Today on Bustle, Suzannah Weiss reviewed what sounds like a super cool book.
Hallie Lieberman’s Buzz: A Stimulating History of Sex Toys is based on her experience selling toys at home parties, as well as her graduate school research on sex toy history.
According to Weiss’s reading, Buzz proves that sex toys have never been just about sex. The way they’ve been sold, used and regulated has, in fact, reflected many different societal hierarchies and power dynamics related to gender, social class and perceived moral correctness – which is something we in the adult industry know all too well. Lieberman also does a bit of civilian myth busting and shares some fascinating facts previously unknown to Weiss.
Here are five interesting ones, as summed up in the review.
The First (Possible) Dildos Existed At Least 28,000 Years Ago
A penis-shaped object was found in Germany’s Hohle Fels cave 28,000 years ago, but archaeologists can’t agree on whether it was a dildo or just a tool-making instrument.
Vibrators Were Not Invented To Treat Hysteria
It’s a commonly cited fun fact that vibrators were invented for doctors to treat so-called “hysteria” in women. But according to Lieberman, they were actually first used to treat a range of medical problems — things like diabetes, sciatica, constipation and back pain in both women and men.
This mandatorily evaporates every bit of skepticism I’ve ever had about the Hitachi Magic Wand’s dual purpose. I never bought the whole muscle relaxation thing, at least not overtly, and now apparently I must.
Sex Toys Used to Be More Popular Among Men
I didn’t quite understand this myth/”fact” as sex toys are currently and have long been wildly popular amongst men. According to Weiss though, “we usually think of sex toys as primarily for women.” (We do?) When vibrators were considered medical devices, men’s use of them was actually more anxiety-inducing than women’s for some reason – maybe because men’s use of sex toys for pleasure was more frequently reported or discussed than women’s?
Regardless, in recounting her time working parties, Lieberman recalled that one of the most popular products she sold were masturbation sleeves, which isn’t surprising to me at all.
One Of The First Dildo Companies Was For People With Disabilities
Gosnell Duncan, a paraplegic, was frustrated with the lack of help his doctor gave him to revive his sex life after an injury limited his mobility in what was an obviously significant way. Duncan found that many people with disabilities felt the same way, so he started a business to provide strap-on dildos to people who weren’t able to have sex using their penises and mouth-held toys to quadriplegics.
Multiple States Have Outlawed Sex Toys
When Lieberman sold sex toys in Texas from 2003 to 2005, they were illegal. As a Texas person, this information is not remotely surprising; and as an adult industry professional, this news just recalls an elaborate series of workarounds toy story purveyors must negotiate to varying degrees at different times throughout history. Times haven’t totally changed either. Though Texas’s sex toy ban was overturned in 2008, Alabama’s remains.
Some of the “surprising facts” on this list didn’t surprise me at all, but it’s nice to get a fresh perspective from a civilian reader. As industry professionals, what we must navigate in terms of legal and social discrimination on a daily basis is often shocking to people who don’t really ever have to think about these issues. Further, the lack of information ranging from lack of knowledge to downright naïveté present in the mainstream cannot be underscored enough…
…because I would be remiss if I didn’t contextualize Weiss’s shock and awe about all the “surprising” facts present in Buzz. Least we forget, Weiss is the same author who gushed and glowed over former tube site Bellesa.co’s incredible capacity to make stole content egalitarian by helping consumers get around all those “pesky pay walls” — which is how she described paying for porn before porn called her on it.
Image via Niels Timmer.
