The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction (24 page)

NOTES

PREFACE

1
. This, of course, was to some extent a misperception on my part. Actually, several people were doing it. See, for example, Susan Burroughs Swan,
Plain and Fancy
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977); Florence Peto,
Historic Quilts
(New York: American Historical Company, 1939); Patsy Orlofsky and Myron Orlofsky,
Quilts in America
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974); Cuesta Benberry, articles in
Quilters’ Newsletter
and
Nimble Needle Treasures
(1972–76); and Patricia Mainardi, “Quilts: The Great American Art,”
Feminist Art Journal
, winter 1973, among others. There were a few sources on embroidery and the bobbin and needle-made laces, but there was virtually no secondary literature on hand knitting, crochet, and tatting.

2
. Rachel Maines, “American Needlework in Transition, 1880–1930,”
University of Michigan Papers in Women Studies
, 1978, 57–84.

3
. “Grant Received,”
Summer Bulletin
, Clarkson University (Potsdam, N.Y.), July 1, 1985, 5.

4
. My husband refers to this IEEE episode as the Attack of the Dweebs.

CHAPTER 1 THE JOB NOBODY WANTED

1
. Alemarianus Petrus Forestus [Pieter van Foreest],
Observationem et Curationem Medicinalium ac Chirurgicarum Opera Omnia
(Rouen: Bertherlin, 1653), vol. 3, bk. 28.

2
. A. E. Hanson, “Hippocrates: Diseases of Women,”
Signs
1, no. 2 (1975): 567–84; Aretaeus Cappadox, “On the Causes and Symptoms of Acute Diseases,”
in
The Extant Works of Aretaeus the Cappadocian
, ed. and trans. Francis Adams (London: Sydenham Society, 1856), bk. 2, chap. 2; Aulus Cornelius Celsus, On
Medicine
, trans. W. G. Spencer (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935), vol. 1, chap. 4; Galen of Pergamon,
De Locis Affectis
, trans. Rudolf Siegel (New York: S. Karger, 1976), sec. 39; Soranus of Ephesus,
Gynecology
, trans. Owsei Temkin (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1956), chap. 4; Äetius of Amida, “Tetrabiblion,” bk. 16, chap. 67, trans. James Ricci, in
The Gynaecology and Obstetrics of the Sixth Century
A.D. (Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1950); Mustio,
La “Gynaecia” de Muscione
, ed. and trans. Rino Radicchio (Pisa: Giardini, 1970), 122; Rhazes,
Opus Medicinae Practicae Saluberrimum antehoc Nusquam Impressum, Galeatij de Sancta Sophia in Nonum Tractatum Libri Rhasis ad Regem Almansorum
(Hagenou: Valentini Kobian, 1533); Avicenna,
Liber de Anima, seu Sextus de Naturalibus
(Leiden: Brill, 1968–72); Giovanni Matteo Ferrari da Gradi,
Practica, seu Commentaria in Nonum Rasis ad Almansorem
(Venice: Iuntas, 1560), 370–89; Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim [Paracelsus], “On the Diseases That Deprive Man of His Reason,” in
Volumen Medicinae Paramirum
, trans. Kurt F. Leidecker (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1949); Ambroise Paré (15177–90),
Workes of That Famous … Chirurgion
…, trans. Thomas Johnson (London: R. Cotes and Young, 1634), 634–39; Robert Burton,
The Anatomy of Melancholy
, ed. F. Dell and Paul J. Smith (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1927), 353–57; Giulio Cesare Claudini,
Responsionum et Consultationem Medicinalium Tomus Unicus
(Frankfurt: Lazari Zetzneri, 1607), 402; William Harvey,
Anatomical Exercitations, concerning the Generation of Living Creatures
… (London: James Young for Octavian Pulleyn, 1653), 501–2; Nathaniel Highmore,
De Passione Hysterica et Affectione Hypochondriaca
(Oxford: A. Lichfield; R. Davis, 1660), Estevaõ Rodrigues de Castro,
Syntaxis Praedictionum Medicarum
(Lyons: Phil. Borde; Arnaud et Cl. Rigaud, 1661); Abraham Zacuto [Zacutus Lusitanus],
Praxis Medica Admiranda
(London: loannem; Huguetan Antonium, 1637), 11, 13, 35, 40, 42, 46, 176–80, 252–66, 277–83, 289–95; Gregor Horst,
Dissertationem … Inauguralem de Mania … Publicae Censura
(Giessen: Frederic Karger’s widow, 1677), 9–18; Bernard Mandeville, A
Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysteric Passions
(Hildesheim, 1711; reprint New York: G. Olms, 1981); Hermann Boerhaave,
Praelectiones Academicae de Morbis Nervorum Curant
(Leiden: Van Eems, 1761; reprint Leiden: Brill, 1959), 11, 144–45, 284–85, 290, 292, 370; William Cullen,
First Lines of the Practice of Physic
(Edinburgh: Bell, Bradfute, 1791), 98–115; Philippe Pinel, A
Treatise on Insanity
, trans. D. D. Davis (1806; facsimile reprint New York: Hafner, 1962), 7–45, 229–65; Franz Josef Gall,
Anatomie et physiologie du système nerveuse en général
(Paris: F. Schoell, 1810–19), 85–164; Auguste Élisabeth Philogène Tripier,
Leçons cliniques sur les maladies de femmes
(Paris: Octave Doin, 1883),
347–51; and Pierre Briquet,
Traité clinique et thérapeutique de l’hystérie
(Paris: J. B. Baillière, 1859), 111–38, 289–91, 409–12, 535–613.

3
. The standard histories of the disease are Ilsa Veith,
Hysteria: The History of a Disease
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965); Alan Krohn,
Hysteria: The Elusive Neurosis
(New York: International Universities Press, 1978); Dewey Ziegler and Paul Norman, “On the Natural History of Hysteria in Women,”
Diseases of the Nervous System
15 (1967): 301–36; Henri Cesbron,
Histoire critique de l’hystérie
(Paris: Asselin et Houzeau, 1909); and Glafira Abrikosova,
L’hystérie aux
XVIIe
et XVIIIe siècles (étude historique)
(Paris: Steinheil, 1897). More recent works include Phillip R. Slavney,
Perspectives on “Hysteria”
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), and George Wesley, A
History of Hysteria
(Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1979).

4
. Donald E. Greydanus, “Masturbation; Historic Perspective,”
New York State Journal of Medicine
80, no. 12 (1980): 1892–96; E. H. Hare, “Masturbatory Insanity: The History of an Idea,”
Journal of Mental Science
108 (1962): 2–25; John Francis Wallace Meagher, A
Study of Masturbation and Its Reputed Sequelae
(New York: William Wood, 1924); E. H. Smith, “Signs of Masturbation in the Female,”
Pacific Medical Journal
, February 1903, 78–83; Wilhelm Stekel, “Disguised Onanism (Masked Masturbation),”
American Journal of Urology and Sexology
14, no. 7 (1918): 289–307.

5
. For a survey of this research, see Donald Symons,
The Evolution of Human Sexuality
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 75–92.

6
. On the treatment of hysteria and chlorosis by midwives, see Nicolaas Fonteyn [Nicolaus Fontanus, fl. 1630],
The Womans Doctour
(London: John Blage and Samuel Howes, 1652), B4–7, 45; Jakob Rueff [1500–1558],
The Expert Midwife
(London: E. Griffin for S. Burton, 1637), bk. 6, chap. 8; Nicholas Culpeper [1616–54], A
Directory for Midwives
(London: Peter Cole, 1651), 94–95, 110–11; John Pechey [1655–1716], A
General Treatise of the Diseases of Maids, Big-Bellied Women, Child-Bed Women, and Widows
(London: Henry Bonwick, 1696), A3, B13–14; and his
Compleat Midwife’s Practice Enlarged
, 5th ed. (1698), 230–33.

7
. Franklin H. Martin,
Electricity in Diseases of Women and Obstetrics
(Chicago: W. T. Keener, 1892), 225–32; Franklin Benjamin Gottschalk,
Practical Electrotherapeutics
(Hammond, Ind.: F. S. Betz, 1908), 282; Gottschalk,
Static Electricity, X-ray and Electro-vibration: Their Therapeutic Application
(Chicago: Eisele, 1903), 137–39; Anthony Matijaca,
Principles of Electro-medicine, Electro-surgery and Radiology
(Tangerine, Fla.: Benedict Lust, 1917), 134–36; and Vibrator Instrument Company,
The Chattanooga Vibrator
(Chattanooga, Tenn.: VIC, 1904), 3.

8
. Highmore,
De Passione Hysterica
, 76–77: “Necnon in lusu illo puerorum, quo una manu pectus perfricare, altera frontem percutere conantur.”

9
. Russell Thacher Trail,
The Health and Diseases of Women
(Battle Creek, Mich.: Health Reformer, 1873), 7–8, 31, and John Butler,
Dr. John Butler’s Electro-massage Machine or Electric Manipulator for Curing Diseases at Home
(New York: Butler Electric Massage, 1889), 21.

10
. Andrew Scull and Diane Favreau, “‘A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure’: Sexual Surgery for Psychosis in Three Nineteenth Century Societies,”
Research in Law, Deviance and Social Control
8 (1986): 3–39; see also Hare, “Masturbatory Insanity,” 10, and Vern Bullough, “Technology for the Prevention of ‘Les Maladies Produites par la Masturbation,’”
Technology and Culture
28, no. 4 (1987): 828–32.

11
. For counterarguments to the view of “woman as physician’s victim,” see Regina Morantz, “The Lady and Her Physician,” in
Clio’s Consciousness Raised
, ed. M. Hartman and L. Banner (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1974), 38–53.

12
. Judith Brown has suggested that the absence of penetration in most lesbian activity accounts for its having been largely ignored in Western legal history. See Brown,
Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 6–20.

13
. See, for example, Celia Roberts et al., “Faking It: The Story of ‘Ohh!’”
Women’s Studies International Forum
18, nos. 5–6 (1995): 531 n. 7.

14
. Alfred Charles Kinsey,
Sexual Behavior in the Human Female
(Philadelphia: Saunders, 1953), and Shere Hite,
The Hite Report on Female Sexuality
(New York: Macmillan, 1976). Note also popular treatments of this subject such as Judith Schwartz, “Straight Talk about Orgasm,”
Redbook
March (1994), 75. For earlier references to this subject see, for example, John Pechey,
The Compleat Midwife’s Practice Enlarged
, 5th ed. (1698), 32; Culpeper,
Directory for Midwives
, 28; and an unusual mid-twentieth-century text, Alfred Henry Tyrer,
Sex Satisfaction and Happy Marriage
(New York: Emerson Books, 1948), 85, 115. A more conventional source is Marie Stopes,
Married Love: A New Contribution to the Solution of Sex Difficulties
(New York: Eugenics, 1931), 74.

15
. Havelock Ellis, “The Sexual Impulse in Women,” in
Studies in the Psychology of Sex
, vol. 1 (New York: Random House, 1940). A popular medical advice author of the 1970s, David Reuben follows more recent (but equally androcentric) conventions by using the expression “orgasmic impairment” to avoid what he considers to be the more judgmental “frigid.” See Reuben,
Any Woman Can! Love
and Sexual Fulfillment for the Single, Widowed, Divorced … and Married
(New York: D. McKay, 1971), 25–56.

16
. Joseph Frank Payne,
Thomas Sydenham
(New York: Longman, Green, 1900), 143.

17
. Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English,
Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness
(Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1973), 15–44.

18
. See, for example, Sophie Lazarsfeld,
Woman’s Experience of the Male
, 9th ed. (London: Encyclopedic Press, 1967), 123–66.

19
. For an especially notable example of this perspective, see Edmund Bergler and William S. Kroger,
Kinsey’s Myth of Female Sexuality
(New York: Grune and Stratton, 1954), 7, 35, 70, 76, 94–95.

20
. After at least two millennia of efforts to produce female orgasm before or during male orgasm in coitus, a study has suggested that conception is aided by female orgasm from one to forty-five minutes after ejaculation by the male. See Beth Livermore, “Why Women’s Orgasms Matter,”
Self
16, no. 2 (1994): 56; F. Bryant Furlow and Randy Thornhill, “The Orgasm Wars,”
Psychology Today
, January-February 1996, 42–46; and Michael Segell, “Great Performances,”
Esquire
(January 1996), 30.

21
. W. C. M. Schultz et al., “Vaginal Sensitivity to Electric Stimuli: Theoretical and Practical Implications,”
Archives of Sexual Behavior
18, no. 2 (1989): 87–95.

22
. There are some who, like Juvenal in his
Satire on Women
(late first century
A.D
.), mention it for the purpose of condemning the supposed depravity of the female sex.

23
. Such as Richardson’s
Pamela
(1740), Tolstoy’s
Anna Karenina
(1876), and Flaubert’s
Madame Bovary
(1856).

24
. For examples, see Symons,
Evolution of Human Sexuality
, 85–92; Helen Rodnite Lemay, “Human Sexuality in Twelfth- through Fifteenth-Century Scientific Writings,” in
Sexual Practices and the Medieval Church
, ed. Vern L. Bullough and James Brundage (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1982), 204; Edward Bliss Foote,
Dr. Foote’s Home Cyclopedia of Popular Medical, Social and Sexual Science
(New York: Murray Hill, 1901), 550, 1133, 1150; Robert Taylor, A
Practical Treatise on Sexual Disorders of the Male and Female
, 3d ed. (New York: Lea Brothers, 1905), 404, 410–13; and Smith Baker, “The Neuropsychical Element in Conjugal Aversion,”
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
19 (September 1892): 669–81.