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Dennis Hof, proprietor of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, the legal brothel located in Carson City, NV, has no such qualms. After all, erections are his business.
"Everyone wants to be bigger and harder," he says of Viagra. "It's been a real boon for our business." Hof was among the first men to sample the drug. Penthouse magazine invited the procurer to Amsterdam in 1998 for an expense-paid tour of the local brothels. "I'm done," Hof said after a couple of trysts. Then he was turned on to some Viagra. "I ended up partying with six different girls that night," he said.
Hof has seen an increase with young and old customers alike. "The young guys wanna be studs; they want to be heroes," he says. "If you see some young guy partying with seven or eight girls a night, you know he's popping Viagra like Tic Tacs."
"The old guys are back," he continues. "It's great to see the old guys out having fun." He says the girls first noticed the effects of Viagra when "the guys who used to come in here with their [penis] pumps no longer had their pumps." Instead, they now crack Viagra jokes. It's like Disneyland -- a one-hour wait for a three-minute ride.
One of my more hedonistic pals also admitted to using Viagra recreationally -- not that he needs it. "A slight breeze, the feel of fabric through my pants, gives me an erection," he half-joked. He sought Viagra from his physician, just for kicks. "I kind of hinted at it, and he handed me a six-pack. It was kind of funny." Viagra had little effect on my virile friend. "I'd felt like I'd taken some kind of medicine, but, other than that, nothing."
Richard, the local sex-shop clerk, says his customers have had better luck with the drug. "I've had a number of customers tell me they have tried Viagra," he informs. "Most report positive results. Some of them have reported headaches and even that it can mess with your vision."
The gay community is almost always ahead of the cultural curve, and recreational Viagra use is no exception. A San Francisco Department of Public Health study by Dr. Jeffrey Klausner found that gay and bisexual men are inclined to use Viagra recreationally four times more often than heterosexual men -- and are more likely to engage in unsafe sex when doing so. The drug is frequently used to counter the effect of methamphetamine, which induces impotence. The Viagra-meth cocktail can lead to frighteningly long sexual encounters, as described vividly by former gay-porn industry worker Richard Gallo in the Boston Globe earlier this year.
"We're talking days. Days, not hours," Gallo said. "Ten days in a row ... no eating, no sleeping." Just, well, you get the picture.
However, my gay friend Matt questions the efficacy of the cocktail. Matt and his partner frequently travel to San Francisco on the weekends to enjoy the club scene, which, Matt complains, is being destroyed by methamphetamine use. He knows men who have used the cocktail to no avail. "What happens is that speed constricts the blood vessels. Viagra does the opposite; it relaxes them. They cancel each other out, so they're just wasted.
"I remember when Viagra first came out, people were really gung-ho about it," he continues. "Girls were taking it. Boys at sex clubs were selling it for $20 a hit. But it's kind of gone by the wayside. If they're taking it, they're quiet about it."
Matt says some men have turned to Cialis, which lasts days compared with Viagra's one hour. He's tried Viagra, but though it definitely gives him a harder erection, he isn't exactly fond of it.
"Some people are more affected by Viagra than others," he explains. "I'm one of those people. My vision shifts to blue. I can feel my blood pressure drop." He will take it in moderation. "I don't mind it for one night. Have you tried it? You really ought to."
I'm working on it, bro.
Harder, faster
No pharmaceutical product can match the speed and depth with which Viagra has penetrated the national consciousness. In seven short years, it has transcended its own marketing and is now firmly ensconced in the culture at every level. For example, state and federal legislators, which dispense Viagra through Medicaid, have been forced to make moral decisions as to who gets the drug, with predictable results: Both the men who need it the least -- high-risk sex offenders -- and those who need it the most -- senior citizens -- have been denied access to the drug.
In the American lexicon, Viagra has replaced steroids as the superlative de jour and serves as shorthand for our hypersexualized society. Liberal pundit Jim Hightower describes the Bush administration as "extremism on Viagra." California first lady Maria Shriver titled one chapter of her book, Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into the Real World, "Superwoman Is Dead ... and Superman May Be Taking Viagra." Oddly, the chapter contains no reference to Viagra or Shriver's oversexed husband. The drug has become a staple of risqué jokes, like the one about the Viagra computer virus -- it turns your 3.5-inch floppy disc into a hard drive.
