Marcus Brown
[email protected]

Professional basketball player Lamar Odom was hospitalized recently after being discovered unconscious in a Nevada brothel. Found in his system was a superfluous amount of the herbal supplement “Reload,” which is intended to remedy erectile dysfunction.

The availability and demand of such a supplement speaks to larger culture that stigmatizes sexual health and the need for assistance in maintaining a desired sex life specifically. Issues of impotence, female sexual dysfunction, and the like are nearly taboo topics of discussion, but demonstrating a reluctance to discuss issues that affect large swathes of the population ultimately serves to cause more harm than good.

Sexual dysfunction is often discussed as a cause of embarrassment if discussed at all, and it is understandable that discussion of arguably the most intimate and private aspect of one’s life would be uncomfortable for most. However, discomfort is not a good enough reason to blatantly ignore the realities of a legitimate medical condition. By doing so, issues regarding sexual health develop negative connotations and discourage individuals from seeking the assistance that could better their overall quality of life.

For whatever reason, the idea of masculinity is closely tied to the idea of the male libido and ability to maintain an erection such that impotence has become nearly synonymous with some sort of failing as a man. The message here is that your ability to perform sexually correlates directly to your perceived adherence to the qualities dictated by society as the typical male archetype, such as firearms and pleasing women, and your inability to perform sexually speaks to the opposite. 

Imposing irrelevant social connections and stigmas to sexual functioning is not isolated to men alone and, if anything, is more problematic for women. While males must contend with affronts to stereotypical definitions of masculinity and the notion that they are somehow failing them, women must contend with a notable absence of references to their sexuality. A woman’s sexual functioning is not as rigorously questioned, quantified, and pandered to as male sexual functioning, creating the implication that it is a non-issue.

While male sexual dysfunction is at times misconstrued or pinned to false notions of masculinity, at least it is discussed. Simply not acknowledging a problem does nothing to solve it. The first drug designed to treat female sexual dysfunction or a lack of desire for sexual activity, flibanserin, was only introduced this year. Flibanserin is intended to alleviate symptoms of hypoactive sexual-desire disorder, which is believed to affect “between 5.5 million and 8.6 million U.S. women.” The fact that it has taken this long to produce a drug to address that specific aspect of sexual health demonstrates the context in which it is viewed in society.     

Sexual health, and specifically sexual functioning, should be treated just like any other ailment or condition and should be done so without complicating the issue with preconceived societal impositions. Stigmatizing parts of the human body and their treatment does an inexcusable disservice to the population as whole. There is no reason anyone should feel shame or embarrassment over the functioning of her or his body or the decision to seek the appropriate treatment for a legitimate dysfunction.