Men and Identity

Page 59. He is some kind of cultural ideal.

Lederer, The Fear of Women . Zilbergeld, in Male Sexuality , debunks the stereotypes and expectations that surround male sexuality, and suggests a more down-to-earth model of sexuality for men and women to build on.

Page 60. A woman was seen as a passive receptacle.

From antiquity until the eighteenth century, women's bodies

were viewed as an inferior and inverted version of the male body (Laqueur, "Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive Biology," pp. 2–3). In some societies, the woman is viewed as having sole responsibility for fertility, and infertility is grounds for divorce. See Marcia Inhorn, Infertility and Patriarchy; Quest for Conception .

Page 61. The idea of male dominance.

Kimmel, "The Contemporary 'Crisis' of Masculinity," p. 122. Page 61. A man's penis is at the center of his masculinity.

Monick, Phallos .

Page 61. Central to his sense of self.

See Zilbergeld, Male Sexuality ; and Tiefer, "In Search of the Perfect Penis," for discussions of male sexuality.

Page 62. Men equate virility with potency.

In Artificial Reproduction , Snowdon and his colleagues suggest that men's inability to distinguish potency from fertility appears to place masculine self-esteem at greater jeopardy than infertility does for women. In interviews with sixty-six couples in England who underwent artificial insemination by donor, they found that the stigma attached to male infertility was viewed as much greater than that attached to female infertility.

Page 63. A man undergoes a complex emotional response.

Infertility, in general, has been discussed in terms of a stagelike response, similar to the adjustment process people go through for other life crises (see Menning, Infertility ).

Page 65. They're not that straightforward.

Sperm have several major characteristics: their quantity, their motility, or ability to move toward the egg, their morphology—whether they are constructed in a certain way—and their ability to penetrate. Each of these characteristics is important to the viability of sperm. See Nachtigall and Mehren, Overcoming Infertility .

Page 66. There is little effective treatment for male infertility.

There is treatment for male infertility, including surgery and drug therapy, but success rates remain low. This field, medically termed "andrology," is growing, however, with concomitant increases in knowledge and treatment of male infertility. Some

treatment modalities for male infertility are carried out on the female partner, such as artificial insemination by donor (DI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF), with varying rates of success. See Nachtigall and Mehren, Overcoming Infertility .