The Shocking Truth Behind the Great Vibrator Myth That Nobody Told You
“…we could find no evidence that physicians ever used electromechanical vibrators to induce orgasms in female patients as a medical treatment. We examined every source that Maines cites in support of her core claim. None of these sources actually do so…Maines provides remarkably few citations in support of them, instead padding her argument with a mass of tangential citations that obscure the lack of support for the core argument. But none of the sources she cites even suggest what she is arguing, at least not to a reader who is not already convinced that these practices occurred.”
But before we dive into Lieberman and Schatzberg’s thorough debunking of Maines’s conclusions, it is worth noting that one fundamental pillar of her argument is largely accurate. For thousands of years, physicians did indeed recognize an affliction called female hysteria. However, the definition and purported causes of this disorder have varied widely over the centuries. The term itself derives from the Greek hystera, meaning “uterus” or “womb”, and was originally associated with the ancient concept of the “wandering womb”. This is exactly what it sounds like: the belief that the uterus can randomly wander around a woman’s body, putting pressure on various internal organs and causing all manner of health problems. This concept dates to at least the 5th century B.C.E., first appearing in the writings of Ancient Greek physicians Hippocrates of Kos and Artaeus of Cappadocia. However, at this time the term hysteria was not yet used, nor was the “wandering womb” theory universally accepted. Indeed, 3rd Century C.E. Roman physician Claudius Galen attributed the condition to the buildup of so-called “female seed”, which grew sour and poisonous unless regularly expelled via sexual intercourse. Unwed women and widows were thought particularly vulnerable. Early treatments for female hysteria included – naturally – marriage, as well as burning sweet or foul-smelling herbs to draw or push the uterus back to its natural position once again proving that humans are stupid.
Following a brief period in the Middle Ages when hysteria was largely attributed to demonic possession, because sure, why not, the wandering womb theory came back into vogue in the 16th century, along with a variation on the ancient theory of humorism. This held that all diseases were caused by an imbalance of four vital fluids or humours: black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. As in the classical era, the most commonly-prescribed treatment for a wandering or congested womb remained marriage and regular sexual intercourse with the sufferer’s husband.
By the 18th and 19th centuries, however, the wandering womb theory had finally been abandoned in favour of more “scientific” explanations. For example, German physician Anton Mesmer, a pioneer of hypnosis and the source of the term “mesmerize”, believed that hysteria was caused by a build-up of a type of energy he called “animal magnetism”, and that this energy could be redirected using magnets or electrically-charged metal rods. Meanwhile, French physician Joseph Raulin believed hysteria to be a “vaporous ailment” caused by air pollution in crowded urban areas. This was in keeping with contemporary miasma theory, which held that many diseases were caused by breathing in poisonous vapours or miasmas. Indeed, the term malaria literally translates as “bad air”, reflecting the belief that this disease was caused by poisonous vapours emanating from swamps and marshes. Interestingly, Raulin, along with many of his contemporaries, believed that both men and women could suffer from hysteria but that women, being constitutionally weaker and lazier, were far more susceptible… The past everybody.
By this time, the diagnosis of hysteria had grown to encompass a dizzying variety of ailments, with French physician François Bossier de Sauvages de Lacroix listing among the possible symptoms:
“…a swollen abdomen, suffocating angina [chest pain] or dyspnea [shortness of breath], dysphagia [difficulty swallowing], […] cold extremities, tears and laughter, oscitation [yawning], pandiculation [stretching and yawning], delirium, a close and driving pulse, and abundant and clear urine.”
In the mid-19th century, hysteria came to be seen as more of a neurological or psychological disorder than a physiological one. French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot characterized hysteria as a form of epilepsy and in the 1870s conducted extensive studies on hysteric patients at the Pitié-Salpêtrière charity hospital in Paris, capturing the various physical symptoms of the disorder in a series of widely-published photographs. He also developed various hypnotic methods for treating hysteria, based on the earlier work of Anton Mesmer. Others, however, took a decidedly more chauvinistic view of the disorder, with Harvard medical professor Edward Hammond Clarke claiming in his 1875 treatise Sex in Education that modern food, clothing, and education drew energy away from women’s reproductive organs, inflicting all manner of ailments. Clarke argued that women be barred from higher education, lest it lead to, to quote, “…physiological disasters [such as]…nervous collapse and sterility.” …
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