The Rise of Viagra

August 1, 2004
This book's punning title clues us in to its focus: discourse relating to Viagra and the medicalization of sexual dysfunctions, first men's and later women's. Drawing heavily on academic theories, Loe (sociology & women's studies, Colgate Univ.) tells a fascinating and sometimes disturbing tale of products discovered before science understood why they worked, diseases expanded to the worried well, and experts keeping cozy and often covert company with pharmaceutical companies. The story starts with the invention of the "little blue pill" and then covers "penis-as-machine" messages, cautions about the new drug, and the search for a female equivalent. This is not sociology Loe does not give statistics of messages, opinions, or behavior. It's more an agenda-driven anthropology of how medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, journalists, and lay people have spoken and written about Viagra and sexual dysfunction and what that might mean about us. Says Loe, real people and their needs have been given short shrift by this discourse. Recommended for business, medical, and sex collections in academic and large public libraries. Martha Cornog, Philadelphia

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2004
Beyond the lame jokes and self-conscious double entendres, how do women really feel about Viagra? How should they feel about a pill and an ad campaign that play upon the deepest, most personal fears of the men in their lives? Armed with sociological skill and a sense of humor, Loe takes on those and other questions in a slim volume exploring the meteoric success of, and the social fallout created by, Pfizer's little pill. She points out how the word " normal" has supplanted " common" in defining behaviors or conditions with which people ought to feel comfortable. In other words, even though reduced sex drive is common for half of all men older than 40, those who make and market Viagra--and Cialis and Levitra-- would have us believe it isn't normal. There, Loe says, begins a campaign to redefine sexual dysfunction and broaden the market for a sexual elixir. In interviews with several female partners of Viagra's target population, however, Loe learned--surely not surprisingly--that their feelings about the pill range from delight to disgust. She also learned about and reports on the pharmaceutical industry's thus-far vain attempts to create a female version of Viagra. Freely acknowledging her personal bias, Loe raises important issues, which her heavily documented research suggests are real, regarding America's "quick-fix pill culture." (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)