Everyone loves a good origin story, but there are few as controversial or as interesting as that of your nightstand FWB – the trusty vibrator!
According to a deep-dive posted on All That’s Interesting, vibrators have a rich history dating back to the Victorian era. Apparently, “female hysteria” was a problem at the time, a broad term that seemed to include basically anything that wasn’t following the social norms of what was expected from females at the time.
Since troublesome women seemed to be quite a disruptive force in the fabric of society (LOL), various medical professionals came up with the idea of treating such an issue with a phenomenon called “hysterical paroxysm.” Or for the low brow among us – an orgasm.
Apparently, dating back to the waaaay early days of Greek philosophers, “hysteria” in females was considered to originate in the womb. Cool, cool. So clearly the answer to the problem was also somewhere down there, no? Enter the idea of the “pelvic massage” to help relieve all that womanly nonsense.
Now, originally, this was done the old fashioned way, but new times call for new tech!
According to the post, the first machine created to induce “hysterical paoxysm” was known as “The Manipulator” (oddly coinciding with the name you probably gave your first shitty boyfriend), which was a table featuring a vibrating sphere that ladies could sit on. Eventually, these machines became smaller and easier to cart around, becoming the forefathers of the vibrators of today.
Luckily, as time went on and viewpoints toward women became a little more reasonable, the concept of female hysteria was thrown out, but the vibrators were not (whee!).
So now along with the vote, women also get to induce their own “hysterical paroxysm” (ha) from the comfort of their own homes – without a prescription or cumbersome Victorian technology.