N / A? How many times have you secretly thanked the inventor of the vibrator for his great invention? Let's put it this way: He doesn't really deserve YOUR gratitude …
The vibrator – a wonderful thing! The good piece was invented at the end of the 19th century by a doctor named Joseph Mortimer Granville. Not for the sake of us women – but for his male colleagues!
Remedies against female "hysteria"
As evidenced in antiquity, for centuries the female desire for sexual satisfaction was viewed as one thing above all else: a disease. Hippocrates, on whose name doctors still swear their oath, understood the so-called "hysteria" of his patients as a gynecological problem that arises in the uterus and causes their body fluids to build up. The symptoms of this "illness" ranged from headaches and stomach aches to insomnia and depressive moods. What doctors could not explain otherwise, they diagnosed as hysteria. The most common therapy for this "disease": lend a hand about once or twice a week!
No joke: the only way to loosen the build-up of body fluids, it was believed, was to use a genital massage to trigger a "hysterical crisis" (an orgasm) that would put everything back in order. So far, so disturbing (or weird or whatever you think of it …)!
Hysterical epidemic
However, this treatment method became problematic in the 19th century. Well, in truth it has always been, of course, but in the 19th century doctors came to the conclusion that it couldn't go on like this – because hysteria became a trend diagnosis. According to tradition, three-quarters of women in the United States suffered from this disease in the second half of the century. The treating doctors were overwhelmed.
Until the British doctor Mortimer Granville presented his "Granville Hammer" in 1883, the first electrically operated vibrator! The inventor himself asserted that he did not use the device on women and did not even develop it for it. But this did not prevent his colleagues from using the miracle weapon in the fight against hysteria and to spare their overworked forearm muscles. The "Granville Hammer" was soon part of the standard repertoire of every well-stocked medical practice.
The idea that women could simply "cure" themselves with the vibrator only came about a few years later, at the beginning of the 20th century.
Well, somehow typical … But before we get outraged that our favorite sextoy was actually invented for men and that the desire for masturbation was considered an illness in women: Let's rather enjoy that we live in the 21st century, in which anyone who wants can have (and use) a "Granville Hammer" in their bedside drawer … ?
Video tip: You will love these 6 tips for masturbation!