instruments that can be applied for supply chain risk management was the motivation of this work. In this paper, the occurrenceRead MoreSupply Chain Risk Management Analysis1521 Words   |  7 PagesUta Jà ¼ttner, (2005),Supply chain risk management, The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 16 Iss 1 pp. 120 - 141. Supply chain risk management is an intersection of supply chain management and risk management. For this we need to understand the benefits and as well as the limitations of both the concepts. Supply chain risk is about any threat of interruption in the order of workings of the supply chain. This Risk is generated as result of risk ‘drivers’ that are internal or externalRead MoreSupply Chain Risk Management Plan1299 Words   |  6 PagesSupply chain risk management, The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 16 Iss 1 pp. 120 - 141. â€Å"Supply chain risk management is the process of identifying, assessing and controlling threats to an organization s capital and earnings that are caused by the organization s Supply Chain.  Companies with supply chain risk management plans in place typically place a chief risk office(CRO) in charge of overseeing the effectiveness of the organization s supply chain management strategy.Read MoreRisk Management For Construction Projects1095 Words   |  5 PagesThe overall aim of this study report is to let everyone know what risk management is, realize the procedure of risk management in construction project and have a deeper study on the application of risk management during construction period, therefore, a better project output and better value for both clients and constructors. There are two objectives of this study: 1. To assess the most major and common risks which cause bad effect on construction period. 2. To figure out reasonable solutions. OnRead MoreThe Risks Health care Providers Experience And The Impact Cloud Computing1418 Words   |  6 PagesThe study by Glasberg et al (2014) analyzes the risks healthcare providers experience and the impact cloud computing has in using the new technologies. Focusing on overall risk management, the study takes a holistic approach, where the research focuses both on human and organizational aspects. Using interviews as a form of data collection, the authors categorize risks and assesses impact from 2 perspectives; supply (S) and information systems (IS) as shown in the table 1 below. Table 1 Risk RiskRead MoreA Report On The Construction Sector Essay1321 Words   |  6 Pagesconstruction management space, which has been poorly addressed in New Zealand until recently. (Pieter, 2011) High level of complexity is also involved in construction projects, which exposes this sector to humungous risk aspects. Therefore, lessening of risk linked to such projects, should be prioritized and handled in a systematic way. Risk is an indefinite occurrence or a state, which affects tangible or intangible factors. Managing risks in the right way is important. Risk Management deals withRead MoreThe Effects of Self-esteem and Risk-Taking Behaviors on Financial Management 1314 Words   |  6 PagesAbstract Past research suggests personality variables may affect a person’s style of financial management. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate possible correlations between self-esteem and risk-taking behaviors with financial management. We created a survey measuring these variables, in addition to asking some demographic questions, and had anonymous participants from a Research Methods class take it online. After conducting the survey with the 27 participants, we wereRead MoreProblems Associated With The Building And Construction Commission892 Words   |  4 PagesDespite various construction acts, regulations, standards, codes, licensing regimes, other management approaches such as quality management, risk management, defect management building are still handed with defects. It is evident from Queensland Building and Construction Commission (2015a) annual report that in 2014/15 alone received 4,793 complaints about defective work. There are many other defec ts that are seen to occur during the construction process, which gets rectified before the practical

Acquainted With The Night By Robert Frost - 1436 Words

â€Å"Acquainted with the Night† is a poem written by Robert Frost, and it was first published in 1928. The poem is about the narrator’s experience on one sad lonely night while having some depression in the rain. The poem only has fourteen lines and has a clear structure; however, the meaning of the poem is deep. Since, the poem is short and clear, readers often are able to connect to the poem. The poem was about the narrator walking down the street of city at a rainy night. He was reflecting on his own sadness as he look at the city light. He heard someone shouting and thought he was being called. When he realized that he wasn’t being called, his depressing increased. This poem has a unique from that made it stand out among other†¦show more content†¦The author wrote, â€Å"Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. I have been one acquainted with the night† (Frost ln 13-14). The speaker could not judge rather spending time wondering the s treet was a beneficial use of time or not, but the speaker has helped readers to understand his motive on his spending of time on the street. With this form, the author was able to maintain the rhyming pattern while having very simple and clear thought throughout the poem. This poem is one full of thoughts and insights from is observation of the night during his walk, yet the author was able to keep it simple and clear. The theme of this poem is around a lonely, depressed, and sad feeling. In the poem, the speaker chose words such as â€Å"rain†, â€Å"cry†, and â€Å"unwilling†. These words all create sad feeling for the poem. It clearly indicates that the speaker was going through a depressing time and was full of regret. The speaker probably tried to right the wrong many have times as indicated by the many times he used the phrase â€Å"I have†, yet he has been failing in all his attempted. In the poem, the speaker has never indicated that exactly made him so depress. In the poem, the speaker wrote, â€Å"I have passed by the watchman on his beat and dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain† (Frost ln 5-6). The only clue that the speaker has given the readers concerning why he was depressed was that he was not willing to explain. Although readers could not really understand what the speakerShow MoreRelatedAcquainted With The Night By Robert Frost1553 Words   |  7 PagesRobert Frost s â€Å"Acquainted with the Night† is about a man who frequently journeys out at night and roams about the city alone. He is familiar with the atmosphere around him and it’s apparent he has wandered far beyond the city. Throughout the poem the speaker does not communicate with anyone and a sense of silence and suspense pervade his walks. It is understood that the speaker is very lonely on his walks and often finds himself hoping someone would call out to him. As the speaker strolls throughRead MoreAcquainted With The Night By Rober t Frost Essay1670 Words   |  7 PagesAcquainted with Ambiguity: An Analysis of Robert’s Frost’s â€Å"Acquainted with the Night† Born at the end of the 19th century and writing into the 20th century, poet Robert Frost is famous for putting a 20th century spin on 19th century poetic conventions (Robert Frost). His 1928 poem â€Å"Acquainted with the Night† is one of the best examples of this spin, combining modern experimental techniques with a set structure and rhyme scheme. In the poem, the speaker recounts his/her ambiguous relationshipRead MoreAcquainted with the Night by Robert Frost1065 Words   |  5 PagesAcquainted with the Night by Robert Frost is a poem about a person who is well acquainted with the night. In this poem, the author or the speaker explains why he/she is well acquainted with the night. It seems as the poem progresses that the speaker enjoys walks through the night of a city, and that he also enjoys walks in rainy nights. The speaker goes down a sad area of the city were he encounters a watchman were he/she ignores. When the speakers stop because he/she listens to a cry, w hichRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Acquainted With The Night By Robert Frost942 Words   |  4 PagesThe poem â€Å"Acquainted with the Night† by Robert Frost is not simply about a walk being taken on a rainy night, as one would assume on their first reading. Instead a closer reading of the poem will reveal to the reader a much darker journey. As the speaker describes his trudge through the city streets, the reader begins to see that this is far more than a walk through a gloomy night; it is a man’s journey through depression. While Frost’s dark poem is written much like a sonnet, having fourteen linesRead More Isolation in Acquainted with the Night, by Robert Frost Essay765 Words   |  4 PagesIsolation in â€Å"Acquainted with the Night†, by Robert Frost Robert Frost was indeed one of the most important and influential writers in the history of American Literature. His unique style and incredible use of imageries give his readers a deep understanding of his works. In his poem, â€Å"Acquainted with the Night†, by using a smooth and static rhythm, bleak and dreary imageries, unique diction, and well-thought syntax of sentences, Frost conveys a feeling of lonesome and isolation. The poem’sRead MoreRobert Frost Essay example646 Words   |  3 PagesRobert Frost Robert Frost was the most popular American poet of the twentieth century. Most Americans recognize his name, the titles of and lines from his best-known poems, and even his face. Given his immense popularity, it is a remarkable testimony to the extent of his achievement that he is also considered to be one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, of modern American poets. #8230;the life and work of Americas premier poet- the only truly national poet America has yet produced(Parini23)Read MoreBeing A Freshman At Lincoln University Has Been An Interesting1095 Words   |  5 PagesI would be comfortable with. Genuine happiness has never existed for me while attend Lincoln University. This moment in my life reminds me of the poem â€Å"Acquainted with the Night† by Robert Frost, which embodies all aspects of emptiness through poetic devices, language, and personal history. â€Å"Acquainted with the Night† is a poem by Robert Frost written in 1928. The poem is written in iambic pentameter as a sonnet consisting of four three line stanzas, also referred to as tercets followed by a rhymingRead MoreRobert Frost s Life Through Poetry1745 Words   |  7 PagesMarch 23, 2016 Robert Frost Reflects Life Through Poetry It is easy to express your emotions, and feelings through poetry. Which is exactly what Robert Frost has done through his entire career. Each poem Robert Frost has written, has meaning behind it all. He has gone through an extreme amount of events, and tragedies in his life. Frost has been through an unimaginable amount of losses, deaths, and loneliness throughout his years. Throughout his life his poetry has had a huge impact on him, the situationsRead MoreSocial Isolation In Robert Frosts Acquainted With The Night801 Words   |  4 Pagesso long and tackled by many writers, such as Robert Frost. The poem by Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night, is about depression and how it makes individuals feel isolated, resulting in facing depression alone and coming to the conclusion that a feeling of loneliness is simply the human condition. Symbolism is used throughout the poem to describe experiences. For instance, the speaker’s walks are metaphors for depression, using rain and the late night to carry this theme. In the first stanza, itRead MoreAnalysis of Acquainted with the Night and Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening1471 Words   |  6 PagesResearch Paper first draft 16th Nov 2011 In a Dark Night, I Find My Answers. The two poems â€Å"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening† and â€Å"Acquainted with the Night† written by Robert Frost are very similar to each other because of the simplistic form of language used and the uses of metaphors. When we first read the poem, it looks like an ordinary poem but once we go in depth and understand the meaning, it becomes so much more. Both of the poem has a very dark, gloomy and lonely setting with a really

Salvation free essay sample

I am from a world that is very resistant to change; where controversy is not accepted; where people know your secrets; where the Lord’s words are your way of life—regardless. I am from a small town, no larger than six square miles, in the heart of the United States. I lived in what is known as the â€Å"Bible Belt† and my life was very much dictated by religious beliefs. Personally, I did not accept these because I could not understand their ideals. I was shunned, disrespected, and harassed because of this. But why should my lack of worship determine who I am? Am I truly a â€Å"bad† person for this? I believe that character is determined through actions, not religious belief and we should be judged based on character rather than belief. As a child, I lived with my mother. She was a very indecisive woman; experimental. She didn’t truly know what she wanted from her life and beliefs. We will write a custom essay sample on Salvation? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Her solution to this was joining a new church, denomination, every few years. This allowed her to get a taste of everything, to not be dissatisfied. Unfortunately, this did not settle well with me. Her actions left me very confused regarding religion and how I should truly worship. If my beliefs now could be summed up into one word, it would be Agnosticism. It is the theoretical belief in a higher being, which however, cannot be proven or disproven. Consistently confused for practicing Atheism, the complete denial of any deity, I was regularly harassed by fanatical students. So much so that I was shunned by them. And when they would confront me, they belittled me because I did not know who the Lord was. They completely disrespected me and called me names because I did not know â€Å"Him.† People automatically judged me as a bad person, not only for this, but because I supported other â€Å"sacrilegious† controversies. Just because I do not know God, I support love in any form, colorblindness, and women’s rights why does that make me a â€Å"bad† person? Who is to say that I do not have morals like any other person? Just because of my beliefs, does that make me dishonest? Cruel? What happened to waiting for love and doing the right thing? What about honesty and respect for others? From what I have experienced, the religious are the most hypocritical in these aspects. They are automatically seen as having these traits, so nobody really hounds them about their actions. To be fair, I’ve made mistakes too; however, should I be more heavily criticized than a religious person? The answer is no, because we are no different. It is the same difference as a black man from a white man; there is nothing that accurately defines them as different other than the color of their skin. There is no accurate difference between me, an agnostic, and a person who has faith. The sensitivity to this topic goes along the same lines as well: controversy is only sensitive because we allow it to be. So instead of automatically assuming that someone is â€Å"good† or â€Å"bad† based on their beliefs, we should look more at who people really are. How do they treat themselves and the others around them? Are people really who they say they are? Look at the way they behave, carry themselves, the things that they say. Rediscover body-language. Our actions define our character; character defines who we are, innately. And religion, really, is completely irrelevant when defining a person.