The Science Behind "Whiskey Dick"
When writing this Blog piece, I researched the physiological and psychological effects of alcohol specifically on cis men and women. Also, when speaking about relationships, I tend to speak in terms of heterosexual couples. However, disparities in expectations and blame exist in all kinds of relationships, and I hope this article encourages you to speak openly with your partner, regardless of your orientation or gender.Despite common misconception, alcohol, especially when consumed in copious amounts, is not an aphrodisiac. Drinking may be a social lubricant, but science has proven it to be more of an erotic buzzkill. According to Dr. Jennifer Berman, urologist and sexual health expert, those feel-good feelings that rush into our heads contradict what’s actually going down. “Sexual curiosities and desires already exist inside your head, and when you drink they can come to the surface, because the parts of your brain which tell you ‘No that’s not a good idea’ or ‘I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that’ are shutting down.” But in reality, alcohol ingestion has largely negative effects sexually for both men and women.
There has been a lot of research on the effects of alcohol on sex, but we tend to possess little knowledge on the subject. We shrug off that dreaded moment when it “doesn’t work.” It’s embarrassing; we want to just move on. Our cohort has even disregarded the medical terminology in favor of a label that sticks: “whiskey dick.” This clever little nickname is problematic for two reasons. First, according to Medical Daily, whiskey is not more determinant than other types of alcohol when it comes to sexual performance. Ultimately, what matters is blood alcohol level: that line of demarcation predicated on how much you drink, how much you weigh, and what you’ve eaten in the past few hours. Second, the word “dick” implies a purely masculine problem. News flash: alcohol consumption also affects women’s orgasms. A basic scientific understanding can help cut through this murky discourse. For both men and women, as the amount of alcohol in the blood increases, the brain loses its ability to sense sexual stimulation. Imagine that the alcohol flowing through your body is a particularly aggressive drain, suctioning your attention from where it’s normally directed. Brown's Health Promotion website explains that “As a depressant, alcohol directly interferes with parts of the nervous system that are essential for sexual arousal and orgasm, including respiration, circulation, and sensitivity of nerve endings.” In other words, it takes us longer to understand and interpret our brain’s signals. Know that feeling when you wake up groggy and forget where you are for a minute? When you drink too much, you drench your processes in that same sense of lethargy.
What’s more, the body needs to stay hydrated in order to perform major biological activities like sex. A 2009 study in The Journal of Sexual Medicine proved that the dehydrating qualities of alcohol make sexual performance difficult to sustain. Drinking alcohol is like interacting with a well-seasoned con man. Upon first introduction, we feel great. Euphoric. Sexy. But then, as time passes, we have a hard time getting that pleasure back. Eventually, we are sucked dry. The first thing I noticed when combing through articles about whiskey dick was the bro-y language employed when connecting erectile dysfunction to alcohol. Websites like Thrillist, Esquire, and GQ have countless articles on the subject, creating an exclusionary network of dudes helping out other dudes. Articles aimed at millennials employ crass emojis like eggplants and tears-of-laughter faces. Want to know why you can’t finish? Here’s the scientific reasoning, and here’s how to make women feel bad about it. For example, in a blog aimed at fraternity members, I found a post that actually advised men to tell a woman she looked fat rather than admit he had too much to drink. These posts are meant to be evocative of guys sitting around, joking about whiskey dick over wings and beer. There might be some science behind this, but who cares? these articles scream.
But I argue the science is worth exploring. According to the Mayo Clinic, alcohol is often the culprit behind erectile dysfunction. Because alcohol can cause blood vessels to dilate (hello, flushed faces), overall flow is interrupted. For guys, this disjunction means getting hard becomes, well, really hard. Drinking also causes discoordination, jumbling the nervous system into a blinking tangle. Like I said earlier, our extremities ignore important signals from the brain when we are drunk, hence the “sloppy” feeling people often describe. This situation can be embarrassing, mildly alarming, and even funny. But the problem with “whisky dick” is the perception- as a condition in which blame can be assigned. According to Cosmopolitan, instead of accusing alcohol, “inevitably, that blame seems to fall, self-directed or otherwise, on women.” That’s why a scientific understanding is so crucial; without this knowledge, the onus is entirely on the woman in heterosexual relationships. But alcohol also affects women's orgasms- largely in the same way as men. For example, like a man’s penis, the erectile tissue in a woman’s clitoris fills with blood when aroused. This process exposes more nerve endings, rendering the area even more sensitive to touch. Picture the end of a q-tip before being placed in water; it’s small and gathered. But seconds after touching liquid, the cotton expands out, making the surface area larger and easier to touch. The role of neurological receptors is also similar for men and women. Both men and women’s brains release a host of neurochemicals that leave us relaxed and relieved of anxieties. Alcohol hinders our ability to interpret these signals, making climax much trickier to obtain. Weak neurological receptors are like the team members who arrive late to the big race. In a relay, you just can’t cross the finish line without them. Although alcohol affects men and women similarly in these ways, there are some distinctions that can make it harder for women to enjoy sex when under the influence. For example, when a woman has excess alcohol flowing through her bloodstream, she compromises control over lubrication. Vasocongestion, a word that sounds like it’s stuck in a tunnel, is the swelling of the surrounding tissues that makes the vagina more receptive to penetration. Apparently, vasocongestion decreases when we drink excessively. Too much alcohol effectively sucks that area of moisture. Yikes.
Ultimately, there is a feminist argument for a scientific understanding of the psychological and physiological effects of alcohol on one’s sex life. Failing to explore the relationship between alcohol and the female orgasm indicates that a woman’s orgasm is unimportant, a "nice bonus" but certainly not the main event. What’s more, when a man can’t achieve climax in a heterosexual relationship, women too often are consigned the blame. Emotional labor could be avoided if both partners were given the tools to sympathize with each other. And know when to call it a night. Images via, via, and via