The vibrator as we know it - associated with female sexuality, masturbation, and pleasure - started as a common household appliance void of any sexual connotation. In fact, it was invented by the British doctor Joseph Mortimer Granville in the early 1880s, more than 15 years before the vacuum was developed. Who’s to say which is the true essential?
Granville’s invention was far from sexy; it was meant to treat nervous conditions in both men and women. Physicians wanted it to target the nervous system by curing muscle aches, stimulating hair growth, and soothing indigestion with its pulses.
As the mechanics of vibrational devices evolved, consumers discovered more creative uses for them, including self-induced pleasure. Advertisements soon began including words like “invigorating” and “relaxing,” referring to personal massagers. Although marketed to be used on one’s back or neck, myriad sexual innuendos abounded.
Lynn Comella, professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Nevada, authored Vibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores Changed the Business of Pleasure in 2017. Her book maps the story of important feminist entrepreneurs in the 1970s who made vibrators accessible to their communities. In true hippie fashion, these female entrepreneurs raised sexual consciousness by framing sex toys as a stepping stone to liberation. Their woman-centered stores were the first of their kind; safe, comforting places where straight and queer folks alike could shop and learn without shame. Peace, love, and good vibrations … if you know what I mean.
A popular legend has long circulated online, claiming vibrators were invented by doctors in the Victorian era to cure female patients of hysteria. The myth goes: physicians would perform non-erotic genital massage on female patients, who reportedly left the doctor's office feeling much better. Ridiculous, right? Not only is this inaccurate, but sex historian and journalist Hallie Lieberman argues that the myth’s pervasiveness and believability perpetuate a double standard.
If the story were reversed, and female physicians were responsible for male patients’ ejaculations, we would be shocked. No way this could have occurred without sexual connotations. So, Lieberman asks, why then would we accept the version of the story where male doctors were arousing female patients?
In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, Lieberman discussed how “attempts to control women’s sexuality are based in part on the same beliefs that undergird the vibrator myth: that because women don’t understand their own sexuality they should not be the ones in control of it.”
The myth and its logic make women seem “ignorant, passive, and easily duped by manipulative men,” Lieberman told the NYT. More than that, it insinuates that men know more about women’s bodies and sexuality than women do. Ugh, as if.
A popular episode of Sex and the City titled “The Turtle and the Hare” launched the Rabbit into celebrity. Charlotte, Carrie, Miranda, and Samantha are gathered around the brunch table when Miranda boasts about her favorite new purchase - a vibrator, claiming it to be the best $92 ever spent. Ever-proper Charlotte rolls her eyes at the thought of an orgasm coming from a machine, until later in the episode, her friends have to snatch the toy away from her after she has locked herself in her apartment for days with her vibrator. Maybe her obsession wasn’t the healthiest, but go, Charlotte! In telling Carrie how the Rabbit made her come “for like five minutes,” Charlotte’s character helped launch sex toys into pop culture. Without her, who knows if our culture would favor female masturbation?
The vibrator’s debut on the 90s sitcom played an iconic role in normalizing the purchase of sex toys by women. That episode of Sex and the City showered its viewers with the idea that female pleasure is something acceptable to talk about and rejoice in. Cue the applause.
Today, vibrators are sold in every variety imaginable and are considered a common tech gadget, with manufacturers in heated competition to create the cheapest, quietest, and most enjoyable products yet. From a bullet to a ring or a rabbit, vibrator shopping has never been more fun. In pursuit of a little something something (or a big something something), here are New York Magazine’s 35 favorite contenders, ranked by type, material, speed, and patterns. Enjoy!
