Photos: Old Timey, Scary-Looking Vibrators That Cured "Hysteria"
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It's often said that in 1917 there were more personal vibrators in American homes than there were toasters, but what did these vibrators look like? Scary, futurist pleasure robots. Babeland has an excellent gallery of vibrators of yore and their modern equivalents. Lets take a stroll BACK IN TIME when "hysteria" was still a disease.Babeland's co-founder Claire Cavanah will be giving a talk before the 9:30 screening of Hysteria at Sunshine Cinema on Friday night, and the first 50 people to buy tickets will get Babeland gift bags. We're not sure about Sunshine Cinema's official policy of pleasuring yourself in the theater, but if you keep it down and leave the juice at home you should be fine. Here's Dr. Carol Queen talking about old school vibrators, and if you want to get off like your great-grandmother did, there are plenty of cheap options on eBay.
<br/>Many early vibrators were marketed as scalp massagers, as with the Wahl Hand-E Massage (No. 130) from the late 1950s. This one received high marks because it was "lighter, faster, and quieter than most other electrical vibrators." Cheery colors, too!<br/><br/>Wahl is still making a similar product, but has gone all "my first blowdryer" on the color scheme.<br/><form class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" mt:asset-id="714527" style="display: inline;"> <img alt="vibrator2b.jpg" class="image-none" height="444" src="http://gothamist.com/attachments/nyc_chrisrobbins/vibrator2b.jpg" width="640"/> </form>
<br/>This Norelco Massager from 1969 is based on a model that's known as the "Cadillac of Vibrators": a strong, hand-held wand rarely disappoints.<br/><br/>The Hitachi Magic Wand, looks like a home karaoke microphone, but [Insert <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv-34w8kGPM">Divinyls joke</a>].<br/><form class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" mt:asset-id="714526" style="display: inline;"> <img alt="vibrator1b.jpg" class="image-none" height="501" src="http://gothamist.com/attachments/nyc_chrisrobbins/vibrator1b.jpg" width="640"/> </form>
<br/>The Niagara Hand Unit from the early 1960s was innovative because its external speed control that didn't interrupt the action, and came with "slip-on vibratodes" for internal use. Good Housekeeping gave it a seal of approval, but Prude, Judgy Housekeeping did not.<br/><br/>In the 21st century, God gave us the Minna Ola, which responds to the squeeze pressure of the user's hand. Whatta world!<br/><form class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" mt:asset-id="714528" style="display: inline;"> <img alt="vibrator3b.jpg" class="image-none" height="468" src="http://gothamist.com/attachments/nyc_chrisrobbins/vibrator3b.jpg" width="640"/> </form>
<br/>The Oster Stim-U-Lax For Barbers was a hand-held vibrator from the late 1940s, and causes the user's fingers to vibrate, so that there wouldn't be any contact with a foreign object. Then again, you also have this giant, freaky-looking metal thing on your hand, so that may have taken time to get used to. It's like the inventor somehow knew about the shrinking device in <em>Honey I Shrunk The Kids</em> and was like, "Hey, what if I could make something that people pressed to their genitals that looks like that?"<br/><br/>Now we have the Fukuoko 9000, which fits over your finger and doesn't look like a fishing reel is attacking your genitals.<br/><form class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" mt:asset-id="714529" style="display: inline;"> <img alt="vibrator4b.jpg" class="image-none" height="522" src="http://gothamist.com/attachments/nyc_chrisrobbins/vibrator4b.jpg" width="640"/> </form>
<br/>It's 1960: you have a fully stocked bar, a bed that revolves out of a wall in your apartment with the touch of a button, a creepy fish tank full of exotic sea creatures (to set the mood, obviously) and the Vibra Slim, which pleasures whoever deigns to sit upon it.<br/><br/>This design is largely unchanged in the Liberator Pulse, with one, uh, pointy exception.<br/><form class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" mt:asset-id="714530" style="display: inline;"> <img alt="vibrator5b.jpg" class="image-none" height="460" src="http://gothamist.com/attachments/nyc_chrisrobbins/vibrator5b.jpg" width="640"/> </form>