The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction

This book is PACKED with politics and fascinating tidbits about the long history of the vibrator. I think it is less accessible than some of the other books in the genre, mostly because it reads very much like a thesis or dissertation, but it is impeccably referenced and does have some humor thrown in. The excuses that the medical establishment came up with for what was essentially orgasm as catch-all therapy are very amusing and horrifying all at the same time. Thankfully technology can finally (at least mostly) openly cater to what these devices are actually being used for. Long live the vibrator!

Rachel Maines, historian of textiles, kept finding advertisements for vibrators in mail-order catalogues and needlepoint magazines from the Victorian era through WWII. She was surprised enough to take a detour from her needlework research and discovered that these were, in fact, forerunners of today's vibrators, although as time went on their purpose was increasingly disguised as "massage" tools.

When she traced the records of medical journals, patents, and other documents, she discovered the role of the water massage and the electromechanical in the efficient treatment of the Victorian-era diagnosis of hysteria (i.e. womb craziness). This sketch of the technology and culture is a fascinating entrée into the medicalization of normal show more femininity and does it with a trenchant levity. For my money, she could have written twice as much and included examples of the historical documents in an appendix.

Highly recommended. show less

Can't recommend highly enough. As Z. says, Americans think that if anything is doing, it's worth doing with power tools.

WERE YOU AWARE: That hysteria means "womb disease?" That"Susan B Anthony is said to have regarded male behavior at sports events as evidence that men were too emotional to be allowed to vote?" Or perhaps that "What is really remarkable about Western history in this context is that the medical norm of penetration to male orgasm as the ultimate sexual thrill for both men and women has survived an indefinite number of individual and collective observations suggesting that for most women this pattern is simply not the case?"WERE YOU AWARE? With The Technology of Orgasm, you will be.

"I've actually never had a girl fake an orgasm with me" I say to her, as I shoot imploring yet insecure looks around the pub, trying to hide my trembling lower lip under the frothing and foamy head of my third pint, my teeth audibly chattering against the glass.

This well researched little gem soon makes it apparent with its discussion of such things as devices for treating sexual frustration in medeaval nuns, the development of steam powered and clockwork vibrators only to be soon replaced by electric ones before for example the vaccum cleaner. or the frustrations of Doctors such as Freud with poor vaginal massage techiques ( they passed the job on to midwives) that until some time in the mid fifties. earth was inhabited not by people but by beings much stranger.