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It’s no secret that vibrators were created with female sexual frustration, or ‘hysteria’ in mind. During the era of their creation, hysteria was considered a valid medical ailment that was attributed to being female. It’s common fact that doctors of the era would ‘massage’ women until a state of paroxysm (orgasm) was reached, but even this endeavor became tiresome for doctors so the vibrator was the outcome.
Coming across this gem of an article at Gizmodo, had me thinking. Imagine life without the trusty vibe? I don’t want to imagine such a thing, but I can do without the old diagnoses of hysteria and, to some extent, the tenacious grip some academics have on this concept, that was revitalized by Sigmund Freud.
The development of the vibrator is quite interesting:
Vibrators have been around longer than electricity has—the first model came out in 1734 and used a crank like some sort of hedonistic egg beater—but it took electricity to really bring them to the mainstream.
According to Dr. Maines, all vibrators are just inefficient motors. “All motors vibrate. If you make a motor that’s especially sloppy, it’ll vibrate more. That’s the principle behind the vibrator: a very sloppy motor that’s designed to vibrate.” An efficient motor, such as the one that runs your fridge, would make for a seriously crappy vibrator. But the Manipulator, which was essentially an inefficient steam engine with a dildo attached to it, did the job swimmingly. [source]
They’ve been around before electricity. Wow right there. Dr Maines may call it sloppy, but I don’t call my Lelo Nea, Iris or Gigi sloppy, if you know what I mean.
Read more interesting facts here.
Image via Gizmodo: The Manipulator (yes, that’s its name)
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love the blog! Can’t believe they’ve been around for such a long time!