          |
More than AverageWilliam Lee As technology steps into the age of plastic surgery and designer bodies, the appeal of the manufactured human rapidly approaches reality. But this option of becoming the perfect human, or more realistically, the above average human raises the question of what is considered to be average? Where does the notion of a perfect human come from? Both males and females struggle with their perceptions of the perfect man and woman. As portrayed in Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty, modern beauty is transforming into an artificial product as the commercial industry manipulates media to build up an imaginary standard. (1) They explore this idea by showing the painstaking process of the makeup and the airbrushing that goes into a simple ad. This machine-altered image, utilizing human models, promotes a disparity between the audience's perception of what is average and what is not. This same disconnect with reality manifests itself in many ways causing quite a few individuals to ponder if they “measure up” to manufactured expectations. To put it bluntly, some men have found themselves lacking in either length or girth when it comes to their penis size. In response to these perceived standards, possibly promoted by the companies that supply the solution, thousands of online websites, emails, and a significant amount of night time TV commercial space have been dedicated to the marketing of penis enhancement. There are many solutions available to men who feel that their penis size is smaller than average. The range of solutions goes from supplements to surgery to straight mechanical substitution. One could almost say that men are finding themselves more able to replace one aspect of their body than ever before. Some solutions, such as Viagra and prosthetic penises, are seen as fixes or repairs to a damaged portion of a man's body, restoring a faulty or broken function. Chris Gray labels these individuals as “retro-cyborgs” (2), cyborgs that utilize technology to regain a normal function with artificial help. As more people use products that manipulate their body, the idea of technological replacement will no doubt grow more appealing as the years go by. This change can be seen by the increasing amount of Viagra that is distributed every year, the phalloplasty surgeries take place and even the opinions expressed over the modification of human bodies. Extenze is a company that sells dietary supplements that guarantee the growth of penis length and girth over a 3-4 month period after taking their pill. As marketed by their website, “It's up to you how large you want your penis to become”. (3) However, there are boundaries to how much a supplemental pill can assist growth. To grasp its limits, one should understand how Extenze works. Extenze's explanation for how their product works is much like Viagra, their special combination of traditional medicine like horny goat weed and Yohimbe bark helps to stimulate the blood flow within the penis. Since the size of an erection is based on the blood vessels, the more blood that is pumped to the penis the larger it becomes. Extenze has a tendency to promote their product through propaganda as opposed to hard evidence. The infomercial of their product is hosted by a beautiful woman who engages the stereotypical myths about how penis size is related to pleasure and well being. Yet as for honest scientific proof, their clinical test tops out at a whole 20 participants, some of whom have testimonials like “I lost 44 pounds and can't stop making love!” (4). Yet, given the bad acting, the clichˇ doctor endorsements and the emphatic testimonials, the Food & Drug Association has yet to certify their product. Beyond the testimonials and the very small portion group of testers, Extenze has yet to bring any significant scientific research to reinforce their claims. In fact, Extenze has been sued by the Orange County office of California for false advertising; they could not guarantee their 27% penis enhancement claim. (5) While Extenze is not the only supplemental pill in their market, they are certainly a model for the majority; most reviews of penile supplements have turned up few reputable results and in some cases the pills have caused potentially fatal effects. These pills' role in the larger scheme of society is to create demand for their market by exaggerating the importance of penis size and function. It's no wonder that a certain portion of the population feels inadequate with this subliminal messaging, they create a group of people who feel the need to modify themselves to reach unrealistic goals. These deluded individuals become mental cyborgs, a group of people who aim for a machine enhanced human because they feel the need to compensate, instead of embracing their natural forms. Despite these penis myths, in most surveys women have claimed that penis size really contributes no factor to their pleasure during sex, and doctors have discovered that the vagina actually stretches to accommodate multiple penis sizes. (10) Viagra, almost the antithesis to Extenze, has been praised as very successful cure by numerous sources. Used as a treatment for a condition known as Erectile Dysfunction, Viagra helps to stimulate the penis by allowing the blood to flow. A normal erection takes place when the body produces an electrical signal which gets sent to a specific nerve, which in turn produces NO, which acts on an enzyme within the body to produce cGMP (cyclic guanosine monophosphate), which then relaxes the arteries and allows blood to flow. The general cause of erectile dysfunction is when a man is unable to produce a sufficient amount of NO to cause a noticeable reaction. In order to prevent a perpetual erection, the body naturally decomposes the cGMP by producing other chemicals; specifically within the penis the inhibitor is called PDE5. Viagra blocks the PDE5, preventing the breakdown of cGMP, which in turn allows a man to become erect because he no longer has to produce an upkeep of NO. (6) One writer sees the advent of Viagra as sort of an exploration of another idea, by utilizing Chris Gray's idea of retro-cyborgs, semi-cyborgs, and hyper-cyborgs, she respectively explores the affecting restorative areas, lifestyle changes, and the transformations beyond human. By observing a group of men during a testing trial, Potts delivers convincing quotes that detail how men both find the cure to be natural and enhancing at the same time. (7) Some men consider it the restoration of youth, retro-cyborgs, while others define it as a wholly new and more powerful experience, hyper cyborgs. One tester even claims that he is able to have unemotional sex, and he is able to arouse himself without the proper emotions of passion or lust; he develops almost a robotic detachment from a very emotional act. Men who constantly use Viagra allow it to integrate itself as part of their lifestyle and they have accordingly become semi-cyborgs, much like cochlear implants or other prosthetics, Viagra becomes a part of their character. Jelqing is a method by which a man repeatedly handles his genitalia in a certain action to promote the development of the smooth muscle within the penis, in order to lengthen it. The method takes place by making an O with ones thumb and forefinger, and then running the designated hand up and down the shaft in order to milk it. During this process heat is supplied to the genitalia in order to help stimulate the blood vessels to their maximum capacity. The idea that the body can be improved works in accordance with the mantra that natural bodies are only the foundation. Humans can modify themselves by working out, taking pills, and utilizing surgical procedures to make their bodies better. Yet, this method is still flawed due to its risk of erectile dysfunction and many other issues, as to be expected when manipulating one's own body. (8)
Fairly related to the idea of stretching and working out the smooth muscle of the penis, Phalloplastry is another procedure open to men who feel their genitalia are unsatisfactory. Phalloplastry can either be the replacement of the penis with a prosthetic, or a procedure where the penis is partially severed from the pelvic bone and a spacer is put in between the two to increase length. The European Association of Urology found that only a 37% of the men who received the ligament surgery were pleased, with an even smaller rate of 27% satisfaction amongst men with penile dysmorphic disorder. (9) For the most part these surgeries are largely cosmetic and serve to satisfy a man's mental need rather than fixing a serious medical problem. Cancer can be the cause of some penile replacement technologies, but the ligament severing obviously renders no medical benefit other than peace of mind. Dissatisfaction is almost to be expected, the average growth of the penis was only .9 to 1.3 cm, hardly enough to match these men's ideal size. Given the message that anything normal is too small for most women, some men continually strive to make their members larger. It might be a stretch to say penile enhancement is the vanguard of Cyborgization in society, but it's not completely absurd. Much akin to Gray's semi-cyborgs (2) who utilize dialysis machines to live, individuals who use alternative solutions to enhance themselves in their daily lives; they both require, some physically and some mentally, the integration of a machine or substance in their life to continue living happy full lives. Perhaps created as mental cyborgs from the beginning, through subliminal advertising, these men who use penile enhancement are certainly something outside of the spectrum of normal humanity. By denying time's toll through supplements, and rejecting the effects of aging, at least in a sexual sense, these men are becoming more cyborgian every day. By increasing their penis length to fantastic new lengths these men have become hyper cyborgs, distancing their bodies from normal society by striving for artificial standards. Perhaps the most stunning part is that most men are now even semi-cyborgs, living in a society where advertising mentally changes us into believing the inferiority of the natural body. Bibliography
1. Dove Commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U
|
