A History of the Vibrator

In the 1880s Kelsey Stinner invented the electric vibrator. By this time doctors had been treating women for female hysteria for centuries by massaging their genitals, today this would be recognised as masturbation. Not only did they not regard this as being remotely sexual, doctors also found it hard work and time consuming.

Kelsey Stinners newly invented electric vibrator got the job done quickly and without much effort from the doctors and so became an extremely popular medical device.

Soon after this, home versions became widely accepted and popular, thanks to advertisements in magazines such as Needlecraft and Woman's Home Companion. By the 1920s these adverts disappeared due to their appearance in pornographic movies, in turn now making it impossible for polite society to hide the fact Vibrators were no longer used as just a medical device.

Commonly disguised as body massagers, millions of vibrators have been sold to both men and women. Some people have never used their purchases for anything other than relief from aches and pains or muscle tension, however many people who have purchased vibrators, marketed as body massagers use them to reach sexual pleasure. Vibrators are known to allow women to achieve orgasm faster and easier and often provide more intense orgasms than those reached by manual stimulation alone. Vibrators are commonly recommended by sex therapists to women who have difficulty reaching orgasms by other means. Vibrators are also used by couples nowadays to enhance and to bring a new dimension to their sex lives.

Although sex toys are now widely available, thanks mostly to the internet, the sale of such items is forbidden in several southern states in the USA. In many states the sale of vibrators and similar items is even illegal. Many stores get round this by issuing a statement that the customer must sign to state they are only being purchased for educational purposes only.

There are currently a wide variety of different sex toys or marital aids, as they are sometimes referred to, avaiable on the market today. There is however a certain amount of stigma still attached to the purchase of sex toys, although popular TV shows such as Sex and the City have gone along way to eliminate this by featuring a rabbit vibrator in one of their series.