A Technological Breakthrough
A Technological Breakthrough
Of Immense Proportions
Late Victorian physicians got stuck
with the chore—no one else in America
wanted it—producing orgasms
in women, a tedium that tired wrist
and fingers. Women knew better
than to touch, to explore, knew
a husband’s right to that nether
zone beneath her sleeping gown
was conjugal obligation fulfilled.
Pelvic hyperemia, congestion
of the genitalia, caused hysteria,
commonly called womb-fury,
a chronic and incurable condition.
Lassitude, weepiness, sobbing, fits
of temper, a racing pulse were some
of its symptoms. Enter the vibrator,
only the fifth appliance to be
electrified after the sewing machine,
fan, toaster, tea kettle. Women
crowded anterooms of practices
from Boston to San Francisco,
none ill enough to die and all
pleased to schedule their next
treatment. Vulvular massage,
along with clitorectomy,
brought the only known relief,
and now, what had taken
up to an hour, took minutes,
even seconds! Some models hung
from the ceiling, floor models
came on rollers, portable devices
fit discretely into a physician’s palm.
Powered by electric current,
battery, foot petal, water turbine,
gas engine or air pressure—quite
a commotion!—with what conception
of her nature did the lady on her back,
feet stirruped, thighs spread, negotiate
these rapid pulsations, eyes closed,
awash in sensation, hidden modestly
behind a screen that divided her
from tekhné applied to tenderest need?
From: Caduceus