As anyone who has watched television in recent years can attest, we
live in the age of Viagra. From Bob Dole to Mike Ditka to
late-night comedians, our culture has been engaged in one long,
frank, and very public talk about impotence--and our newfound
pharmaceutical solutions. But as Angus McLaren shows us in
"Impotence," the first cultural history of the subject, the failure
of men to rise to the occasion has been a recurrent topic since the
dawn of human culture.
Drawing on a dazzling range of sources from across centuries,
McLaren demonstrates how male sexuality was constructed around the
idea of potency, from times past when it was essential for the
purpose of siring children, to today, when successful sex is viewed
as a component of a healthy emotional life. Along the way,
"Impotence" enlightens and fascinates with tales of sexual failure
and its remedies--for example, had Ditka lived in ancient
Mesopotamia, he might have recited spells while eating roots and
plants rather than pills--and explanations, which over the years
have included witchcraft, shell-shock, masturbation, feminism, and
the Oedipal complex. McLaren also explores the surprising political
and social effects of impotence, from the revolutionary unrest
fueled by Louis XVI's failure to consummate his marriage to the
boost given the fledgling American republic by George Washington's
failure to found a dynasty. Each age, McLaren shows, turns
impotence to its own purposes, using it to help define what is
normal and healthy for men, their relationships, and society.
From marraige manuals to metrosexuals, from Renaissance Italy to
Hollywood movies, "Impotence" is a serious but highly entertaining
examination of aproblem that humanity has simultaneously regarded
as life's greatest tragedy and its greatest joke.
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