WILL women soon have a Viagra of their own? Although a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recently rejected an application to market the drug flibanserin in the United States for women with low libido, it endorsed thepotential benefits and urged further research. Several pharmaceuticalcompanies are reported to be well along in the search for such a drug.

The implication is that a new pill, despite its unforeseen sideeffects, is necessary to cure the sexual malaise that appears to havesunk over the country. But to what extent do these complaints aboutsexual apathy reflect a medical reality, and how much do they actuallyemanate from the anxious, overachieving, white upper middle class? 

implication    含義
apathy     /'æpəθɪ/  n. the feeling of not being interested in or enthusiastic about anything 冷漠；淡漠
emanate    to produce or show sth 產生；表現；顯示

In the 1950s, female “frigidity” was attributed to social conformismand religious puritanism. But since the sexual revolution of the 1960s,American society has become increasingly secular, with a mediaenvironment drenched in sex.

* frigid    1. of a woman 女子 not able to enjoy sex 性冷淡的；達不到性高潮的； 性冷感的
              2. very cold 寒冷的；嚴寒的     frigid air 冰冷的空氣
              3. not showing any feelings of friendship or kindness 冷淡的
              n. frigidity
puritanism    1. the beliefs and practices of the Puritans 清教主義；清教徒的教義和行為 uncountable
                     2. very strict moral attitudes 十分嚴格的道德觀
drench    to make sb/sth completely wet 使濕透

The real culprit, originating in the 19th century, is bourgeoispropriety. As respectability became the central middle-class value,censorship and repression became the norm. Victorian prudery ended thehumorous sexual candor of both men and women during the agrarian era, aribaldry chronicled from Shakespeare’s plays to the 18th-century novel.The priggish 1950s, which erased the liberated flappers of the Jazz Agefrom cultural memory, were simply a return to the norm.

prudery    假正經
candor     直率
agrarian     /ə'grɛrɪən/  connected with farming and the use of land for farming 農業的；土地的；耕地的

ribaldry    Ribaldry is humorous entertainment that ranges from bordering on indelicacy to gross         indecency. It is a genre of sexual entertainment, in addition to pornography and erotica.

prig    A person who demonstrates an exaggerated conformity or propriety, especially in an irritatingly  arrogant or smug manner. 自命清高的人
          adj.  priggish    n. priggishness
flapper    a young woman in the 1920s who wore fashionable clothes, had short hair and was interested in modern music and new ideas （20 世紀 20 年代不受傳統拘束的）隨意女郎

Only the diffuse New Age movement, inspired by nature-keyed Asianpractices, has preserved the radical vision of the modern sexualrevolution. But concrete power resides in America’s careeristtechnocracy, for which the elite schools, with their ideological viewof gender as a social construct, are feeder cells.

diffuse    漫射
technocracy    a social or political system in which people with scientific knowledge have a lot of power 技術專家治國制度；技術專家政治
feeder cell    為培育胚胎幹細胞株，科學家需從囊胚取出內細胞團（這些囊胚通常是體外人工受精剩下的胚胎），將它們放在含有餵養細胞（feeder cell）的培養皿中，胚胎細胞會很快黏附在餵養細胞上。在幾天內，來自內細胞團的細胞會分裂出新細胞，並形成群體。

In the discreet white-collar realm, men and women are interchangeable,doing the same, mind-based work. Physicality is suppressed; voices arelowered and gestures curtailed in sanitized office space. Men mustneuter themselves, while ambitious women postpone procreation.Androgyny is bewitching in art, but in real life it can lead tostagnation and boredom, which no pill can cure.

Nor are husbands offering much stimulation in the male displaydepartment: visually, American men remain perpetual boys, as shown bythe bulky T-shirts, loose shorts and sneakers they wear from preschoolthrough midlife. The sexes, which used to occupy intriguingly separateworlds, are suffering from over-familiarity, a curse of the mundane.There’s no mystery left. 

mundane    adj. not interesting or exciting 單調的；平凡的

The elemental power of sexuality has also waned in American popularculture. Under the much-maligned studio production code, Hollywood mademovies sizzling with flirtation and romance. But from the early ’70son, nudity was in, and steamy build-up was out. A generation offilmmakers lost the skill of sophisticated innuendo. The situationworsened in the ’90s, when Hollywood pirated video games to turn womeninto cartoonishly pneumatic superheroines and sci-fi androids, fantasyfigures without psychological complexity or the erotic needs of realwomen.

Furthermore, thanks to a bourgeois white culture that values efficientbodies over voluptuous ones, American actresses have desexualizedthemselves, confusing sterile athleticism with female power. Theircurrent Pilates-honed look is taut and tense — a boy’s thin limbs andnarrow hips combined with amplified breasts. Contrast that with Latinoand African-American taste, which runs toward the healthy silhouette ofthe bootylicious Beyoncé.

voluptuous    adj. 豐滿
sterile    /'stɛrəl/ 無菌
pilates    皮拉提斯, 結合東方瑜伽和西方的有氧舞蹈健身法
taut        adj. 拉緊的; 人或人體肌肉結實的；不虛胖的
silhouette    /ˈsɪlu'ɛt/  側影

A class issue in sexual energy may be suggested by the apparentstriking popularity of Victoria’s Secret and its racy lingerie amongmultiracial lower-middle-class and working-class patrons, even insuburban shopping malls, which otherwise trend toward the white middleclass. Country music, with its history in the rural South andSouthwest, is still filled with blazingly raunchy scenarios, where thesexes remain dynamically polarized in the old-fashioned way.

racy    adj.  having a style that is exciting and amusing, sometimes in a way that is connected with sex （風格）活潑的；不雅的
blaze    火焰   blazing  adj.  extremely angry or full of strong emotion 極其憤怒的；感情強烈的raunchy   adj. 1. intended to be sexually exciting 淫穢的；下流的 informal.
                                    eg.  a raunchy magazine/movie 淫穢的雜誌／電影
                               2. looking dirty and untidy 骯髒的；邋遢的

On the other hand, rock music, once sexually pioneering, is in thedumps. Black rhythm and blues, born in the Mississippi Delta, was thedriving force behind the great hard rock bands of the ’60s, whose coverversions of blues songs were filled with electrifying sexual imagery.The Rolling Stones’ hypnotic recording of Willie Dixon’s “Little RedRooster,” with its titillating phallic exhibitionism, throbs andshimmers with sultry heat.

imagery     /'ɪmɪdʒərɪ/ n. 意象
hypnotic    催眠
titillate     /'tɪtəˈlet/ v.  to interest or excite sb, especially in a sexual way 使興奮；煽情；煽動情慾
shimmer   v.   to shine with a soft light that seems to move slightly 發出微弱的閃光；閃爍
               n.   閃爍的光
sultry    悶熱的

But with the huge commercial success of rock, the blues receded as adirect influence on young musicians, who simply imitated the whiteguitar gods without exploring their roots. Step by step, rock lost itsvisceral rawness and seductive sensuality. Big-ticket rock, with itswell-heeled middle-class audience, is now all superego and no id.

visceral  adj.  1. resulting from strong feelings rather than careful thought （未經過認真思考而）出自內心的，發自肺腑的 literary  2. relating to the viscera 內臟的；臟腑的

In the 1980s, commercial music boasted a beguiling host of sexy popchicks like Deborah Harry, Belinda Carlisle, Pat Benatar, and acharmingly ripe Madonna. Late Madonna, in contrast, went bourgeois andturned scrawny. Madonna’s dance-track acolyte, Lady Gaga, with hercompulsive overkill, is a high-concept fabrication without an ounce ofgenuine eroticism.

beguile   v. 1. to trick sb into doing sth, especially by being nice to them 哄騙（某人做某事）；誘騙 ~ sb (into doing sth) VN formal
                       2. to attract or interest sb 吸引（某人）；使感興趣 VN formal
                            eg.  He was beguiled by her beauty. 他為她的美麗所傾倒。
                     3.  to make time pass pleasantly by doing sth enjoyable 愉快地度過 VN formal
scrawny    of people or animals 人或動物 very thin in a way that is not attractive 乾瘦的；瘦巴巴的
acolyte    n. 1. a person who follows and helps a leader 侍從；隨員；助手 formal
                        2. a person who helps a priest in some church ceremonies 輔祭；贊禮

Pharmaceutical companies will never find the holy grail of a femaleViagra — not in this culture driven and drained by middle-class values.Inhibitions are stubbornly internal. And lust is too fiery to be leftto the pharmacist.