Sexualities

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Register here to gain access to SAGE's 500+ Journals Online

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Grace, V.
Right arrow Articles by Vares, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Sexualities, Vol. 9, No. 3, 295-314 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1363460706065050

The Discursive Condition of Viagra

Victoria Grace

Annie Potts

University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Nicola Gavey

University of Auckland, New Zealand

Tiina Vares

University of Canterbury, New Zealand

This research investigates the socio-cultural implications of Viagra as a biomedical solution to a medically defined problem. This New Zealand-based research involved interviews with 33 men, to examine how they discursively constituted meanings around masculinity, erections, and the role of Viagra. It is argued that the relationship between discourses of mechanistic functionality of erections, the primacy of the male as performer, and the partner's pleasure as measure of success, create the conditions of possibility for a pharmaceutical solution directed at the male. The problem is configured as the uncertainty accompanying the instability evident in the relationship between these discourses. The men's discourse on the solution, Viagra, confirms this analysis.

Key Words: erections • masculinity • sexuality • sexuo-pharmaceuticals • Viagra


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?