Taste of Honey or Bitter Pill: Bleeding Edge Aphrodisiacs Raise Serious Social, Sexual Concerns
What’ll happen when arousal–consensual or not–comes in a bottle?
For many people, the idea of food, prescribed medicine, or illicit drugs capable of supercharging sexual arousal remains—despite evidence to the contrary—a surprisingly persistent personal and even a cultural erotic fantasy.
But what if this dream of a genuine bone-fide aphrodisiac becomes an undeniable fact, and more importantly, are we as prepared for how it might–positively or negatively—alter human sexuality as well as society as a whole?
One makes you larger; one makes you small
Before looking forward, let’s review what we know—which isn’t much—about aphrodisiacs, including what they are and what they aren’t.
For example, while researchers have documented a variety of inhibition lowering, or, in some cases, minor sexual desire-increasing compounds like yohimbine, cannabis, testosterone, and alcohol, no one’s found or successfully produced what most would consider a true aphrodisiac.
The truth is that when they seem to work, they actually don’t. As WebMD puts it, “Research shows that when it comes to aphrodisiacs, it’s mostly in our heads—they work if we think they will.”
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But what about pheromones? You know, those chemicals our bodies supposedly secrete when sufficiently aroused and when smelled by others turn us on as well.
Though perfume manufacturers would like you to believe otherwise, the scientific community remains skeptical, as this Science article says, “Researchers have shown that human sweat, when dabbed on a woman’s upper lip, can synchronize menstrual cycles, but they have not isolated the compound responsible, and no one has chemically identified pheromones in humans.”
Besides, even if we somehow could produce sex pheromones, we still lack the biology to detect them, i.e., a vomeronasal organ, which explains why many of our fellow mammals get aroused by them, but we can’t.
Purple pills
That said, today’s persistent myth may soon be tomorrow’s reality, compliments of genetic engineering used to formulate extremely effective, person-specific medications.
While maybe not satisfying our fantasies of a one-size-fits-all love drug, these could be ideal for those with libido-decreasing illnesses or performance-affecting emotional concerns.
Given enough time, we might eventually know enough about how human sexuality physiologically functions to produce something akin to a universal aphrodisiac.
Want a new drug?
A potential breakthrough that would undoubtedly put many smiles on an equal number of faces begs the question: Will we—personally and as a global society—be ready for it?
Imagine the nightmarish impact date-rape drugs like Rohypnol have already caused, with the added horror of victims being unable to control their sexual responses.
Plus, unlike Rohypnol, state-of-the-art libido enhancers would leave their memories intact. Unless, of course, things get much worse by combining the two into one monstrous cocktail.
In the sky with diamonds
An upside to this upsetting scenario may come through the development of a counter-agent, less a libido suppressant than a preventative, that would chemically block next-gen aphrodisiacs from driving us non-consensually wild.
In a similar vein, we might give ourselves a set of physical or mental triggers, letting us activate or deactivate a host of desire-boosting drugs by thinking particularly sexy thoughts or tapping an implanted control.
Tie these technologies into virtual or augmented reality, perhaps moderated or supplemented by AI, and tomorrow’s adult entertainment wouldn’t need to be hyper-realistic to drive us wild.
Do the same with artificial companions, like fitting them with desire-raising synthetic sweat glands or semi-organic components, and they would look, feel, taste, and smell as good if not better than a flesh-and-blood lover.
Also, consider not how but what tomorrow’s arousal-stimulating drugs may or may not affect, especially in light of how human sexuality isn’t currently or is likely to ever be easily defined.
From a person’s orientation to their gender expression, fetishes to objectum sexuality, asexuals to allosexuals, we’ll probably never be able to create anything with the capacity to permanently or temporarily modify everything we are or will be.
Which we all should agree is a good thing, for though choosing when and how we’re aroused may reveal exciting new vistas of sexual exploration and discovery, we must always ensure the control rests in our hands and no one else’s.
Image Sources: Depositphotos
