“Now that’s solid

evidence!”
Hardcore Porn and
the Biopolitical Penis
Stephen Maddison
School of Social Sciences, Media & Cultural
Studies

University of East London, UK

s.maddison@uel.ac.uk
Dr Giles Brindley,
Las Vegas 1983

• “the most memorable public moment in all

of modern medicine”
• Birth of the “second sexual revolution”
• On-demand erection by intracavernous
injection of Phenoxybenzamine
• Pfizer’s Viagra: $1.7billion in 2006
1. The Biomedical
Penis

“the functional effect of the drug, and not

the disorder, defines the bodily condition…
There is no pretence of a natural body
here, other than that which is waiting to be
technically materialized by the interests of
the medical and pharmaceutical
industries” (Katz & Marshall)
1. The Biomedical
Penis
• Arbitrary emphasis on impotence
• Shift from patients to consumers
• Functional penis = homosocial fantasy
• Female sexual function = “viability of
the vagina for receiving the erect penis”
• Penis = neo-liberalist mechanism
2. The Pornographic
Penis
• No soft cocks
• No Kinseyian narrative of sexual
physiology
• “Grotesque Degradation”
• Industrialised bodies with specialised
capacities
The Biopolitics of the
Penis
• Subjectification of the individual
• Biomedical science  Pornographic
homosocial fantasy
• Reproduction drawn back into sphere of
sexuality
• Privatisation of life resources; new
biomedical forms of labour; exploitation of
women
• Choices/freedoms = neo-liberal
www.opengender.org.u
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