The history of the vibrator dates back to the 19th century and is directly related not to eroticism, but—believe it or not—to medicine! At that time, the first vibrators were created not for pleasure, but as a medical device. You might chuckle and ask, “To treat what? 🙂” But we’ll tell you more about how this invention came about and how it has developed to this day.
The vibrator as a medical device
In Victorian England and other European countries at the end of the 19th century, women often complained to doctors about symptoms that were then grouped under the general diagnosis of “hysteria.” The list of symptoms included nervousness, insomnia, irritability, “excessive emotionality,” and sometimes even abdominal pain and “a feeling of heaviness in the uterus.” Today, it is clear that most of these symptoms were psychological or hormonal in nature, but at the time, medicine interpreted them as a consequence of “fluid stagnation” in the female body.
The treatment offered was quite unusual: doctors used massage of the pelvic area to bring the patient to a state they called “hysterical paroxysm” — today we would call it an orgasm. At the same time, the doctors themselves did not consider their work to be sexual — it was considered exclusively a medical procedure. However, “manual therapy” took a lot of time and effort. To make their task easier, doctors began to look for ways to mechanize the process.
The birth of the first vibrator
One of the pioneers in this field was British doctor Joseph Mortimer Grant, who worked in the 1870s. He used a steam-powered device that created vibrations to help speed up the “treatment” process. However, the first mass-produced electric vibrator is attributed to American George Taylor, who in 1869 introduced a device called the Manipulator. It was powered by steam and used in clinics.
With the advent of electricity in the late 19th century, vibrators became more compact and affordable. In 1883, Dr. George Taylor developed an electric model that quickly became popular among medical professionals and then among private consumers. By the beginning of the 20th century, vibrators were being advertised in American women’s magazines as “massage devices for health and beauty.” Interestingly, during this period, they were sold in the same catalogs where you could find toasters, sewing machines, and vacuum cleaners.
Ban and return
With the development of cinema and the growth of sexual openness in society, the vibrator’s significance as an exclusively medical instrument began to fade. In the 1920s and 1930s, it became associated with eroticism, which led to its disappearance from official medicine and advertising brochures.
However, in the 1960s and 1970s, in the wake of the sexual revolution, the vibrator made a comeback — this time as an object of female autonomy and sexual self-discovery. Since then, it has been transformed into hundreds of shapes, functions, and designs, while remaining one of the most significant symbols of society’s changing attitude toward female sexuality. We recommend that our lovely readers try a suction vibrator, which is incredibly popular, leaving all other models behind.
Today you learned that the first vibrator did not appear in the bedroom, but in a doctor’s office. It was born not out of passion, but out of the need to speed up a medical procedure. However, over time, the device went beyond medicine and became a powerful symbol of freedom and self-expression. This story is an amazing example of how a technical invention created for one purpose can change society in a completely different area.