 | Last Friday I just finished article number 28 of a series on erectile dysfunction for this site. If I were only writing about ED from the perspective of pharmaceutical companies, the mainstream news media, or conventional medicine, for that matter, I probably could have stopped at 1 since what those groups have to say could fill a few patient brochures or Sunday insert or two. Their story boils down to how middle-class men can pay to alter their body chemistry so it matches social expectations. So what's the rest of the story? What kept me writing articles 2-28 (you know, other than ED puns?)
It comes from thinking with people (of all genders) about their experience of their bodies and of their sexuality and from realizing that to think about erections that 'don't work' you also have to think about erections in general. And everyone has an erection story. They may not have considered it a story worth re-telling (or one appropriate to tell in the first place), and it probably doesn't a happy ending (or beginning or middle), but we've all got them.
Despite the way they get singled out in drug commercial after drug commercial, the fact that we all have ED stories (whether we know it or not) is what makes ED just like every other part of sexuality; just one more part of a fundamentally human experience. Saying that sexuality is a fundamentally human experience isn't just a way of getting into someone's pants. It's a way of recognizing that connections exist between all of us. We ignore them most of the time, and we do so, quite literally, at our own peril. But put any aspect of sexuality on the table and if you ask the right questions, before you know it your table is packed with people, and everyone wants to eat. Dig in. ~ Cory |
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