Female Sexual Dysfunction A Case Study of Disease Mongering and Activist Resistance 英文参考文献.docVIP

sasyE Female Sexual Dysfunction: A Case Study of Disease Mongering and Activist Resistance Leonore Tiefer Thus the public is led to want and expect high rewards from sexual Setting the Scene: Sex and the 20th Century life without having tools to achieve these rewards. People fed a myth that sex is “natural”—that is, a matter of automatic and unlearned biological function—at the same time as they expect high levels of performance and enduring pleasure, are likely to look for simple solutions. This sets the stage for disease mongering, a process that encourages the conversion of socially created anxiety into medical diagnoses suitable for pharmacological treatment. In this essay, I begin by examining sexual attitudes in the 20th century that were crucial in setting the scene for the creation of FSD. I then highlight key steps in the history of FSD and of the campaign to challenge its reductionist approach to women’s sexual problems. In the early 20th century, sexual life and interest were stimulated by intensive urbanization and immigration that disrupted old community-based patterns of sexual regulation [3,4]. Sexual choices and expectations, however, were still largely governed by traditional religion and a double standard. Public discourse around sex was moralistic, and sex-education materials were limited and stigmatized. By mid-century, surveys showed wide variation in sexual habits, with behavior patterns related to social class, gender, cohort, and other background factors [5]. Dramatic liberalization occurred after World War II as purity campaigns failed to hold back the sex-promoting impact of changes in longevity, leisure, employment and childrearing, new technology, and mass media [4]. Effective oral contraceptives and medical treatments for venereal T he creation and promotion of “female sexual dysfunction” (FSD) is a textbook case of disease mongering by the pharmaceutical industry and by other agents of medicalization, such as health and science journa