The vagina dialogues

So you're agreeing with many of those you otherwise disagree with, that a purely medical approach can sometimes be valuable?

I don't think a purely medical approach can ever be valuable. I do think there are women whose sexual problems are medical in origin. But our medical category requires a ruling out of psychological, relational and sociocultural issues that are interfering before we conclude that this is a medical problem. I'd like doctors to have these ideas going through their mind, instead of first saying it must be hormonal or a blood flow problem or whatever.

Sure, the more subtle of the doctors can accept that people have minds and feelings as well as bodies. But it's still as if whatever the problem is, it's yours alone, it's your individual problem, because either you had an unlucky life or an unlucky body. All of this energy is only going to help one woman at a time -- at best. A lot of it won't even do that. We've had 30 years of feminist research and writing that have shown that there are patterns of social reality that cause -- dare I say it? -- the majority of women to have certain kinds of sexual problems. Is that to be ignored? None of what's going on in the FSD movement is addressing that.

You are one of the speakers at this conference. That's a good sign, isn't it?

The topic is "Beyond Dysfunction: A New View of Women's Sexual Problems." I get eight minutes.

It looks like the program also includes discussions of sexual abuse and other topics that are not just about the mechanics of a woman's body.

Oh, yes. There will be some other speakers who will be talking about women's sexuality in a way that's not just, you know, how to fix the labia after cancer. There will be more attention to some of these larger contextual issues, or at least to women's feelings and relationships, than last year. But is it because we've had a year more of doctors trying to treat women's problems, and failing with their narrow approach? The fact is, the vast majority of presentations are not saying, "Maybe we don't understand women's sexuality correctly." They're saying, "These 12 things didn't work, but mine, No. 13, is a winner! Mine is a cream instead of a pill, a gel instead of a cream!"

There are some women who will tell you they were given a pill, or a cream, and it did help them. Are you saying they're deluded?

I'm certainly not going to say these women don't know whether they feel better or not. But I am going to say it's not the first and only way to go.

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