New investigations into pharmaceutical companies’ involvement with female sexual dysfunction have one journalist claiming that the drug giants made it all up.
“It has become clear that drug companies have not simply sponsored the science of this new condition; on occasions they have helped to construct it,” said Ray Moynihan, author of Sex, Drugs, and Pharmaceuticals. He claims the drug companies have used industry-supported research to create fake epidemics of female sexual disorder (FSD), as they did with erectile dysfunction and social anxiety disorder, in order to mold a market ripe for expensive chemical cures.
But, while some doctors claim that FSD doesn’t exist, some sex therapists disagree. Dr. Sandy Goldbeck-Wood, a U.K. associate specialist in psychosexual medicine, wrote that the “argument that female sexual dysfunction is an illness constructed by pathologizing doctors under the influence of drug companies will fail to convince clinicians who see women with sexual dysfunction, or their patients.” While she agrees the drug companies have been over-involved with manipulating the market, she and many others hold that FSD is a valid clinical diagnosis. Whether anybody really needs an influx of pink or blue pills remains to be seen.
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Raunchy comedienne Jenny McCarthy is out with a new book, Love, Lust & Faking It: The Naked Truth about Sex, Lies, And True Romance, and in it she reveals she wishes she had her own sex tape.
In an interview with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush, McCarthy was asked if she had a sex tape, and she said, “Oh, I love that question. No I don’t have a sex tape and I’m kind of upset that I don’t. You know why? ‘Cause I’m really good.” Her book features a romance novel-styled parody of a mulletted hunk clasping McCarthy and her heaving bosom, and contains insight as to whether size matters and McCarthy’s increasingly horny state since she turned 37. Love, Lust & Faking It is out in stores now.
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It’s October, so its time for the beer-swigging, lederhosen-wearing Oktoberfest celebrations around the globe—but this year, controversy abounds in Germany over barmaids who are too sexy for their dirndls.
The dirndl is the female equivalent of the male lederhosen, with a tight bodice, skirt and apron à la The Sound of Music, and it’s been getting sexier and sexier. Some attendees at the original Oktoberfest in Munich say the 17-day event of food and booze has become a “cultural wasteland” thanks to the convention-bending practices of fashion designers—designers such as Lola Paltinger, who is loathed and loved within Munich for the daring directions she takes her dirndls. Kim Kardashian, clearly, is a fan.
Of the historical-minded set, Paltinger says, “You know, I appreciate and like those people that are doing the traditional styles, but I, for myself, I have to do something else and something different.” And to that, we raise our beer steins and our hemlines.