The Banal Beginnings of the Button Buzzer
October 20, 2007 by Sara Ost
Filed under Medical History, Misc., Sex, Sexbolt Saturday
The first take-home vibrator and the fifth electrical appliance ever available (it beat the iron). In the first two decades of the 20th century there were more vibrators in homes than toasters.
Sometimes, alliteration just feels so, so right. Kinda like a vibrator! Today at the ‘bolt, we explore the origins of this stimulating sex toy. Are you ready? Are you sure? Because it will only take 2 minutes.
The vibrator may be the subject of titillating conversation and controversy, but in fact it has a rather stuffy medical history. Slate details Lil Buzzy’s origins in a fascinating slide show. An excerpt:
“The use of vulvular massage as a therapy for ‘hysterical’ patients dates back to Hippocrates. During the 19th century, it caught on as a treatment for the rampantly diagnosed afflictions hysteria and neurasthenia. The doctor of Alice James, the sickly sister of the famous Henry and William, probably brought her routinely to ‘hysterical paroxysm.’
The treatment wasn’t generally thought of as sexual, but rather as ho-hum therapy. Not surprisingly, it was a cash cow for the medical profession. Women had to return week after week, year after year. But doing it by hand was exhausting, tedious work; some women had to be massaged for an hour before they reached paroxysm.
Thus, entrepreneurial doctors experimented with mechanizing the process.”
Unfortunately, men did not enjoy the same medical care. In fact, masturbatory urges and nocturnal emissions were considered so improper, the medical profession invented various uncomfortable – sometimes painful – devices to prevent the dreaded “spermatorrhea”.
To learn about the evolution of the vibrator from sterile to sexy, peep this slideshow.
(Photo from Good Vibrations via Slate)
