Definition of “normal” depends on a society you live in. The society is shaped by cultural norms. But who establishes cultural norms? The obvious and incorrect (I believe so) answer is majority of people. However, my answer on who defines cultural norms is norms are defined by a group of people who manipulates society in order to increase their power and money and a small group of radical people.
So who benefits from establishing what is “normal” sex life? On top of my list are pharmaceutical companies that by medicalizing sexuality they can make medications for imaginary disease and make billions of money curing women who do not need cure. Next are doctors. As much as I respect doctors and eager to embrace modern medicine as anyone who needs help, as I grow older I become more and more skeptical of doctors work. However, neither doctors nor big companies can make money or doctors establish norms in medicine without some support from the population. Unfortunately, in the United States usually some very conservative, religious and loud minority dictates what is normal. It is admirable that voice of minority is heard. However, in case of American society minority makes life of majority hellish.
There are several problems I can identify with doctors. In the United States doctors, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies live in symbiosis and cannot survive without each other. Often doctors are doctors and businesspeople at the same time. So understanding doctors’ intentions is really hard. Another problem is harm doctors cause to the society when they in a rush of solving everything with medicine. For example, Carolyn Lewis gives an example how general physicians saw themselves as figures fit to solve problems of sexual lives of Americans by performing premarital pelvic exam to show women what to expect on wedding night. What interesting is that doctors argued that young women were confused, anxious, and ill prepared for wedding night (doctors also assumed women would be virgins). At that time doctors, using similar language, argued that women could not understand side effects of DES. Therefore in mid-twentieth century cultural norm was to see a woman as passive vagina, a mother, a hysteric, and a property that belonged to men. Women in menopause and young girl were urged to take DES to get personality or physical appearance appealing to men, and young women needed to get fiancé permission to get premarital cervical exam. So along these lines we can expect our doctors to make us to comply with modern stereotypes. But since we live in this time period, it is hard for us to identify these cultural norms.
Today over sexualized media and culture tell women how they have to look and what sexual life they have to have. With the help of plastic surgeons and medications desired look and sex life can be achieved. According to “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” in last decades labiaplasty became very popular. Unfortunately, young girls and women learn how their vulva supposed to look like from porn. According to documentary “Sexy Baby” (I saw it a year ago), one of the women in the documentary went under knife because she could not enjoy sex because she did not like how her vulva looked like and her doctor reinforced her insecurity. Therefore, because of luck of experience (arguably intense) Elizabeth Reis describes in her article “What is in your vulva?”, women grow up judging themselves based on porn that everyone with access to internet can see. Absence of visual proof of different vulvas, absence of open talk about what to expect from sex, how to enjoy, or what is a norm for individual woman separates and imprisons women in their luck of knowledge. This ignorance allows loud minorities to create dissonance that later doctors, big corporations, people with power, porno industry, and pharmaceutical companies use to make money on women and harm them. DES proved to be lethal in the long run. So Viagra for women can also turned out to be lethal.
By the way I just finished watching documentary “Let’s talk about sex” to my surprise and my delight I saw you professor in it.
Anastasia,
That is so funny that you watched that movie! Did you watch it for a class? My daughter was volunteering for Planned Parenthood when she was in high school, and so when the filmmakers came to Oregon, they were delighted to film us. They were at our house all day, but we are only in the film for a few minutes, as you saw. It was fun though!
Your skepticism of physicians and pharmaceuticals makes sense in this context, and I agree with you that the public has brought this on themselves to a certain extent. But when the drug companies make a “quick fix” look so appealing, it’s hard for people to resist that, even if it’s not really going to work in the long run.
I watched it for fun after it was mentioned in one of the articles I read on Nursing Cleo.