I bet you just can’t wait to see the permission slip for this one. Yes, Virginia, though they’ve been in existence for almost 150 years, the vibrator museum celebrating these noble devices is relatively new. Should you venture to the hilly streets of San Francisco, you’ll find it on Valencia Street, proudly showcasing antique types of vibrators and a selection of other sensual aids from days gone by.
True, the earliest electric and battery powered vibrators most often resemble unwieldy power tools that you wouldn’t want anywhere near your genitalia. But, still, they beat the hell out of the pedal or steam-powered monstrosities from the waning days of the 19th century; humongous steampunk vibrators you would only find in a physician’s office. They got their job done, and that was the important thing. Although a vibrator’s job in those days was defined as a palliative for “hysteria”, a strange condition afflicting women that made them tense, cranky, and could be relieved by judicious application of vibration to her genitalia. Imagine that.
For the first couple of decades during the 20th Century, the vibrator was quite a respectable device and a staple of most households of the era. Female sexuality was still dismissed by the medical establishment and society, so the importance of a woman’s orgasm was utterly ignored. If these vibrators relieved stresses that men didn’t understand, well, more power to them. As long as a man’s wife was a docile and cheerful homemaker, however the vibrator worked was unimportant. The important thing was that the vibrator did work and domestic tranquility was thusly retained.
And now we have a museum proudly displaying the technological progression of the fabled vibrator. An event that is long overdue.
If you can’t go to San Francisco, a quick search for “vibrator museum” will yield a host of photo galleries of these ancient, primordial vibrators. You’ll be able to see the actual vibrators and read about the history and technology behind them. After visiting a vibrator museum, be it physical or virtual, you’ll wield your vibrator with pride forevermore.
