“The Second Sexual Revolution”: Big Pharma, Porn and the Biopolitical Penis

Abstract

This paper identifies concurrent trends in the forms of representation found in contemporary pornography,andinthekindsofideologyproducedbytheraphy, and in the kinds of ideology produced by the biomedical industry, specifically in relation to the form and function of the penis. The rise of Viagra culture has been described as the second sexual revolution and promises the availability of phallic embodiment for all men. In recent years, with the rise of gonzo genres and independent modes of production and distribution, hard core pornography increasingly offers an industrialized understanding of sexual bodies, and a narrative of sexual acts no longer determined by Kinseyian logic, where detumescence doesn’t exist and penises are always hard, and always large. This paper argues that the logic informing sexual biosciences is pornographic rather than medical, and that the logic informing the pornographic penis is economic rather than libidinal. The paper concludes with an attempt to map a contemporary biopolitics of the penis.