Although the proliferation of aphrodisiac across sub-saharan Africa has implications for sexual practices and masculinity, we know little about how women position themselves to negotiate male use of aphrodisiac as a strategy for illicit sexual pleasure. In this exploratory narratives of women and men in suburban Ghana, I examine how female illicit erotic agency of sexual pleasure via male use of aphrodisiac impacts dominant masculinity. I argue that in the attempt to conform to ideologies of dominant masculinity, through the use of aphrodisiacs to achieve phallic competence (ability of a man to sustain erection and to prolong a penetrative penile-vaginal sexual intercourse with a female partner), real men are subordinated in doing so, and thus encounter the costs of masculinity and female sexual desires. I argue for the need to intensify sexuality education about beliefs that associate masculinity with sexual ‘performance’ and to highlight the implications of women’s illicit agency to men’s sexuality in sub-saharan Africa.