PT-141 and Porn

That little blue pill is more than the favorite punchline of has-been comedians.

Viagra, and the drugs that came after it (see what I did there? Anyone?), hit porn in two ways. The first, and most commented on, is that it ended the dominance of natural talent among male performers. Looking like one of the minor species in the Star Wars universe but commanding a meat-saber which never failed to power-up was no longer enough to stay on top. There will never be another Ron Jeremy.

It leveled the playing-field - women have always been able to fake sexual arousal - now men could too. Finally work could go to men who couldn’t, like Ron Jeremy, time their orgasm to a specific second (”I’ll come in ten seconds!” says Ron and then he does. The man’s a leg-end).

The second effect was an expansion of the audience for porn. As a product that’s not generally consumed by the impotent, Viagra gave a generation of men who had been forcibly retired from sex-for-fun a new lease of life (American readers can mentally insert ‘new lease on life’ in place of the last phrase. Just sounds wrong to me and hell - it’s English and so am I damnit.)

In the coming years (oh yeah, it’s all gold people) the market for the kind of material men over 50 remember being turned on in their youth is bound to explode (or dribble out aided by a few firm shakes). Softer bodies, lots more pubic hair and teasing will inevita-bly make a comeback (RIMSHOT, smile - “…and on with the show.”)

The problem is that contrary to the desire of Pfizer, Viagra can’t be proved to work on women and doesn’t work for thousands of men. Worse still, it’s a drug that creates er-rections without doing anything to your state of mind.

Enter PT-141.

PT-141 is a nasal spray that’ll likely be available as a cure for erectile disfunction (Dickus Redundantus to use the formal latin term) within three years. Unlike current sex drugs PT-141 works on the brain, not the circulatory system, and in trials makes female rats horny enough to mount males (which isn’t normal behavior - for rodents anyway). The trials on rats focused on female rats flirtation, not simply male rats erection’s. An erection doesn’t tell you anything about the owner’s state of mind. Flirtation does. PT-141 seems to make men and women feel and act, sexy.

(NB. I fear a deluge of ‘Viagra works for me’ email from angry women so allow me to clarify. Viagra doesn’t cause arousal in women when compared with a placebo accord-ing to every trial that’s been done. If it did Pfizer would have a pale pink box on the shelves before the first horny chimp they dosed reached orgasm. There’s plenty of an-ecdotal evidence for the efficacy of Viagra for women but - there’s anecdotal evidence for everything so shut up.)

If tests continue to support current findings PT-141 could be as significant as ‘The Pill’. Women (and men) who inhale the colorless, odorless spray (whose capability is unaf-fected by food and alcohol) will be able to switch their lusts on and off. We’ll be able to decide that we’re going to have sex and then create the desire, erection, lubrication etc. on command.

I wonder if they can blend this stuff into aftershave…

For porn this means a couple of things. Firstly female performers might be able to use the drug to make their job less about faking it and more about enjoying it. Though it’s unlikely to bring women into paid sex-work it could extend the careers, and greatly im-prove the general level of happiness, experienced by women who have to struggle through sex with men they dislike, in uncomfortable situations, for directors who think they’re puppeteers.

It could probably be abused too. If horny people are generally more willing to push the envelope (I’ve got my hand up - to about the elbow actually) there’s a chance it’ll be used to encourage situations that normally performers would object to. Of course in those cases what’s happening is a simple assault perpetrated by someone who’d un-doubtedly be a criminal without the aid of advanced pharmacology.

A bigger change is likely to happen in the world of porn consumption. When non-orgasmic women begin to experience the full range of sexual pleasure thanks to ‘Pete’ - I’ve decided that’s PT-141’s ’street name’, use it as you will - there’s bound to be an in-crease in the numbers of women paying for porn (drugs aren’t the only answer but I can only be in so many places at once ladies). Older, post-menopausal, women will begin to invest in sexual entertainment, and couples, finally able to be horny at the same time whenever they want to be, will contribute to a growing audience for quality ‘couples porn’ - which is currently as appealing as a smooth-jazz Tygers of Pan Tang covers band.

So does desire, available via a nozzle, represent sexual utopia or something darker? Would you take Pete and if so, how much would you be prepared to pay?

(All execs of Palatin Technologies, the company with PT-141 under development, con-sider this blogger a willing human Guinea-pig)