• Dasus@lemmy.world
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    2 天前

    They’re exactly looking to be treated for hysteria.

    While the word know just means frantic and sort of crazed and can be applied to anyone, it’s originally about having a womb. From the greek word for a womb.

    You’re obviously right that them getting sent to an asylum or getting their brain poked through their eye (although lobotomy wouldn’t be invented for like 30-40 years from their date) would be horrible.

    But she’s also right that they did indeed used to “jerk off” female patients as a treatment for hysteria. Then the doctors got lazy about rubbing and fingering women until climax, so they invented the vibrator. I may be taking a few liberties with the story so Google it yourself to verify the historicity.

    • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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      1 天前

      I really wonder about what people thought of that then. Did people really think it was a medical thing, or was this just a socialy respectable way for a man who couldn’t get his wife off to pass the task on to someone who could perform the task with an air of medical respectability?

      Or Hell, maybe it was a 19th century kink or swinger thing. People have always been freaky. At times in history they just had to hide it better.

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
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        1 天前

        I actually googled it a bit, and idk when “hysteria” widened to include men as well, but the very first inventor of a vibrator for medical purposes said he wouldn’t use his “percuteur” for women as that would not be fitting. But he was a religious man afaik.

        There were all sorts of galvanic stimulators and whatnot so I don’t think they were all as prudes as we might think.