
What is Female Sexual Dysfunction?According to pharmaceutical companies and some doctors, it is a disease that millions of American women have (43%, they say) that can be any of the following sexual symptoms: low libido, low desire, trouble reaching orgasm and trouble lubricating.According to other physicians and sex experts, Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD) is a made up term, created by pharmaceutical companies in order to develop and market medications.Those who support the idea of FSD claim that the above symptoms that women experience are caused by physiological problems with blood flow or even brain chemistry and that a simple cream, pill or patch will solve the problem.Those who oppose FSD point to our culture and education as the source of womens' problems. One in five women will be abused in her lifetime, 80% of women have body image issues, women with children do three times as much work (including household work) as men. Women are raised to believe that they are not worthy of pleasure, that they exist to give pleasure, that asking for what they want makes them a slut, that they should be able to have orgasms from intercourse alone (only about 30% of women do this). Women are rarely told what their clitorises are, let alone where to find them or how to stimulate them. Abstinence-only sex education teaches our young women that sex before marriage will damage them psychologically and make them "unclean".I could go on and on but you get the point. With so much baggage and misinformation out there, I'm sometimes amazed that women can healthy and happy sex lives at all! Go us!Now this isn't to say that there might not be some women in the world who do have blood vessel issues or severe hormonal imbalances or neurotransmitter deficiencies, but these drugs aren't being developed for them. They're being developed for everyone else - people who in fact are healthy, but have been raised in a culture that where womens' sexuality is concerned, is very ill indeed.I was recently reminded of this issue by a film called
Orgasm, Inc. When I watched it, I felt overjoyed to work at Babeland, where we help people deal with their cultural baggage and correct their misinformation. If you'd like to learn more about this topic, please check out the film.