Jezebel 
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New York, 6:55 AM
Mon Nov 23
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
That's right, there should never be any intimation that the man might actually have abysmal technique, and if it has been established by incontrovertible evidence and cannot be denied -- well then, it must be minimized into the quintessence of diminution.
WHAT ABOUT THE MENZ???
How about we work on that Partner Needs Improvement Hypothesis first, ese, before druggerizing all the wimminz, okay?
*rolls eyes so hard they almost fall out of her head* #desiredrug
11/13/09
God forbid they actually find the problem first, and then try to solve it. Better to assume it's in her head because you recently found a chemical that hasn't been commodified yet. Blergh. #desiredrug
11/13/09
Well, if they did that, they'd have to admit that there are at least a dozen possible reasons why a woman's libido is temporarily or durably lowered, and that any miracle molecule would only address one of these reasons -- chemical imbalance or something of the kind.
As for all the rest of the common reasons (situational depression, stress, tiredness, hormonal birth control, problems within the relationship, inattentive sexual partner, or some of those combined), a fucking pill isn't going to solve anything, and a pharmaceutical company certainly isn't going to point that out. #desiredrug
11/13/09
Guess which little pill won't be covered by insurance? #desiredrug
11/13/09
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11/13/09
That means someone thinks a man's desire to get it up is more important than your desire to not have a gastrointestinal bleeding. I am getting an ulcer just thinking about that.
I will cut someone if this pill goes to market without coverage. #desiredrug
11/13/09
I'll prepare a list insurance executives for you to wield a knife against. #desiredrug
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11/13/09
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH is banking on sex really being all in women’s heads. The German drugmaker is putting the finishing touches on a pill designed to reawaken desire by blunting female inhibitions.
It's one thing to address chemical imbalances, it's another to basically say you've got just the science to loosen up an uptight woman. The entire thing is framed not from a "here are the chemical processes that facilitate arousal, and how they can be out of balance" POV, but from a "if she can't just let herself go, maybe she needs a little push" POV. I think that's gross and misogynistic, and I don't think I'm a heartless unfeeling wretch because of it. #desiredrug
11/13/09
I don't see anything gross and misogynistic about helping women who are upset by their lack of libido. I get where you're coming from, but I think you're overreacting, and not looking at it from a realistic angle. #desiredrug
11/13/09
That's scary. #desiredrug
11/13/09
You know they started to work on that first, even before Viagra, probably sometime in the 19th century, and they just don't have it right yet. #desiredrug
11/13/09
"Low" -- and let's start with the fact that's always relative -- libido may be a problem for some women, assuming that *they* see it as a problem, but this article's metamessage -- and pretty much every other article I've seen that treats this as a "problem", which is the other point the allegedly "heartless and unfeeling" other person you're chatting with is getting at -- presents the POV that any woman's libido being lower than her partner's, especially if that partner is a man, is always and forever a problem.
Do you see the difference? At all? #desiredrug
11/13/09
I hope that women who are dissatisfied with their libidos can get help. If this particular medicine can do so, that is wonderful. But that doesn't change the fact that this article is gross. Kindly don't tell me how to react to it. #desiredrug
11/13/09
11/13/09
Perhaps the drug/treatment that's developed will make the actual difference: Alcohol, Rohypnol, marijuana, MDMA - plenty of substances can reduce inhibitions. Perhaps this could do that without the nasty side effects such as unconsciousness, overdose, impaired motor function, impaired judgment, etc. Hmmm. Such a drug might actually reduce intoxication-related rape.
The main criterion for the clinical trials, which the company named after flowers, was how many "satisfying sexual events" women said they had experienced after starting treatment.
Haven't you even considered that person could desire a "satisfying event" even WITHOUT A PARTNER AT ALL?
Also: "the allegedly "heartless and unfeeling" other person you're chatting with" was that person's own description, not InABook's. #desiredrug
11/13/09
11/13/09
Yes, arousal is in our heads. But shouldn't understanding just what's going on up there come before prescribing the fix? #desiredrug
11/13/09
Bringing up masturbation later does not in any way undo the horror of that first paragraph. #desiredrug
11/13/09
A quote from InaBook.
I would say you could go back and read it, but since you've exercised your usual MO of leaping right into the middle of a conversation, without all the facts, when no one was even talking to you, I'm going to guess you didn't even read it the first time before gracing us with your (misinformed) opinion.
Just a hunch. #desiredrug
11/13/09
11/13/09
*smothers laugh*
Excellent. #desiredrug
11/13/09
11/13/09
@yvanehtnioj: @Rooo sez BISH PLZ : True to yourselves, you have behaved with knee-jerk and narrow-minded missives to those who have treated you with civility. The chip on your shoulders must be enormous. The grudge must be huge.
Intoxication-related rape, by definition occurs because someone is intoxicated and is raped. People often find that to lower their inhibitions, they take substances that are also intoxicants. Are you following?
By your logic, I should not take anxiety or depression meds because society has induced in me the supposed need for them. And the drug companies too, let's not forget them. The drugs don't actually provide me any relief. They are only there to provide a docile consumer for the grinding patriarchal capitalist machine.
You were blind to the simple point she made which was "this might actually help some women who have real problems." Then you got rude.
And frankly, stupid: Go back to where yvanehtnioj has 1st-use of "heartless and unfeeling."
Still feel oh-so-clever? #desiredrug
11/13/09
Also thank you for responding to us as a duo, it makes me feel like I'm on a team of some sort. I do enjoy team sports. #desiredrug
11/13/09
11/13/09
1. I disbelieve that people are taking Rohypnol to self-medicate for a low libido. This is not anything I've ever heard of and it makes no sense (I want sex so badly I don't care if I'm awake for it? Curious).
2. If you're talking about people who take Rohypnol recreationally for other reasons (still blanking here, but I don't understand every drug in the world; it's possible that this is someone's idea of a good time), then this pill prescribed for women with low libido will not in any way affect those people or those instances. These are two different scenarios, motivations, and populations.
3. There's getting drunk to lower your inhibitions and then have sex (ie, you have some nerves but you want to have sex), and then there's intoxication-related rape. Rape is about consent, not inhibition. Drinking until you are past the point of being able to consent is not something that many people do in order to have sex. It's not a go-to tactic for women worried about their inhibitions and libidos (which have been horribly conflated in this thread, because of the stupidity of the linked article). I know plenty of people that have a glass of wine before sexytimes, but getting blackout drunk is not in any way a function of low libido, and would not be affected by the availability of a libido-boosting pill.
And just because it's interesting to see how people view us on the internet, and you were so kind as to share your opinion of me, you might like to know that the two-sentence comment I'm responding to is the first I've seen you make on this thread that even approaches "civility". So it might behoove you to take a look at the splinter in your eye, &c. &c.
11/14/09
No, I am not bothered by the fact that an "actual problem" hasn't been discovered. Sorry to be so argumentative, but many drugs work to treat symptoms of diseases even when scientists are not sure what causes the disease. Good examples are depression - SSRIs work, but we don't know exactly why, but *because* they work we infer that there's a problem with serotonin. Likewise with Parkinson's. We know that treating with l-dopa helps hence we conclude that there's a dysregulation of the dopamine system. We still don't know what causes these diseases per se but we can reverse-engineer using drugs to treat them (this is how a lot of neurological disorders are figured out).
While I do have a measure of cynicism regarding big pharma's interest in treating women's libido issues, I am heartened by the fact that it's an issue at all and not just chalked up as frigidness or a purely psychological (i.e. you're just crazy) disorder. Which brings me back to the reason for my comment at all: why all the anger towards treating low libido in women? I still think the majority of the comments are a reaction towards the framing of the study by media. #desiredrug
11/14/09
Simpsons references are pretty much my bread and butter. :) #desiredrug
11/15/09
But my libido, and the solution to it, isn't the problem. The problem is that women's sex drives get framed not as a problem for those particular women, but for the men that want to fuck them. There is a decided difference in how these problems are framed; the first would include treating the audience of the article as female patients, or those interested in female patients. It would talk about libido, sex drive, the potential solutions, potential side effects. Treating it less like an issue for women and more as an issue for men, I think, is what yvanehtnioj is talking about. Because then it isn't "Ladies, you're having a problem, maybe we can help!" and more "Menfolk, you're having a problem with your ladies, maybe we can help loosen them up a little, those frigid bitchez!" And that's not only insulting, it's offensive because it has overtones of rapiness that make me uncomfortable. I don't want to be loosened up or have lowered inhibitions; I just want my sex drive back.
The problem isn't women who want sex, the problem is the way women's desire is constructed in the media. I imagine that your response, which was to the science, has something to do with your background in neuroscience--you read for the science bit. As someone who knows very little about science, I focus more on the language and the way the problems are getting talked about, with the science more as background noise. Does that make sense? #desiredrug
11/18/09
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11/12/09
I don't want no mutant titties... or do I? #breastcancer
11/12/09
@Kilotwat: Be careful, if Woody Allen taught us anything, is that those things can take a life of their own. #breastcancer
11/12/09
Anecdote: My mom had open heart surgery and when they cut open her chest, her breastbone shattered. They reconstructed the bone using a mesh cylinder that, yep, biodegrades over the course of a decade. AWESOME. #breastcancer
11/12/09
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