With Women’s History Month in full swing this March, C.H.A.N.G.E. (Creating, Honoring, Advocating, and Nurturing Gender Equity) recently showed a very interesting and illuminating movie. The movie, “Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm,” revealed the social, political, historical and sometimes comical aspects of the vibrator. The film involved feminists, historians, and feminist historians, along with lawyers, sex toy party advocates and regular women.

Before vibrators, dating all the way back to the 1600’s, there was a “massage technology” that doctors invented for hysteria. Hysteria, interestingly, was not the kind of hysteria we think of today: it was actually “the revolt of the uterus against neglect.” The symptoms of hysteria seemed to include just about everything that affected women- from yawning and itching, to reading French novels while wearing a tight corset and disagreeing with one’s husband. Any indication could be a sign of hysteria – naturally, they had a gratuitous amount of patients who continued to be sick and ironically it usually included virgins, young widows and women with impotent husbands. The treatment for hysteria was massage therapy, which was usually handled by a midwife or doctor until the woman experienced “paroxysm.” In other words, an orgasm.

Logically, since they had so many patients and it took time to – ahem – “treat” these patients, doctors eventually invented the vibrator. This allowed them to treat many patients in a short amount of time and allowed for more cash flow. One of the historians interviewed in the film retrieved an example of one of the first vibrators, which looked very similar to a pepper grinder and was operated by a crank.

Vibrators developed later and utilized different types of technology: electrical, mechanical and even hydro. By the middle of the 19th century, almost any company which produced hydro technology was producing some sort of douche therapy or apparatus. In fact, J.H. Kellogg (yes, that would be the founder of Kellogg cereal) apparently had a spa in Michigan that utilized these douche apparatuses. Think about that when eating your morning cornflakes.

In 1883, doctors started to use the electrical vibrator. Before that in 1869 people used the steam-powered vibrator dubbed “The Manipulator.” This device was a little cumbersome because an assistant would have to shovel coal into the machine that consisted of a table, with a hole slightly down from the center of the table and – well, you can use your imagination. Then, popular companies like Sears Roebuck, General Electric and Hamilton Beach began marketing electrical massage devices to women when rural electrification became common. Some of these devices had a motor that could be detached from the massaging device and attached to anything from a fan to an electric iron. Talk about multi-tasking.

It is interesting to note that before the 18th century, the vibrator might have gone by many names, but there was no social stigma attached to it. The advertisements were suggestive, but tasteful, and there seemed to be nothing wrong with going to the doctor at least a few times a year to have a good time. But once the Victorian era began, it lost its “social camouflage” and it became very distasteful to even mention a vibrator. The female orgasm was not necessary and was even discouraged. It wasn’t until the 1960’s with the Women’s Rights movement that women began changing history.

Betty Dodson, a feminist interviewed in the film, began teaching sexuality workshops in the 1960’s that mostly taught women about orgasms – specifically how to have them. Her workshops were very extreme for the day and she later threw sex parties in her New York City apartment.

It was workshops and widespread teachings, like the ones Dodson and many other feminists did, that allowed Joanne Webb (a Former Board Member of the Committee of Commerce and elementary school teacher in Burleson, Texas) to sell vibrators and hold “passion parties” for a part-time job. But, interestingly, she was called to turn herself in and pay $1,500 bond because selling sex toys was the “promotion of an obscene device.” She later found out she sold vibrators to undercover police officers. Apparently, there weren’t enough drug dealers in the surrounding area to keep them busy, so they decided to turn their attention towards the lady who sold vibrators.

Webb could have faced a year in jail and a $4,000 fine, but the real kicker was that she wouldn’t be allowed to teach. Subsequently, she discovered later that if the vibrator is given the euphemism of “cake decorator” then it is legal to sell them. With the conclusion of the movie, a note appears on the screen that informed the audience about Webb’s plight. In 2004, the charges were dropped, but Webb had to file for bankruptcy because of other financial problems. It also added that in Texas, Georgia, Kansas and a handful of other states it is still illegal to sell vibrators – but they can sell Viagra.

“It was really good and I didn’t really know the history of it,” Sharon Mathieu commented after the film had ended.

“Yeah, I didn’t know it went back that far and that it was called hysteria,” Talia Roy said. “Some of those things were scary-looking though.”

Jaklyn Van Manen, an organizer for the C.H.A.N.G.E. initiative, summed up the purpose of the video quite nicely with the ending of the film: “Women’s History Month is all about shedding light on history that has been ignored, and it’s still a very important part of history. I think that women’s sexuality has been ignored and lied about for basically thousands of years,” she said. “It’s good to shed light on it and reclaim their sexuality.”

So when you take a trip down to “Leather and Satin” in Rutland – just remember that you have the liberty to buy a vibrator in Vermont and not a cake decorating device.