Pink Pills

Big Pharma, Women and the Labour of Love by Thea Cacchioni is a timely and acutely disappointing book that makes some excellent side points.

Cacchioni, a sociologist at the University of Victoria, begins with an important question: is human sexuality being reduced to a medical problem by “disease mongers” who want to peddle expensive pills? She takes a refreshingly skeptical approach to Big Pharma’s claims about the millions of women who are said to suffer from sexual dysfunction. Unfortunately, the book is really a political tract that builds on shoddy research and the flawed ideology of gender feminism.

The Food and Drug Administration in the United States has just approved “Pink Viagra,” which is the main focus of Cacchioni’s book. From now on a pill for women will sit on pharmacy shelves beside the estimated 26 different pills available to men with erectile dysfunction.

The timing is good for pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer’s patent...