Lately, we've heard a lot about female desire, or lack thereof. In this weekend's Sunday magazine, the Times' Daniel Bergner wrote about the rather undernourished the study of the phenomenon. And then there's the Times' examination of the need for female Viagra. Says one woman quoted in the latter, "So many women give up...That's a shame. It's so important. You marry your best friend, but intimacy is what makes a marriage work."

Then, just by chance, the Daily Mail brings us the rather...more colloquial? story of one woman whose sex life was "pepped up" by joining a group of other female writers, the Contemporary Women Writers' Club. The group started as a means for housebound writers and mothers to meet like-minded women in their somewhat isolated rural area.

But what actually emerged from the increasingly drunken conversation was I should write a short story that had sex in it and see if it helped....At first I thought I absolutely could not do it. Every time I sat down to write my story, I blushed so much I could barely think of the words. But, eventually, I gave myself over to it. I decided to set it somewhere foreign, sexy and hot. It ended up in Argentina and involves an older woman and a gaucho and it's about as raunchy as I can get. Did it work for me? Absolutely. I found writing about sex made me feel far more sensuous about myself. And so, gradually, over these past two years, we have all begun to change.

While both the gaucho porn and the raisin-fondling Bergner describes in a sex therapy group may seem goofy, there's a similar premise behind both: destigmatizing female sexuality and getting in touch with a dormant part of one's self. The problem is, the whole issue is still couched in awkwardness - or rather, the defiant off-throwing thereof. It's still an issue that reduces us to 12-year-old boys. (Consider if you will the recent raft of "OMG pathetic women love Edward Cullen!" cream-puffs that have clogged the newstand and the inbox, to say nothing of Cougars.) What I've been trying to remember is if we found talking about male sexuality as hilarious before we were all inured to "Viva Viagra," or whether it's more purely a result of age-old Madonna-whore disconnects. Is it the stigma of 1970s Our Bodies, Ourselves sexuality discussions that tarnishes the discussion? And will this aggressive onslaught of the sublime, ridiculous and white-coat serious ultimately wear us down as surely as the little blue pill? I hope so. I think.

In Search Of Their Own Elixir of Love [NY Times]
Women Who Want To Want [NY Times]
How Joining A Group Of Female Writers Pepped Up My Sex Life! [Daily Mail]

In the article, Allen traces the marketing of "Female Sexual Dysfunction" (FSD) — yes, the affliction itself, since you can't start marketing a cure until enough people are convinced they have the disease — which might more accurately (if less amusingly) be described as "Listless Vagina Syndrome". "The FDA's evolving definition of FSD includes decreased desire or arousal, sexual pain and orgasm difficulties — but only if the woman feels 'personal distress' about it. So, convincing women to feel distress is a key component of the drug company strategy to market a multi-billion-dollar pill that will cure billions of women of what may not ail them."

And even though the FDA has not yet approved a treatment for Listless Vagina Syndrome, the campaign to inform women that our sex lives are inadequate — but treatable! — is already working. Doctors have written 1.4 million off-label prescriptions for Viagra and 2 million off-label prescriptions for testosterone in an effort to alleviate FSD. And they have done this despite absolutely no evidence that either one will help a flagging female libido! Not to mention, "as filmmaker Liz Canner shows in her excellent new documentary Orgasm, Inc., testosterone is usually teamed with estrogen, which increases risks for stroke, cancers and dementia." Fantastic! Not only will your non-existent illness not be cured, but you might get a whole new one!

I should pause here to point out that there are doubtless plenty of women who wish their libidos were more active, or who otherwise suffer from something that could rightly be termed "sexual dysfunction." And as someone whose life was changed very much for the better by an ADHD diagnosis, I am wary of making any "It's all a plot by Big Pharma!" arguments that erase people who have real problems supposedly invented by greedy drug manufacturers. Nevertheless, the genuine existence of a disorder doesn't mean that aggressive marketing can't lead to an epidemic of overprescription and — especially when it comes to female sexuality — self-recrimination. And it's no coincidence that "experts" in FSD often have ties to pharmaceutical giants. Increased awareness of Female Sexual Dysfunction might be helpful to some women, but it's important that we're at least equally aware of a far more widespread sickness. As Allen puts it:

The companies and clinics that narrow the range of sexual normality to porn industry standards suffer their own disease. Symptoms include: a compulsion to concoct illnesses and then develop drugs to treat them, and vice versa. Either way, the syndrome is typically accompanied by a rash of conflicts of interest.

Restless Vagina Syndrome [In These Times]

The law would legalize marital rape; require women to seek their husband's permission to leave the house; additionally mean that women obtain their husband's permission to see a doctor, go to school or work; and eliminate the child custody rights of women in the event of divorce or widowhood. No, for real. This is what the government we've installed is about to do to half its citizens. Our government — which is happily handing out Viagra in tribal areas to ensure the military and intelligence cooperation of impotent warlords — is backing the President of a country who is putting into effect a new law which legislates away what few rights those warlords' wives have. I guess somebody in the embassy forgot to read Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing testimony in which she promised to elevate the status of women's rights in foregin policy.

And why do you think our puppet government is perfect happy to legislate away the hard-fought rights of half its citizens — rights, by the way, that the U.S. actually sort of fought for on their behalf? To increase Karzai's chance of winning re-election in a country that is sick of his increasingly corrupt and ineffective government. There's a reason they call the guy the Mayor of Kabul.

After seven years leading Afghanistan, Karzai is increasingly unpopular at home and abroad and the presidential election in August is expected to be extremely closely fought. A western diplomat said the law represented a "big tick in the box" for the powerful council of Shia clerics.

Leaders of the Hazara minority, which is regarded as the most important bloc of swing voters in the election, also demanded the new law.

Ustad Mohammad Akbari, an MP and the leader of a Hazara political party, said the president had supported the law in order to curry favour among the Hazaras.

And if that's not fun enough, check out how well the Islamic supporters of the law can parrot the talking points of American conservatives when it comes to women and "innate" differences.

But [Akbari] said the law actually protected women's rights.

"Men and women have equal rights under Islam but there are differences in the way men and women are created. Men are stronger and women are a little bit weaker; even in the west you do not see women working as firefighters."

By the way, Akbari says that women can refuse sex with their husbands if they are sick or have a "reasonable" excuse — not that they could, like, prosecute that or anything — and they would totally be allowed to leave the house without permission in an emergency. There's, naturally, nothing in the law that defines a reasonable excuse or an emergency, but I'm assuming that will be for the husband or male authorities to determine.

Of course, Afghanistan's Western allies (ie., the U.S. and its allies) have been suspiciously quiet about this heinous new law, being as Karzai's people have convinced us that it's the only way he can win the election.

"It is going to be tricky to change because it gets us into territory of being accused of not respecting Afghan culture, which is always difficult," a western diplomat in Kabul admitted.

Soraya Sobhrang, the head of women's affairs at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said western silence had been "disastrous for women's rights in Afghanistan".

"What the international community has done is really shameful. If they had got more involved in the process when it was discussed in parliament we could have stopped it. Because of the election I am not sure we can change it now. It's too late for that."

Some diplomats are claiming that we'll, like, totes object when the law is final.

Some female Parliamentarians are trying to see the silver lining in the big black cloud of this law, at least until their husbands rescind their permission to work.

Some female politicians have taken a more pragmatic stance, saying their fight in parliament's lower house succeeded in improving the law, including raising the original proposed marriage age of girls from nine to 16 and removing completely provisions for temporary marriages.

"It's not really 100% perfect, but compared to the earlier drafts it's a huge improvement," said Shukria Barakzai, an MP.

Well, hey, no more child brides! I'm sure that will be prosecuted with the same alacrity that women are prosecuted for leaving the house or working without the permission of their husbands.

'Worse than the Taliban' - New Law Rolls Back Rights For Afghan Women [The Guardian]

Earlier: Viagra: The Gift That Keeps On Giving, Even In Afghanistan
Hillary Clinton Talked The (Girl) Talk At Senate Confirmation

• Kory McFarren, the Kansas boyfriend of the woman who made headlines in February when she got stuck on a toilet seat for two years, won the Kansas state Lottery on Monday for the second time this year. • Police are investigating allegations that a female teacher at Trinity Lutheran School in Detroit ordered three seventh-grade girls to strip down to their underwear on October 1 as part of a search for the alleged theft of $42. • A recent survey found that stressed out men are eating more chocolate in tough economic times. • A survey conducted during the summer found that 80% of Americans say the economy is making them stressed and 83% of those stressed by the economy are women. • A new study has found that women who have had a miscarriage have an increased risk of future complications during their next pregnancy including an increased risk of getting pre-eclampsia and/or needing intervention during labor. • A new study has found that boys tend to be savers and girls tend to be spenders, mostly because women are told money (and the things you buy with money) will help them create a reliable lifestyle.• Compare and contrast the illustrations from an English-language version of Alice in Wonderland and the Swahili-language version. • An Australian man was found guilty today of possessing an illegal firearm and threatening a person with a firearm after he shot a woman in the inner thigh (he claims it was accidental) after she refused to perform oral sex on him. • A woman from Rhode Island was charged with two counts of animal cruelty on Tuesday when she taped two of her pit bulls' mouths shut and left them alone for two days without food and water while she gave birth to her son in a hospital. • A new study suggests that St. John's wort extracts are as effective as standard antidepressants for treating major depression, although the results were more favorable in trials conducted in German-speaking countries. • Are Sarah Palin's glasses fake? Does anyone care? • Lifetime Networks announced that it is making a movie based on the disappearance of teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005. • On Monday, a Connecticut judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against L'Oreal Inc. by a woman who claimed she accidentally dyed her hair from blonde to brunette and was so traumatized that she had to go on anti-depressants. •

• Women taking antidepressants and experiencing a hard time achieving orgasm as a side effect of the medication may benefit from taking Viagra.

• "Grammar Girl" is out to get rid of bad grammar. • A former Muslim sex slave who was targeted for her ethnicity when Serbs attacked tells her heartbreaking story to CNN. • Southern New Hampshire towns are reporting an increase in domestic abuse calls and arrests, which police says is linked to the poor economy. • A self-instructional program on reproductive health and sex-education for teen girls with diabetes will help them understand the risks of unplanned pregnancy while diabetic. • Inflation, high security at hotels and popular venues, and traffic jams have made weddings a real bummer in Sri Lanka. • A weak baby dolphin that was caught in Japanese fishermen's nets has regained its ability to swim after being outfitted with a special lifejacket. • Meet Rampa Rattanarithikul, a Thai mosquito scientist who has researched and collected mosquitoes for 50 years. • Two dogs that were allegedly trained to have sex with their female owner have been accepted into a no-kill animal sanctuary in Utah. • Cute puppy news! Look at this newborn french bulldog set to Chopin. (Image via She Cards.)

• Cudmudgeonly uncle-anchor Jack Cafferty has disappointed millions of women everywhere by saying, "Viagra is used to treat a medical condition, erectile dysfunction. Birth control is a lifestyle choice," when discussing John McCain's little birth control gaffe. Jack, sweetie, birth control pills do treat medical conditions and there's a good economic argument (pregnancy is expensive) for covering them. Erectile dysfunction, however, is God's way of telling you to keep it in your pants, old man. [Crooks & Liars]
• John McCain has proved a disappointment to the Secret Service by letting slip details of Barack Obama's highly secret-for-his-own-safety trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. Man, he really will do anything to keep playing his commercial about how Obama's never been. [Talking Points Memo, The Atlantic]

• By the way, McCain also doesn't know if Obama is a Socialist or not. I don't know that John McCain doesn't drink Cindy's drug-filled urine as a sedative, either. What don't you know? [HuffPo]
• The full list of Starbucks closures is now available. Caffeinated Washingtonians rejoice: Only one in D.C.! [HuffPo]
• Harold Ford got booed at Netroots Nation because he used to work at Fox News, but not because he used to date Julia Allison. [HuffPo]
• The German government has decided to let Obama speak — at the Victory Column, not the Brandenburg Gate because the Bushies kinda asked them not to. Wankers. [HuffPo]
• Scott Peterson has a blog. I think we can finally call this blogging trend over; no one's ever going to believe we're normal people now. [CNN]
• Greta Van Susteren, like, totally swears that she knows someone who knows someone whose anti-Obama copy was watered down at CNN, not that it ever happened to her and she's totally got journalistic freedom (if not freedom from the plastic surgery requirement) at Fox News and is she up for a new contract soon or something? [Fishbowl NY]

NARAL's executive director, Heather Brewer, says: "If Sen. McCain has a problem with women accessing birth control, he should state that publicly. His voting record makes it clear that he does not support access to birth control, so why is he ducking the issue at his own town hall meeting?" But a McCain aide, Jeff Sadosky, said hotel security and the Albuquerque police asked the abortion rights activists to leave when they were seen protesting in a parking lot. When they got in line to enter the event, it was reiterated that they'd already been asked to leave. Politico's Ben Smith adds: "The local press, a McCain aide said, had been aware of, and didn't cover, the story yesterday — often a useful sign of how meaningful an incident is."

We have an overpopulated, at-risk planet, in which a child dies of dehydration every seven minutes and a woman dies of a botched abortion every seven minutes (not to mention the hunger crises in Asia, Africa and Europe). Why is a pill for "erectile dysfunction" — not a life threatening or, frankly, as life-impacting condition as pregnancy — promoted and widely available? And free for the insured? While oral contraceptives (with health advantages like decreased menstrual blood loss, reduced risk of ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer, improved acne and decreased menstrual cramps and pain and uh, not getting pregnant) are not? McCain was at a loss for words, maybe you can fill in his blanks?

Planned Parenthood Launches Anti-McCain TV Spot [Time Magazine]
Naral: Pro-Choice T-Shirt-Wearers Barred From McCain Event [UPDATED] [Politico]

Apparently, not getting a boner when you've taken substances that lower your inhibitions is a man's body's way of telling him that boning is a bad idea.

"Engaging in risky sexual behavior — such as unprotected sex with high-risk partners — is one of the chief side-effects of any street stimulant," explains Galloway. "But an equally powerful side-effect is the inability to perform sexually, which, while frustrating as hell, has probably prevented a lot of disease transmission and unwanted children."

Basically, if he's done it tonight, he's done it before, and if he's that keen to do it now and you're the one insisting on a condom despite your own chemical impairment, well, don't assume the rest of the women of the world are as conscientious. Protect your lady parts, the peen ain't worth it anyway.

I mean, also, if you're the guy and you're just popping it to get an erection, you're ignoring the fact that there might be a legitimate, medical condition requiring you to need it that deserves treatment, but, really, it's all about how it affects us.

Erection Reform [Psychology Today]

The articles goes on to discuss the kinds of problems that couples have faced in the past 70 years, according to the MGC. The same thread unifies all the unhappy couples: they're not having sex. Whether the lack of sex is the root of the unhappiness or a result of other problems, in the '50s as well as the aughts, no fucking = no fun.

In the past decade or so, according to MGC therapists, the biggest problem has been with the sexual confidence of British men. Peter Bell, MGC's head of practice, tells the Times, "In the last 10 years, the number of men who say they have 'gone off' sex has risen dramatically. Men used to come to us with impotence, now known as erectile insufficiency, but Viagra has sorted some of that problem. What we have is a lot of men who, as women did in the 1950s, say, 'I can have sex but I don't want to. It's not rewarding.' I think that's because women are more aware of what they want sexually and are prepared to ask for it. Male confidence, as the gender who knew how to have sex - always an illusion - has been blown."

I tend to agree with Reverend Herbert Gray, one of the founders of MGC, who said, way back in the 40s, that sexual passion was "'the driving force in life' in a partnership of 'equals.'" Could you tolerate a marriage without that passion like the cuckolded artist and his wife?

"Marriage Problems Through The Years [Times of London]

That seems like a lot to ask, especially since some doctors, like NYU School of Medicine's Leonore Tiefer, don't think a testosterone gel will really help the female libido in the first place. Tiefer tells U.S. News: "There was a big study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2005 that has never been refuted showing that low testosterone may have nothing to do with [low libido]." In 2000, Tiefer formed what she calls a group of "like-minded feminists" under the heading the New View Campaign to educate women about the medicalization of female sexuality.

Earlier this month, Moe tackled the same question Tiefer wrestles with: Is not being horny a disease (Moe: "probably not!")? And Tiefer elaborates on exactly why. She thinks the variety of sexual problems a woman faces — loss of interest in sex, irregular sex, interest in the wrong partner — have been hijacked by the medical community when those issues have nothing to do with medicine. "I would regard fluctuations in sexual interest not just as normal but as a good thing built into one's feelings about pretty much everything; with the seasons, with age, with changes in a relationship, with changes in health, with changes in work responsibilities," she says. "Everything comes and goes." Anita Clayton, co-author of Satisfaction: Women, Sex, and the Quest for Intimacy, adds, "For women, a lot of our sexuality is above the neck, not below the waist,"

Then there are women like "Bette," a 72-year-old breast cancer survivor who says using the testosterone gel, which was prescribed to her "off label," basically saved her life. "I'd rather have something worth living for right now, rather than living in the old folks' home. I'm not going to miss any fun."

Sex Drug Viagra Turns 10; Women Still Waiting [U.S. News & World Report]
Women Lacking Libido Aren't Sick [U.S. News & World Report]
A Woman's Sex Drive Restored By Testosterone [U.S. News & World Report]

Earlier: Five Reasons To Love Viagra
Is Not Being Horny A Diesase? Okay, Probably Not, But Should Big Science Keep Working On Female Viagra Anyhow?

On second thought, you know what? Fuck the bonerkillers just this once. It turns out that Big Pharma's insatiable lust for profit seems to be funding a lot of interesting research on the female orgasm.

Like, why doesn't Viagra work on women? Well, Pfizer tested 3,000 of them, and figured out that prompting a rush of blood to the gonads didn't really do the trick. (It doesn't? I would think it would?)
"What we know is that very little of what's going on with women and sex is below the waist," Anita Clayton, co-author of a book called Satisfaction: Women, Sex and the Quest for Intimacy, tells the Washington Post. "Almost all of it is above the neck." Ugh, great. Well, then came this suntan drug that was supposed to make everyone horny (and tan!) but the FDA pulled the plug when it looked like high blood pressure was a side effect. (I have low blood pressure, guys, I'm sure it's safe for me!)

Anyway, for once in my life I have no real strong opinion. Except that all this reading about arousal is making me pretty sure I do not have the dread hypoactive sexual desire disorder.

A Dose Of Desire [Washington Post]
Related: Adderall Makes Me Hump Like A Guy
Earlier: Five Reasons To Love Viagra

1. The story of Viagra starts in 1982 with a conference of urologists in Las Vegas at which one Dr. Giles Brindley decided to display off the effects of an injectible erectile dysfunction drug he was developing by brandishing his boner onstage. The doctors in the audience described his wang as long, thin, and grayish. It was the beginning of a reliable flow of fun, bizarre erectile dysfunction-related news stories and assorted stupid crap like this.?

2. Lots of dudes get prostate cancer. My dad, for one. Don't get me wrong, I do not want to think about my parents having sex. So I am going to end this entry before I get ahead of myself. I mean, when it all comes down, you're glad breast implants exist, aren't you?

3. Viagra actually definitively solved a physical problem. How many modern pharmaceuticals can even say that? For every person you know whose, like, life was saved by Zoloft, you probably know five people whose insurance companies have spent thousands of dollars sampling an array of mood-altering drugs that left them crazy, panicky, suicidal, incapable of solving any underlying problems and/or completely devoid of the desire to have sex. And couldn't most of our first world problems be solved by a little more sex?

4. Viagra helped people talk about sex. Again, agreed: you didn't want to picture Bob Dole and Liddy having sex, but you probably didn't want to picture Ron Jeremy having sex either, and now you don't have to, because thanks to Viagra the adult entertainment industry no longer has to rely on gross freaks who happen to have massive boner-prolonging capabilities.The Viagra salesman memoir Hard Sell — which I actually read for some reason — is full of heartwarming stories about uptight Midwesterners being emboldened to talk to their doctors — and then, their neighbors! — about fucking. And what followed? Bible Belt vibrator parties, the repeal of the Texas sex toy ban, and... well, the term "va-jay-jay", but every revolution has its lame elements.

5. As long as I am going to get old, I would like to get laid. I mean, duh.