the surprising medical history of the vibrator

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early ads offered it up as a cure 'for all disease of the mid-quarters from neck to knee.' insert wink.

by sadaf ahsan

published mar 04, 2021

last updated feb 21, 2025

5 minute read

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5 minute read

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how the vibrator went from medical device to sex toy

it's a myth that vibrators were created to treat 'hysterical' women. h.b. claflin co./new york public library

it took just one episode of sex and the city featuring the typically buttoned-up charlotte spending every waking minute under the covers, cancelling plans and taking time off of work, to ultimately put the vibrator on the map as the ultimate tool for self-pleasure. after the 1998 airing, which featured carrie and miranda staging a “rabbit intervention,” vibrators began flying off the shelves the very next day, and in the following years, sales for the rabbit vibrator soared by 700 per cent.

now it’s no secret a vibrator is an essential tool for one’s pleasure chest. in the u.s., 52.5 per cent of women report having used a vibrator in their lifetime, according to a 2017 canadian journal of human sexuality report, with the prevalence of overall sex toy use in canada coming in at a similar 52.3 per cent.

but vibrators didn’t start out so popular — or even as sex toys. common belief is that we can credit this device to the concept of hysteria. such was the first official mental health condition attributed to women, back in the 1800s. it encapsulated a number of serious issues written off as delirium, including fainting, anxiety, insomnia, depression, exhaustion, irritability, nervousness, and “a tendency to cause trouble for others,” according to controversial sex historian rachel maines’ the technology of the orgasm (1999). it was, in other words, the default diagnosis when doctors (often male) couldn’t figure out what else might be ailing their patients who were unfortunate enough to be equipped with vaginas. that list also included excessive vaginal lubrication and erotic fantasizing, as how could a woman possibly experience and express sexual arousal?

as the story goes, according to maines, these doctors felt the ideal treatment for hysteria was clitoral stimulation or “pelvis massages.” she cites physician alemarianus petrus forestus’s 1653 medical compendium observationem et curationem medicinalium ac chirurgicarum opera omnia, in which he writes that doctors didn’t perform the stimulation themselves. instead, they would round up a husband, a midwife or “the business end of some tireless and impersonal mechanism” to throw on gloves and take a quick dip. this means that the cure for hysteria would have been “paroxysms of relief” (read: an orgasm).

but while that (admittedly, very entertaining) story has reigned for years and even inspired a movie, books and numerous scholarly works, it’s quite untrue. according to a 2018 report in the journal of positive sexuality, researchers hallie lieberman and eric schatzberg share their copious findings, which disprove much of maines’. they write, having examined every source maines cites, “we found no evidence in these sources that physicians ever used electromechanical vibrators to induce orgasms in female patients as a medical treatment.” after their report was published, maines seemingly backtracked and said to the atlantic that her claims were only ever an “hypothesis,” adding that, “it was ripe to be turned into mythology somehow. i didn’t intend it that way, but boy, people sure took it, ran with it.” for the record, her book never notes any of this as hypotheses, but very clearly fact.

so how, then, do we explain vibrators? we know they existed and in many forms that have since evolved. the earliest included a steam-powered beast called “the manipulator,” invented by physician george taylor in 1869. that was followed by his second creation, a similarly constructed but slightly improved upon design, this one featuring what we now refer to as a dildo, attached to a kind of engine. (for visuals, you can check out sex shop good vibrations’ antique vibrator museum to get a sense of just how the vibrator evolved. though, it stands to reason, no variation will ever compare to the stories of cleopatra using a gourd filled with buzzing bees for stimulation.)

with a simpler and more convenient design in mind, in 1883, a man named dr. j. mortimer granville introduced the first electric vibrator and god bless him. it wasn’t too different from the device we know today, with settings for different sensations. and it wasn’t used on women at all. no, in fact, it and all other vibrating machines of the time were used for treating men — for pain, headaches, irritability, indigestion and constipation. their own brand of hysteria, if you will. knowing it could be useful for sexual purposes, granville also used it to treat male sexual dysfunction.

by the early 1900s, however, the vibrator was sold for at-home use for one’s health and personal pleasure and was even featured in advertisements — targeted at men and women. but of course, public ads could never be so shameless, and so pitched the vibrator only as offering cures “for all disease of the mid-quarters from neck to knee.” another ad, in 1910, read, “vibration promotes life and vigour, strength and beauty…vibrate your body and make it well. you have no right to be sick.” these sicknesses supposedly included wrinkles, acne, and even malaria. the occasional one would offer a hint at its true use, for example, a 1908 bebout ad that read, “invented by a woman who knows a woman’s needs.” insert wink.

hysteria, by the way, wasn’t declassified as a mental health disorder until the 1950s by the american psychiatric association. meanwhile, the sexual implications of the vibrator and pleasure itself were slowly becoming more acceptable, largely due to pornography and the well-publicized research on female sexuality by dr. alfred kinsey, the american sexologist who founded the kinsey institute for research in sex, gender, and reproduction in 1947.

by the 1960s and 1970s, during the sexual revolution, vibrators became portable, colourful and much more complex with so many more settings, sensations and speeds. now, they can be found in various shapes and are even usb rechargeable, putting an end to tv’s beloved dead-battery syndrome.

it was the rabbit vibrator, created in 1983, coupled with sex and the city’s open, frank discussion of the great pleasures it can offer that helped cement the vibrator as a staple for self-love — for women or men.

however, it still is taboo in some places around the world, and can be a cause for shock in the instances it pops up on television (note: it’s rare you’ll actually see a vibrator even in those scenes where we know and can hear that one is being handled, so unthinkable is the mere sight of it).

but, just as cleopatra found a way, so too do the rest of us when in need. take alabama, for example, where a ban on all sex toys was upheld as recently as 2007 on the grounds of “public morality.” some clever sex toy sellers found a loophole that brings this history full-circle: according to the law, the sale of sex toys is permissible if they are needed for “medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial, or law enforcement” purposes. so when customers drop by the pleasures store (which has a convenient drive-thru), for example, they can simply fill out an anonymous form explaining whether their partner has “difficulty with sexual fulfillment” and they’re all set.

in the end, as taboos prevail, the story remains the same: there is no better excuse than one’s health. no matter what disease — or desire — ails you.