The Manipulator: Why the first-ever sex toy was patented in 1869
It’s easy to look at the state of things in 026 and think that there’s no way we, as the human race, have always been this perverted and strange. However, we’ve always been weird little freaks when it comes to sex; it’s just now we’ve got slightly more access to people’s innermost thoughts than we did before.
Putting that deeply Orwellian thought to one side for a moment, it’s not as if people developed kinks just in time for mass media to turn it all into a billion-dollar industry. People just hid them slightly better, but if you know where to look, you could always find them.
For example, if you want to find the first legalised, accepted and sold versions of sex toys on the market, you’re not going to find them just by rocking up to a branch of Harmony, or its 1800s equivalent.
You see, the Victorian era was publicly as repressed as its reputation suggested it was, and anything like that would have been completely unacceptable. Selling pornographic books would get a person sent to prison by the middle of the 1800s, yet a couple of decades later, in 1869 (a very fitting number), the first-ever fully-fledged sex toy went into production.
How could this be? The answer is surprisingly simple when you think about it. It was marketed as a piece of medical equipment.
You see, by the middle of the 1800s, a number of women’s medical issues were being diagnosed as hysteria. Now, to be clear, this was misogyny pure and simple. A systematic disregarding of women’s medical needs that continues to this day. However, the majority of the time today, you get prescribed a six-month course of citalopram and a weight loss program.
Back in the day, you were told to orgasm. A lot. At least, if you weren’t sent to a sanatorium, of course.
At the time, this would be referred to as a ‘pelvic massage’ that would induce a ‘hysterical paroxysm’. The kind that would clear up symptoms like frustration, anxiety, restlessness, and irritability. However, doing the ‘pelvic massage’ by hand caused several doctors to develop cramps. The more things change, eh? Thus, an American doctor called George Taylor designed his masterpiece. One that would be known, quite marvellously, as ‘The Manipulator’.
If you’re thinking of a discreet vibrator, you are dead wrong. ‘The Manipulator’ was a literal table. One with a ball in the middle that vibrated when an engine powered by steam was activated. Patients were placed on top of the ball, the switch was flipped, and when the ‘paroxysm’ was reached, the device was turned off. However, as you can imagine, this was a large, cumbersome piece of medical equipment that was inconvenient for home use.
It wouldn’t be until 1902 that a vibrator for personal use would arrive in stores courtesy of the Hamilton Beach Company. Even then, they marketed it as a muscle relaxant, and any other private use was an open secret. Proof, if any was needed, that we’ve always been horny little freaks, we just have more access to it and freedom to express it today than ever before.
