So, erectile dysfunction. Ever been with a guy who can't get it up? How do you feel? Embarrassed? Frustrated? Guilty? Or maybe just miffed? Today on Nerve's Date Machine Airheadgenius posts about how as she gets older she encounters more and more men whose penises aren't getting hard, and she wonders why.

"Whilst my (Thank you God even though I am an atheist) experience with the phenomenon is very limited, it has been suggested that the root cause is stress. And it makes sense that a man approaching middle age probably has bigger and fancier stresses than a manboy of 25, but I wonder if it runs deeper even than that.
 
I wonder if in fact it's a control thing. Girls learn from the beginning of their sexual experience that making a boy c*m is like falling off a log. It really couldn't be any easier. Making a girl orgasm - especially a young not-so-sure-of-herself one - can take time and effort. Maybe men get tired of being the ones who are culturally expected to be easy. Maybe the 35+ man wants a little bit more consideration and so, consciously or not, he makes his female work that little bit harder. "

This seems dubious. It's probably biological—as men age their sperm becomes less potent, so perhaps this is nature's way of getting us gals knocked up with young, healthy swimmers.

If men did want to make women work a little harder, well, that this love buzzer thinks that would be a little effed up—sex should be about communication and closeness, not a competition to see who can get the other person to come first. But realistically, sex doesn't work that way, and there is often a power dynamic involved, especially when it, ahem, comes to coming. 

At any rate, even with Viagra and its pals, ED isn't going anywhere. Men will always occasionally have trouble getting hard. That's when you need to get creative.