Medicalized virilism under scrutiny. Expert knowledge on male sexual health in Italy.

The “Viagra phenomenon” is a global case of the construction of masculinity through medicalized practices led by an alliance of specialized physicians’ expert discourses and multinational pharmaceutical companies’ marketing strategies. International literature has argued that the association between men’s health and sexual potency produces a new public discourse on masculinity, with the construction of a medicalized virilism. This notion of male sexuality, however, can mirror different understandings of masculinity and sexual scripts, producing and reshaping patterns of gender and sexual relations embedded in specific cultural scenarios. The analysis of discourses and practices regarding drugs enhancing male sexuality offers us an unprecedented opportunity to explore the local impact of the global construction of masculinity. In Italy, since direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs is not allowed, insistent social campaigns have been promoted by professional associations of physicians, often supported by both institutional bodies and pharmaceutical companies. We will first show how these campaigns construct through discourses both the masculinity to be fixed and new forms of medical expertise. Further research directions will also be discussed, focussing on how the social actors involved, in making sense of their various experience as experts and patients/consumers, reproduce, negotiate and challenge medical frames.