The Technology of Orgasm

New England Journal of Medicine

The material can be seen as an example of the power of a dominant group (men, in this case) to blind one to alternative truths, even about something as apparently obvious as the normal range of sexual responses. And it is important to have reminders from the history and ethics of medicine that we must continually question the factual and conceptual bases for diagnoses and treatments, especially those given disproportionately to one sex.

BUST Magazine

Rachel Maines has written a highly academinc, and yet ultimately readable, history of our favorite little buzztoy, the vibrator. And what an interesting history it is....Because, in the end, the history of the vibrator is the history of views about women's sexuality. And that's something we should all be plugged into.

Jeanette Winterson

Rachel Maines's book is full of wonderful descriptions of the 'job nobody wanted,' including photographs of early vibrators and vaginal electrodes.
—Times (London)

Carol Lynn Mithers

Feminist scholarship exactly as it should be: a work that not only illuminates an astonishing bit of herstory, but does so with a neat balance of anger, wit and humor . . . A wonderful book.
— L.A. Weekly

Will Blythe

Here's a provocative history with a chip on its shoulder and a buzz under its skirt . . . Exhumes startling facts from the underground sexual history of the early twentieth century.
—Mirabella

Anna Myers

A titillating and often hilarious account of the rise and fall (as it were) of the vibrator as a medical tool for the treatment of hysteria . . . A book that can delight as well as enlighten.—Journal of the American Medical Association

Tom Easton

Even in Alabama, you can pop down to Wal-Mart and pick one up — the label says it's for massage and muscle relaxation, and the picture on the box shows it held against the side of a lovely lady's neck. But everyone still knows what it's really for.
— Analog Science Fiction and Fact

Jim Holt

The Technology of Orgasm is a riotous pleasure to read...The author writes with a lambert flicker of feline humor.
— New York Observer

Leora Tanenbaum

...[O]riginal, witty, thoroughy researched and eye-opening...skewers male-centered beliefs about female sexual satisfaction as well as the whole concept of 'hysteria'....[A] fun read....As Maines...deftly shows, "sex" means different things to different people.
— The Women's Review of Books

Library Journal

A researcher and archivist with a doctorate in the history of technology, Maines has produced an exhaustive and deliciously savage history of the vibrator-as-sex-aid. Massage of women's genitalia by physicians for relief of "hysteria" dates to Hippocrates. Yet procuring women's orgasms--whether identified as sex or as merely "paroxysm"--was "the job that nobody wanted," and physicians were happy to delegate the chore to mechanical devices in the 1880s. This fascinating and exquisitely referenced true story reads like twisted science fiction and will intrigue historians of technology and/or medicine, culture-watchers, feminists, and lay readers. Maines's work is noted briefly in Joani Blank's Good Vibrations (Down There, 1989), a concise and helpful popular introduction to vibrators and how to use them. Hoag Levins's journalistic American Sex Machines (Adams Media, 1996) bypasses vibrator evolution and history completely. Maines's dry wit and writing skill lend appeal and readability. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries.--Martha Cornog, Philadelphia

Booknews

The author explores hysteria in Western medicine throughout the ages and examines the characterization of female sexuality as a disease requiring treatment. She reveals how medical authorities were able to defend and justify the clinical production of orgasm in women as necessary to maintain the dominant view of sexuality, which defined sex as penetration to male orgasm, a definition which shaped not only the development of concepts of female sexual pathology but also the instrumentation designed to cope with them. Contains b&w illustrations. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR booknew.com

Ogden

Here lies a central theme of this impeccably researched and illustrated book of vibrator history: who controls women's sexuality?...the result is both scholarly and entertaining.

Sojourner

Leora Tanenbaum

...[O]riginal, witty, thoroughy researched and eye-opening...skewers male-centered beliefs about female sexual satisfaction as well as the whole concept of 'hysteria'....[A] fun read....As Maines...deftly shows, "sex" means different things to different people.
— The Women's Review of Books

Sarah Boxer

...[S]hort, stimulating....Maines supports her thesis with thorough, original...research.
— The New York Times Book Review

New York Times Book Review

Thorough, original, and surprising.

— Sarah Boxer

Times (London)

Full of wonderful descriptions of the 'job nobody wanted,' including photographs of early vibrators and vaginal electrodes.

— Jeanette Winterson

L.A. Weekly

Feminist scholarship exactly as it should be: a work that not only illuminates an astonishing bit of herstory, but does so with a neat balance of anger, wit and humor... A wonderful book.

— Carol Lynn Mithers

New York Times

Exhaustively researched... decidedly offbeat.

— Natalie Angier

Mirabella

Here's a provocative history with a chip on its shoulder and a buzz under its skirt... Exhumes startling facts from the underground sexual history of the early twentieth century.

— Will Blythe

Journal of the American Medical Association

A titillating and often hilarious account of the rise and fall (as it were) of the vibrator as a medical tool for the treatment of hysteria... A book that can delight as well as enlighten.

Birdbooker Report

Rachel Maines offers readers a stimulating, surprising, and often humorous account of hysteria and its treatment throughout the ages.

New York Times Book Review - Sarah Boxer

Thorough, original, and surprising.

Times (London) - Jeanette Winterson

Full of wonderful descriptions of the 'job nobody wanted,' including photographs of early vibrators and vaginal electrodes.

L.A. Weekly - Carol Lynn Mithers

Feminist scholarship exactly as it should be: a work that not only illuminates an astonishing bit of herstory, but does so with a neat balance of anger, wit and humor... A wonderful book.

New York Times - Natalie Angier

Exhaustively researched... decidedly offbeat.

Mirabella - Will Blythe

Here's a provocative history with a chip on its shoulder and a buzz under its skirt... Exhumes startling facts from the underground sexual history of the early twentieth century.