yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Birth of the Vibrator | Original Sin: Sex


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

[Music] From the turn of the 20th century, sex has been literally electrified by technology. One of the first five electric gadgets, besides the sewing machine, fan, toaster, and tea kettle, was a plug-in sexual stimulator. The vibrator was a cure-all for a series of mysterious complaints collectively called hysteria that plagued Victorian era women.

Any woman who was experiencing stress, any woman frankly who was violating Victorian gender norms, who was too uppity, who was too confident, who was dissatisfied with her husband, she would very likely be diagnosed as hysterical. There was a sort of a philosophy of medicine that hysteria emanated from a block in women's sex organs. These physicians would actually manually stimulate the women.

Crazy initially, the procedure called for a doctor to massage the clitoris to the point of orgasm, thereby relieving the built-up pressure thought to cause hysteria. It was not considered fallacious in any way; it was considered completely modern, fine to the Victorian medicine and the treatment of hysteria. If the doctor did that today, he or she should be arrested and escorted away immediately.

It was so impossible for these Victorian physicians to imagine that women were sexual, that they had a sex drive. But the treatment fails if the doctor doesn't have the right touch or stamina. I actually think the doctors probably weren't that good at bringing women to orgasm. When they were helping women come to orgasm, their hands got tired, like a lot of manual tasks that are difficult and possibly onerous.

It was mechanized, and so was born the vibrator. One early version was a tabletop model designed for the doctor's office and powered by a steam engine. Then, in 1902, Hamilton Beach introduced the first personal vibrator, just the fifth domestic appliance to be electrified. [Music]

More Articles

View All
Pain in the Crevasse | Continent 7: Antarctica
Okay team, let Mark the shear zone, so come on nice and close behind us. Thank you. The RAS shelf team has traveled about 30 miles, and they’re facing the most dangerous part of their traverse. Oh, we’re just about to enter into the shear zone here. We j…
Safari Live - Day 292 | National Geographic
This program welcomes you to this afternoon’s sunset Safari, where we have just caught up with their little chief himself who seems to be after something. No, it’s just after a different shady spot. A very good afternoon to you! My name is Jamie, and thi…
Mohnish Pabrai: How to Invest in an Overvalued Market (2021)
I never focus on what is happening in markets and, uh, you know, macro events and all of that. I think at the end of the day what matters is how does a particular business do over a long period of time. I think the important thing in investing is can I te…
You Didn’t Know Mushrooms Could Do All This | National Geographic
There are so many things you can do with fungi, and this is what keeps us up at night. Fungi for food, medicine, textiles, fiber, packaging materials, even biofuel. Fungi just have this potential to unlock biological material that’s a waste product in our…
How to lose all your friends in life
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Damn, I have way too many friends. I am so popular; I need to start getting rid of people.” Well, in this tutorial, I’m going to teach you how to make everybody you know and love slowly drift away from you over the cour…
LearnStorm Growth Mindset: The Truth About Your Brain
So this is your brain. Say hi! Okay, it’s a representation of your brain. Brains don’t have hands; they have lobes and other structures, which we’ll get to. But I want to talk to you about your brain. You see, your brain is capable of incredible things. …