First reaction? One looks like an old-fashioned iron perched on top of a child’s toy steam roller.
One looks like a belt sander with a detachable hair styling diffuser.
And another resembles an egg beater which could double as a vintage ink stamp.
US website The Frisky got it right when they noted that these vibrators will “frighten your vagina.” In fact, we’d go so far as to say that your vagina would prefer be smothered in Nandos’ peri-peri hot sauce before it goes anywhere near one of these fandangled contraptions.
Horny anyone? We thought not.
Thanks to the Huffington Post for these images. You can see more of that rather disturbing gallery here.
These pictures come via The Antique Vibrator Museum (yes it’s a real place that really exist exists and it’s in San Francisco if you want to take the kids on an educational excursion over the summer). This from the Huffington Post:
The Antique Vibrator Museum is designed to showcase kinky collectibles from the late 1800s to the 1970s and, in the process, the history of health and sexuality between 1890 and 1970, according to curator and sexologist Carol Queen.
“The new exhibit contextualizes the vibrator’s role in society and highlights how our attitudes around sex and female pleasure have evolved,” Queen said. “It really gives us an appreciation for how far both society and technology have come.”
Let’s just take a moment to think about the women of the 19th century for whom these belt sander-esque products were a means to an end.
Back in those days (1900s and before) “female hysteria” was a common medical diagnosis. Symptoms included faintness, irritability, nervousness and sexual desire. (These days the same thing would be called Female Sexual Dysfunction but whether that even exists is another conversation in itself.)
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If you're in Sydney you can see some of these items at the Vintage Vibrator Exhibition that is on permanent display at MaXXX Black in Newtown. they have 13 vintage vibrators going all the way back to 1890 including the blood circulator, and even a a Japanese one like it that was made from oak!
It's a great little display of vibrators covering 100 years of the technology and it's the nicest place to see them too - really beautiful womens' store.
Just read this morning:
The Male Version of 'Hysteria': 'Spermatorroea'
The disease: As the name might imply, a constant dribble of sperm.
The cause:
'overly-domesticated and unmanly lifestyle – feather beds, soft trousers, excess reading of sentimental literature, and sedentary pursuits were all cited as possible causes.'
“the vice of masturbation is undoubtedly the chief cause.”
The cure: Off to the hospital to be pleasured senseless? Oh no, no, no!
“I have had excellent results from stretching the sphincter ani,” Bartholow wrote. “The operation causes considerable pain, and may rupture the sphincter if incautiously carried too far … but it has seemed the most useful in the cases of simple spermatorroea.”
http://theconversation.edu....