Thursday, September 3, 2015

OTM: The Little Pink Pill with Big Implications

Lately a new drug has came up to be put on the market that is very controversial in the public eye. That drug is Flibanserin aka Addyi, a FDA approved pill to help combat the effects of sexual dysfunction in women. The drug's purpose is to help women who feel like they have a disorder. This drug sits in the same category as Viagra (a male sexual dysfunction drug) however these two drugs are no where near the same thing let alone work the same way. I am not here to contemplate this drug's impact on a scientific level, instead I will look at its cultural, social, physical, and psychological effects on our society here in the United States.
Cultural: Here in the USA we have had as a nation, a very conservative view on female sexuality through most of our history, but this drug coming to market creates a turning point in our beliefs and cultural norms. From my point of view looking at female sexuality is a topic that was considered to be taboo or highly frowned upon whether it be in the media or talked about in conversation until within the last twenty years with pop music glamorizing it. From there on it has become more and more of the media’s agenda. I for one can only look at this from a male biased simply because I am a straight male without any female siblings to give me any knowledge of the thought processes or the what, how, or why of female sexuality. There has been quite a bit of coverage of equal rights toward the LGBT community and now considered to be a cultural norm since the supreme court has legalised gay marriage for the the entire nation. Will this drug aid in women's rights or could it be seen as hurtful? This could just be another drug for older people with health disorders, however I strongly believe that it could go 180 degrees the opposite direction and be all over the press and social media as a drug that creates heated arguments over its potential outcomes.
Social: We see advertisements everywhere for male sexual performance drugs; they’re on websites, news outlets, tv commercials, radio broadcasts, gas station bathrooms of all places. These performance enhancers are all about male sexuality. It has become part of the culture here in the US. From high school sports teams to working in places of high male demographic job areas the topic of male sexuality is commonplace. To see how big it has of an impact on our society look at any recent music video and it's easy to see who the video is aimed at. Now there is female sexuality commonly discussed but it's out of most of the media’s eye. One can find it on websites solely dedicated to female users such as pinterest for example. With this new drug supposedly already nicknamed “the female viagra” will it bring out significant focus about female sexuailty into our modern day agendas in the media and other social impacts?
Physical: We as a people label drugs as bad things except when prescribed by a medical doctor. There is a huge market for food and other goods that are “organic” or made without drugs. This little pink pill is no different than any other drug created, it has the possibility to be misused and abused. In the OTM report they said one of the ways this drug works is by upping dopamine levels in the brain. For those of you that don't know dopamine is a chemical used by the brain to control emotions of happiness and so on. Essentially this drug works kinda like an antidepressant but for female sexuailty. We could see this drug become very addictive and used by people who don't have a medical condition in the first place. The is already a huge problem with “date rape drugs” and this could become a tool for those who want to take advantage of women.
Psychological: Female sexuality isn't an exact science, and this pill might not be a pill to fix everyone or everything; however it is a step in the right direction of total equality. The psychological impacts of this new drug could range from happier marriages to horrible addictive substances only found in back alleys and black markets. I think it is more of a matter of time to truly see how this will affect people and our society. In the end this is still a drug which by definition is a substance that has an effect on the human body and brain.   

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