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Socially camouflaged technologies:the case of the electromechanical vibrator
1
Abstract
The case of the electromechanical vibrator, as atechnology associated with women's sexuality, involvesissues of acceptability rather than legality.
A history of the electromechanical vibrator is presented.The electromechanical vibrator emerged in the 1880s asa medical instrument designed to mechanize massagetechniques used by physicians since antiquity. Amongthese was vulvular massage to orgasm as a treatment for
hysteria
in women. The sexual character of the therapywas
camouflaged
in medical rhetoric whichcharacterized female arousal as a pathological syndromefrom which relief was obtained in the
`hystericalparoxysm'.
(1) By Rachel Maines.
Presented by Carlos Javier Flores Saracho. March 2010
Hysteria
Hysteria
Until the seventeenth century, hysteriawas regarded as of uterine origin (fromthe Greek "hustera" = uterus) in theWestern world.
Hysteria referred to a medical condition,thought to be particular to women,caused by disturbances of the uterus.
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