emmanuel reynaud holy virility the social construction of masculinity

A new fear has now been added to man's fear of 'impotence',
and that is premature ejaculation: nowadays it is not enough to
have a hard-on to be a man, it must be one that is maintained for
a long time. Until recently, man did not consider rapid
ejaculation to be a serious sexual problem. As long as he could
ratify his appropriation by performing a few movements inside
the vagina, the business was done and the contract fulfilled.
Rapid ejaculation enabled him not to linger― he was sometimes
even proud of his"quickie''― it gave an undeniable advantage in
his attempts to improve the hypothetical record in the love
marathon. Moreover, his wife did not usually complain, she
could extricate herself faster, and, as for the prostitute, it suited
her wish to speed up the flow of customers. But for twenty
years or so, premature ejaculation has been put alongside
'impotence' in the ranking of serious male sexual disorders. The
sexologists have now realised that it does not enable man to
fulfil the new contract of modern heterosexuality: the woman's
orgasm.
If one listens to some of them, one might think that premature
ejaculation was a feminine problem. Masters and Johnson, for
example, give the following definition:
«The Foundation considers a man a premature ejaculator if
he cannot control hisejaculatory process for a sufficient
length of time during intravaginal containment to satisfy
his partner in at least 50 percent of their coital
connections.»
But they add:
«Ιf the female partner is persistently nonorgasmic for
reasons other than the rapidity of the male's ejaculatory
process, there is no validity to the definition.» [7]
[The myth Of the phallic orgasm / 67]
Dr Reuben provides a definition along the same lines; it is
developed by his patient Nathalie, who talks about her
relationship with Jack:
«I just don't know what to say! He tells me it's my fault but
I'm willing to do anything! I just don't know what to do. I'm
tired of crying! It doesn't do any good any more! It's the
same every time. We go to bed, Jack says he'll be great
this time. He plays with me long enough to get me all
excited. And then he goes to put it in. As soon as his organ
touches me, he comes right away. It's driving me crazy!
The worst thing is his smile! At least he can look
disappointed. It's almost as if he's doing it on purpose.»
A psychiatrist as brilliant as Dr Reuben cannot leave his patient
in such a state of shock; and, at the same time, he is going to
enlighten his millions of readers, who hope to find out once and
for all 'everything about sex':