Hysteria and the birth of the vibrator
Writing is hardly a strong point for
me even though I feel the urge. It’s usually the patience to sit for a long
time blending words (which is what writing is about by the way - nothing
spectacular), that restrains me. I admire those who have persevered to perfect
the art. The hysteria i refer to above is a movie i came across in the process
of warding off boredom, a state of mind i hate. Technically i hardly get bored
because i have successfully aggregated activities that act as boredom busters,
and they have effectively engaged me at those down times, including seeing
movies like this. And interestingly it is usually a very productive time for
me.
The modern dictionaries define
hysteria as a state of violent mental agitation; excessive or uncontrollable
fear; and in the psychiatric parlance we learnt in school, a neurotic disorder characterised
by violent emotional outbreaks and disturbances of sensory and motor function.
A layman that sees where this definition plays out will say "the person
dey craze", and the 'tush' way to describe it is that the individual is
hysterical. Now can you imagine if, when you as a woman acts hysterical now and
you are told by a doctor that it is as a result of your overactive uterus or
womb and it has to be removed. How will think of the doctor? Laughable right? But that was the
reality in the 19th century - the Victorian times, it was a way to treat hysteria.
Very interesting. Got me thinking a lot. Many things we take for granted now
were literarily breath-taking then. They caused undeserved deaths, no thanks to
the sparse but growing understanding of medicine. One can pick an argument
concerning that and win on grounds that it was safer to stay ignorant than
receive the teaching on hysteria, that a form of treatment was to make the
woman barren.
The other interesting way the
condition was treated was to (permit my vulgarity) 'finger' the woman to
submission, something called Vulvar massage, as Dr Robert Dalrymple, specialist
in women's medicine, taught Dr Joseph Mortimer Granville, his new employee, in
the movie. He taught that it was popularised in the 16th century by a doctor
who prescribed it for widows and women in religious orders, but now this was
the most direct, most effective method of treating hysteria. Before starting he
rubbed musk oil and oil of lilies on both hands, inserted his index finger
through the vulvar and applied gentle steady pressure slowly and in a circular
motion on the vagina over some minutes. Sure you can imagine the result. But it
was 'stuff' then, and when asked Dr Granville mentioned his observation of
blushing skin, shortness of breath, fluttering eyelids, vocalisation (moaning)
and twitching. These were said to be all perfectly normal involuntary and
physiologic responses to the treatment. The essence was to elicit the pain
pleasure reaction thereby inducing a hysterical paroxysm which caused the
uterus to go back to its normal shape. He also mentioned that the female organ
was incapable of experiencing pleasurable sensation whatsoever without actual
penetration of a male organ. And i was like, seriously?!!! Anyway that was the
teaching then.
Dr Mortimer was introduced to this
new art and after observing a first time it was his turn to offer the relief he
yearned for, when he mentioned earlier in the movie to his new boss that,
"i will be enormously thankful for any position that allows me to offer
relief to my patients with little chance of killing them". This was
certainly not a difficult procedure. He must have been elated to have
immediately been in the position to offer relief to sex starved menopausal
women who were misdiagnosed as being hysterical. Well, he soon developed hand
cramps after a couple of vulva massages, even leading to his sack. But he had
this friend, Lord Smythe whose family had taken care of him after he was
orphaned, and who was fascinated by inventions of the time, especially the
telephone and electricity, and he had developed this feather duster he always
played with as well.
On getting home at Smythe's house, Dr
Granville had taken this feather duster to play with and discovered it offered
tremendous and soothing relief to his crampy hand. That was the birth of what
we now know to be the vibrator. This machine had the shape of a gun with a
trigger at one end and a rotor at the other around which feathers were
arranged, and so at d pull of d trigger, the rotor spinned with the feathers
and did whateva cleaning necessary. Dr Mortimer had removed d feathers to relieve
his hand, and the smooth bodied rotor was the next thing that would provide relief
to the half population of women in London at the time who were diagnosed to be
hysterical. What an innovative mind that was. He successfully convinced Lord
Smythe that it could do the job. The idea got patented and they began to market
it, ofcourse starting with his now former boss, Dr Dalrymple, who at first
hesitated but he had an open mindset unlike Mortimer's former bosses who,
interestingly, refused to accept the latest research that a wound could be
contaminated by germs and they used bare hands to dress a gangrenous leg wound,
the type that will probably be referred to now as from a diabetic foot. I'm
sure doctors know what i mean. I can seriously not imagine. Dr Robert decided
to try the new appliance and saw an increase in his earnings and Dr Mortimer
once again regained his lost glory in the eyes of the women of London.
The vibrator has since undergone
various modifications. In fact i got to know that the first inkling as to what
may have been a vibrator was when Cleopatra of Egypt filled a hollow gourd with
angry bees and the violent buzzing caused vibrations giving a similar effect as
the modern cordless vibrators. Real crude innovation, but necessity is the
mother of invention. Now regarded as one of the best, if not the best sex toy,
the vibrator has be made into various forms (i'll spare details) for better
pleasurable sensation to its user, even winning a design award, the kind that
the iPhone won. It is also a money spinning industry right now, thanks to the
extent of ravaging perversion in the world. Globally, the sex toy industry is
valued at USD 15 billion, with a growth rate of 30%. 70% of sex toys are
manufactured in China, obviously.
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