Do you own a TV and/or eyeballs? Then chances are, you’ve seen a commercial for Viagra or some other drug that improves men’s sex drive. You know the kind – couples sitting in separate bathtubs on the beach, a man trying and failing to build a fire, people swing dancing in their kitchens for no reason.
But have you ever seen a commercial for drugs that boost lady libidos? No ma’am.
A new pill being developed might change that. Lybrido, a sex drive enhancing drug for women, is expected to enter the market in 2016. But the process of releasing this drug keeps hitting obstacles, because scientists and developers involved worry that it might work too well.
Err..pardon me? Work TOO well?
Apparently scientists are concerned that women who take Lybrido would have sex drives that are way too high. They acknowledge that this isn’t because they fear for the women’s sexual health – they fear the sexual women themselves.
Lybrido developer Andrew Goldstein identified this as a “bias.” In his words: “There’s a fear of creating the sexually aggressive woman.”
Surprise surprise, the girl Viagra is pink.
Way too many concerns about the drug center around women’s behavior and sexual assertiveness, not around health issues. When the New York Times spoke to pharmaceutical industry advisers, many of them claimed that a drug like Lybrido could create “female excesses, crazed binges of infidelity, [and] societal splintering.” Ah yes, the classic ‘sexually active women will destroy the threads of society’ argument. Never heard that one before.
These double standards are getting old, both from the scientific community and on a cultural level. Science is not bias-free, and unless the dudes in charge open their minds or step aside, this sex drive pill will definitely hit more speed bumps before it hits the shelves.
Images from prostate.com and guardian.co.uk
