The technology of orgasm : "hysteria," the vibrator, and women's sexual satisfaction

Winner of the Herbert Feis Prize from the American Historical Association Winner of the AFGAGMAS Biennial Book AwardWinner of the Science Award from the American Foundation for Gender and Genital Medicine From the time of Hippocrates until the 1920s, massaging female patients to orgasm was a staple of medical practice among Western physicians in the treatment of "hysteria," an ailment once considered both common and chronic in women. Doctors loathed this time-consuming procedure and for centuries relied on midwives. Later, they substituted the efficiency of mechanical devices, including the electric vibrator, invented in the 1880s. In The Technology of Orgasm, Rachel Maines offers readers a stimulating, surprising, and often humorous account of hysteria and its treatment throughout the ages, focusing on the development, use, and fall into disrepute of the vibrator as a legitimate medical device.… (more)

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LibraryThing member SimonW11

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.

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LibraryThing member chellerystick

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 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.

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LibraryThing member damsorrow

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.

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