For centuries there were no really effective aphrodisiacs. Well, I suppose there still aren’t, in the sense of some sort of Spanish Fly that will get someone all hot and bothered. But . . . for the first time, there certainly are readily available, comparatively cheap, drugs to help men get it up – and by all accounts they work really well.
So . . . why are idiots in some cultures still using (completely or largely ineffective, at least as compared to Viagra) folk remedies that (inevitably, it seems) require killing some endgangered species? Can it really be worth it, for a remedy that is patently ineffective? How superstitious can one be?
Poverty? Turtle eggs are cheaper than Viagra in Mexico (if this is true, which I’m not sure)? Yes, but they don’t work, so the bang-for-buck (so to speak) equation still disfavors them vis a vis Viagra for any rational person. And poverty can hardly be the answer as to the Asian morons who are single-handedly trying to wipe out 20% of the world’s species in aid of getting a stiffy, it seems – rhino horn and tiger spleen and bear gallbladder can’t possibly be cheaper than a $3 Indian knockoff sildenafil tab.
You should be just as pissed at the idiot feminist groups who are opposing the ad that is trying to discourage the use of the endangered species.
Hey feminists - if you support women’s rights, then why aren’t you supporting the rights of all the turtle women whose eggs are being stolen by poachers?
Unless someone has crossbred turtles and humans when I wasn’t looking, human females = women; female turtles = animals. Human females seldom lay eggs.
My guess is, because it’s traditional. There are large numbers of people whose brain turns off when it comes to tradition. I doubt the people who still use these “remedies” even try to compare their effectiveness with Viagra.
A) Because people are idiots who will buy any old crap in search of the big O.
B) Viagra is not an afrodesiac, and hence doesn’t address issues related to libido. Clinically, there’s still an unmet need in that department, so John Q. Idiot has no reason to abandon reason A.
If people are crazy enough to snort powdered rhino horn, they’d be crazy enough to keep snorting powdered rhino horn even if something more effective came along. Then, when they ran out because the rhinos have been wiped out, they’d switch to the new stuff, and tell all their friends, “Well, this is okay, I guess, but it’s not as good as that powdered rhino horn. Now, that was some good shit…”
If people are crazy enough to take some pill made of strange artificial chemicals… It’s all what you know, man.
And hey, maybe the guys there find the turtle eggs to work! Or at least work well enough to get them to go back for another try. I mean, if there was anything that should be susceptible to placebo effectiveness, I’d think that libido’d be right at the top of the charts.
I think an afrodesiac could be a great plot element in the next blaxploitation flick. But, I digress.
Alcohol (inhibition depressor) plus Viagra would seem to be a pretty good approximation of an effective aphrodesiac. Certainly better than turtle egg, I would wager.
Also, can’t testosterone be used in some cases to bolster male and female libido to the extent that it is found to be flagging due to androgen insufficiency?
Yeah, in Panama turtle eggs would be a lot cheaper in rural areas. You probably couldn’t even get Viagra in a lot of the small villages. I don’t think you have any idea of what the equation is like in a lot of the third world.
As has been said, the placebo effect is probably strong enough to keep guys buying the eggs. If you think you can go longer, then you may well be able to go longer. And as has also been said, Viagra is not an aphrodesiac. It doesn’t make you want to do it, it just helps you keep it up.
When you consider the fact there are peoples in (the more developed nation of) South Africa who believe if you rape an virgin child or infant you’ll never get AIDS, the concerns about tutle eggs and rhino horns are brought into an entirely different light.
How are we so sure that turtle eggs don’t work? The power of placebos is widely documented, and a large percentage of sexual disfunction is “in the head.” I’d imagine eating something you believe makes you in to a big stud would go a long ways towards helping it. Until viagra, turtle eggs really were the best thing you could get.
That said, medicine has a different role in the third world. Most of it is dispensed over the counter in generic and often unnamed form by people with minimal to no training. It can be just as hit-or-miss as traditional medice, but has the disadvantage of being very expensive. Many people in developing countries consider medication to be something to use only in really clear situations where there are clear and well known answers- like antibiotics for infections. Managing chronic conditions with daily medication is almost unheard of.
We must also consider that food has different meanings in other places than it does here. Just like we think of coffee as breakfast food, grilled cheese sandwiches as kids food and ramen as college-student food, people in other countries have their own arbitrary classifications. In Mexico there is an elaborate system of “cold” and “hot” foods. In China, the names, shapes and textures of food combine to give it meaning- like long “long life” noodles. We can’t really appriciate the full meanings that these aphrodesiac foods have and it will take a long time for these foods not to have these connotations.
Finally, I’d like to point out that the main market for rhino horns is not as an aphrodesiac, but as traditional coming-of-age knife handles in Yemen.
Uh, I don’t think so. I have only ever heard of these things described as increasing “potency” or “libido” or “curing impotence.” We aren’t talking about Internet “penis enlargement” spam here, as far as I can tell.
This doesn’t involve aphrodesiacs, but in a less visible way Americans also seem willing to push certain species toward extinction by using them in dubious herbal remedies.
Cases in point - ginseng and goldenseal, both disappearing from their natural habitats due to overharvesting.