Since the rise of humanity groups of people decide how they are going to live together. They set rules of behaviour and reach understandings on how these rules are to be policed. After all, a rule counts for little if it is not enforced. But, people change their view on the human relationship as time passes. What may be workable for one group at one time may be completely unworkable for the group that follows them. Cultures change over time and the rules of behaviour change with them. Go back more than one hundred years to Victorian times and the word most often associated with the age was prudish. In other words, the people were sexually repressed by a strict code of morality. The US was just coming out of the Civil War and wanted stability in everything you can think about. Even though slavery was formally abolished, that did not mean ex-slaves were really free. Women were still little more than possessions and their place in the scheme of things was fixed. Only the most upper-class men had real freedom. Everyone else was restricted in their actions.
To come forward to the period immediately after World War II is to find a country going through changes. Although still sexually repressed, there were the first steps of scientific interest in the mechanics of sex. Laboratory experiments involving human volunteers began to study the biology of sexual arousal. At first, the political, religious and scientific community was shocked and tried to prevent it from continuing. But the publication of the Kinsey Reports in 1948 and 1953 had let the genie out of the bottle. The result was a sexual revolution in terms of behaviour and a liberalisation of scientific enquiry. All this led to the development of various treatments to deal with the problem of erectile dysfunction – a subject few had been prepared to talk about. Ten years ago, the first oral medication was launched and the mold was finally broken. There are now adverts on daytime television for erectile dysfunction treatments.
Given that the current society now more openly talks about all things sexual, the question arises as to whether this is better than the prudishness of Victorian times. Although drugs like levitra have brought relief and happiness to millions of men suffering from erectile dysfunction, is this scientific revolution a good thing? Most people now see sex as a biological thing. If it goes wrong, a doctor treats you. Few people talk about relationships and how to keep them healthy. Worse, advertizing is creating new myths about what couples can and should expect in sexual activity. When no-one talked about it in public, people found their own happiness as best they could in the privacy of their own homes. Now people seem obsessed by the need to be perfect and be fantastic in bed (which means they take a pill). Playing with expectations is dangerous when human being are so often not perfect in what they do. Although levitra is able to return sexual proficiency to most men, they do not suddenly lose twenty years and reach the emotional and physical highs of their youth. Everyone gets old and tired. People should be more satisfied with who they are rather than following the dreams peddled by marketing experts.
