Gee, next they'll be claiming a strap-on can end war in the middle east.
Posted on 02/11/2003 9:44:48 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
Rachel Maines, author of The Technology of Orgasm, discussed the history of the vibrator and the double standard applied to male and female sexuality in Hollis E. Cornell auditorium yesterday. Her lecture was a part of Cornell's V-Day series, a week-long event aimed at curbing violence against women.
Maines criticized what she characterizes as an "androcentric model of sexuality" that is dominant in America and, although to a lesser extent, all of Western society. This androcentric model holds that the act of sexual intercourse occurs only in the event of vaginal penetration.
Maines said this concept was deeply problematic because it essentially disregards female sexuality, particularly the female orgasm. She pointed to statistics that say that 71 percent of women do not reach orgasm during traditional intercourse.
According to Maines, androcentrism is reflected not only in the attitudes of individuals, such as former president Bill Clinton's definition of "sexual relations", but also in the American legal system. For example, many states define rape in the androcentric sense, meaning that other forms of sexual acts do not fall under these criteria.
As an example of the double standard that exists between male and female sexuality, Maines described the experiences of a foreign maker of vibrators that attempted to advertise in the United States. The company wanted to advertise its product in American magazines that also promoted Viagra.
All of these magazines, however, refused to run the advertisement. According to Maines, the company was told by various publishers that the reason they were not willing to carry the advertisement was that, "Viagra is for a man to have sex with a woman. A vibrator is for a woman to have sex with herself."
"The double standard is alive and well in the United States of America," said Maines in reference to the attitudes of the American magazines.
After discussing some manifestations of androcentric views of sexuality, Maines detailed the history of the vibrator and traced its origins to the ancient Greeks who used the handle of a hydraulically powered saw to stimulate the female genitals.
Such devices, including the modern vibrator, were developed as medical tools for doctors treating an affliction known as "hysteria."
Hysteria was believed to affect up to two-thirds of all women, particularly young widowers and virgins.
The disease was thought to stem from lack of sexual intercourse and the remedy for married women was often to have sex with their husbands. Unmarried women and young virgins were treated with a massage of the genitals by their doctors until they achieved orgasm.
Such stimulation was credited with relieving the patients' tensions and temporarily easing pain and restoring health.
According to Maines, the chronic and obviously non-lethal nature of hysteria represented a financial boom to doctors. "From the point of view of the doctor, this was the ideal patient to have [financially]... They kept coming back [for treatment]," she said.
Doctors, however, were unhappy with the situation, Maines said. "Doctors complained that it was hard to learn [to sexually stimulate women]... They didn't actually enjoy the job very much. They wanted to mechanize."
This desire to mechanize was finally realized by the middle of the nineteenth century when the first predecessors to the modern vibrator were developed. Vibrators largely resembling those used today began to appear by the turn of the century and were advertised in several magazines directed at middle class women.
After the 1920s, according to Maines, the vibrator industry "went underground" as a result of the vibrator's appearance in pornographic films and subsequent disappearance from doctors' offices.
While attendance at Maines's lecture was modest, audience response was overwhelmingly positive.
"I think it is interesting regarding the suppression of women's sexuality and that female sexuality is still taboo especially when it doesn't involve men," said Diana Adams grad, who is studying feminist legal theory.
The lecture, entitled "Vibrators and Viagra: The Double Standard?" is part of V-Day, an annual event at Cornell coinciding with the week of Valentines' Day whose stated goal is to bring an end to violence against women and girls.
This is the fifth year that V-Day has been observed at Cornell and has for the first time been extended to a week-long series of events. The highlight of V-Day is a Wednesday and Thursday night reading of the Vagina Monologues, a play by Eve Ensler at Barnes Hall.
According to Kelly Rawson '03, leader of Voices, one of the organizers of V-Day activities, and a member of the cast of the Vagina Monologues, Ensler is giving all royalties from the Cornell production of her play to charities. While 90 percent of the royalties will be donated to local shelters for battered women, the remaining 10 percent will be given to Native American women's organizations, since the theme of this year's V-Day is Native American women.
"I hope that V-Day will raise awareness about violence against women in our own community," Rawson said. In addition to yesterday's lecture and the staging of the Vagina Monologues, an art exhibit entitled "Because We Like It: Honoring Women Through Art" will be shown starting Feb. 11 in the Straight's art gallery.
Gee, next they'll be claiming a strap-on can end war in the middle east.
--Biting the hell out of my lower lip--
Vibrators of Mass Destruction Alert!
Does yours have a dial
that you can turn all the way
up to "eleven"...
It isn't anywhere near that number. It's only the ones who sleep with me.
Didn't Cyrus McCormack pioneer this?
Maybe it could be used for sanding:
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