How Vibrators Kept Women Sane
Ξ October 23rd, 2008 | → | ∇ Sextoys Articles |
An illness existed for a long time, since the time of the ancient Greeks, but can no longer be found. Only women were susceptible to this sickness and it eventually got a very unusual treatment. This illness was known as Hysteria. But why did only women suffer from it? What was the connection between Hysteria and vibrators? Why are women no longer diagnosed with this disease?
To begin to answer all these questions you should know the origins of the word ‘hysteria’, it stems from the ancient Greek word ‘hystera’, meaning uterus.
Unfortunately for the uterus it has had a long, and unhappy history, some in the medical field thought that it would reach out into the rest of the body, causing sickness and disease. Others thought it made women crazy if over stimulated.
But what about Hysteria? What makes this illness so special? There were a lot of mental and physical disorders that were attributed to Hysteria, all of which eventually were found to be caused by real problems. Doctors loved Hysteria as it was pretty much a catch-all for all unknown illnesses.
It all comes back to the uterus and the lack of understanding of how the female reproductive system worked. But there was a definite trend of who tended to suffer from Hysteria, this included virgins, nuns, widows and the occasional housewife. But why? What do these women have in common?
Sex, or a lack thereof. Women were considered unstable and weak and a lack of “hysterical paroxysm”, or as we tend to refer to it, orgasm, could cause them to enter a crazed state.
Since masturbation was a very terrible thing to do there were doctors who would help women who suffered from Hysteria. In order to do this they would provide women with pelvic massages, manually inducing hysterical paroxysm.
But there was one problem with this method of treatment, sometimes it could take hours to achieve the desired result. And with such a long treatment time doctors were unable to treat many patients in a day, creating a lack of income. One way doctors tried to speed things along in the mid to late 1800’s was through the use of water hoses, creating a water massage.
Then 1873 rolled around, this year marked the first use of an electromechanical vibrator. These new vibrators allowed the doctors to help Hysteria sufferers not in a matter of hours but in a matter of minutes. Doctors could help many more women in a much smaller period of time.
As technology advanced more and more people got electricity in their houses, allowing women to treat themselves in the comfort of their own home. Sears even advertised their vibrators in their 1918 catalogue where they said their vibrators were ”Very useful and satisfactory for home service.”
And so vibrators became much more common place, women could use vibrators at home, which was not masturbating, since it was all in the name of keeping them healthy and sane.
These days women would have a tough time convincing anybody they have Hysteria so they need to keep their vibrators such as bullet vibrators around. But thankfully they don’t have to.
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