The Astonishing History of Vibrators
This story is almost too good to be true: up until the beginning of the 20th century, what with the ideals and beliefs of female nonsexuality, there was a diagnosis called female hysteria, whose symptoms included: “anxiety, sleeplessness, irritability, nervousness, erotic fantasies, and moisture inside the vagina.” This was really sexual frustration, and the prescribed treatment was vaginal stimulation until orgasm. Therefore, doctors with tired hands invented the vibrator.
I would not believe it, but most of it can actually be documented (although I’m kinda partial to the whole “doctors with fatigued hands” thing): the word hysteria is derived from the Greek term hysterikós, a medical condition thought to be caused by disturbances of the uterus. And there really was a female hysteria diagnosis, whose treatment was stimulation of genitals until “hysterical paroxysm”, i.e., orgasm.
