Female Hysteria and the Victorian Vibrator.

Demonstrating how to use the vibrator.

In the Victorian age, vibrators were initially developed as a medical device to aid in the treatment of the condition known as female hysteria. According to this invention, ‘paroxysm’, known today as ‘orgasm’, was induced through manual massage of the external genitalia by physicians in order to help relieve symptoms of stress or the "vapors" when a woman was in her monthly cycle.

The first vibrators were steam powered, and by the turn of the twentieth century, a handheld electronic version had been developed to assist with various feminine needs. Vibrators soon moved from the doctor’s office to the home, with personal versions advertised in the Sears Roebuck catalog as “beauty aids.” But they also became more widely used and popular as a stimulant sex toy.

Steam powered vibrator.

A focus on health cloaked the connection between vibrators, orgasm, and female sexual desire, but, by the 1920s, this illusion was shattered due to their use in early pornographic films. By the 1950s, female hysteria was no longer considered a medical condition.