Contemporary social theorists emphasise the cultural quest for authenticity under conditions of increasing artificiality. Within this context, the body is commonly treated as an 'unfinished' surface requiring ongoing transformation to fulfil identity obligations. In this paper, we examine one such identity authentication project in the form of marketing of men's sexuopharmaceuticals. We use online pharmaceutical advertising for four approved sexuopharmaceuticals (Viagra, Cialis, STAXYN and Stendra) to describe the ideal neoliberal consumer. These campaigns underscore the robust role of pharmaceuticals in sexual authentication projects undergirded by neoliberal consumerist and aspirationalist ideals. Penile dependability as a luxury consumerist project reinvigorates traditional sexual (masculine) authentication as yoked to phallic control, by repackaging sexual enhancement medication use as a neoliberal beacon of aspirational achievements. The ideal targeted user is increasingly younger, and consumption of sexuopharmaceuticals is represented as achieving elite status and exclusive pleasures; masculine authenticity and choice; progressive relationships and a contemporary urban, fast-paced life; and a prepared yet spontaneous romantic sexuality. Women are also increasingly used in promotional materials directed at men; their responsibility centres on coaching and coaxing potential users.

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This study focuses on popularized representations of sexual enhancement medication (SEM) use. Relying on online forums, a discourse analytic approach (i.e., treating talk as action and as identity practice; Wetherell & Edley, 2014) examines how these portrayals are positioned within dominant discourses about male sexuality and masculinity. Intending to examine both SEM user testimonials and health expert advice about recreational SEM use, we found that men who have sex with men (MSM) user narratives were virtually nonexistent; only men who have sex with women (MSW) user narratives were locatable. SEM experiences of MSM are consistently filtered through health advocacy warnings about risks, in both mainstream and queer sites. Two prominent discourses emerged: SEM among MSW—legitimacy, heteronormativity, and relationship preservation and SEM among MSM—recreation, risk, and excess. The skewed representation of SEM used by MSM in empirical literature and sexual health advice and the omission of MSM from mainstream marketing, is shaping health discourses that link recreational uses of these drugs with gay men and risky sexual behavior (Wentzell, 2011). This reflects a broader cultural rhetoric that associates the sexuality of MSM with sexual health risks and concurrent illicit drug use.

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