B i g L o v e : Rewriting the Modern Man
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her husband, but this means that Bill’s sexual virility is being put to the test on a
daily basis. As a result, he resorts to overdosing on a Viagra-like medication
ordered over the internet. This act is both the trial and the confirmation of the
category of sexual virility as a measure of masculinity, because not only does
Bill feel pressured to perform, but he also feels shame at being forced to seek
help and thus purchases these pills from an internet source rather than seeing his
own doctor. He cannot allow anyone to know that he has “failed” the masculine
ideal, and Bill’s inability to cope with the pressure placed on sexual
performance is a physical manifestation of his endangered masculinity. The
need to perform, to please the other, validates sexual performance as a category
by which masculinity can be evaluated, but when this need cannot be met, the
failure weighs heavily on not only the man’s self-image but on his social one as
well. According to the website for the Sexual Medicine Soci