A Brief History Of Vibrators

It is hard to believe that vibrators were once a taboo device—especially given their history. There aren’t many devices that were developed as legitimate medical instruments that make their way into mainstream culture, with that unfortunate pitstop in social purgatory.

But vibrators have come a long way! Many people now own these sexy tools and use them regularly. With research indicating that up to 75% of women do not orgasm without some form of clitoral stimulation, vibrators have come to be recognized as a pretty important part of sexytimes because women’s pleasure is now understood as important. Unfortunately, there was a time when it wasn’t—and those dark days encompassed centuries!

Pleasure?

In the Western World of Europe and the United States, women were deemed to not be experiencing sexual pleasure. They were just there to take the cock, elicit the orgasms and make the babies. How society got things so wrong is beyond me, but then I remember that men and religion ruled the day. Rarely has that combination produced good results.

So, for years, women’s pleasure was just not considered. But somewhere along the way, the idea of hysteria came into medical lore. Hysteria, taken from the Greek word for uterus, caused women to be anxious, irritable, nervous and with a heavy, bloated feeling in the abdomen. Oddly enough, they also described having sexual fantasies. Did I mention that masturbation had also fallen out of favour with the men and the religious types? It was not at all socially acceptable for a person to pleasure themselves into better health.

Medical intervention

Fortunately, one enterprising doctor, somewhere, started giving women genital massages to reduce their symptoms and the next thing you know hysteria diagnoses were rampant. The massage, focused on both interior and clitoral stimulation, would give a woman an orgasm and make them feel instantly better. Doctors were still not convinced women enjoyed sex so they didn’t have orgasms, they had “paroxysms.” It was really a win/win situation—women got to explore sexual pleasure and the doctors made a boat load of money off this treatment.

This all changed when Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville invented the vibrator. Women still had to go to the doctor to enjoy this treatment, but the ceiling for this invention seemed limitless. However, this new technology soon moved out of physician’s hands and began its rise to sexual prominence. People didn’t have electricity in their homes yet, but came along soon after. Finally women were able to take their own pleasure into their own hands.

It is hard to imagine shopping for a sexual product in a print catalogue, though. But as I type that, I remember shops that only offered wares via catalogue offering “personal massagers.” I always thought “sure, that’ll make your back feel great!” Really, that a vibrator was in those pages at all was a great thing. It was really hard to find sex shops to buy these devices. That they were available somewhere, despite the stigma was key.

Fortunately, those dark times are behind us. Getting a vibrator is just a few clicks away from anywhere in the world. Just touch a few buttons on your computer and then you can turn on one more for great fun.