MOLI VIEW™

Rachel Maines, Ph.D., was simply looking for information on early 20th-century needlework patterns when she stumbled across something in a vintage women's magazine that got her attention: an ad for electric vibrators. Pitched as a medical treatment for hysteria (doctors would, ummm, "medicate" women to orgasm with the device), the regimen was quietly abandoned when vibrators started turning up in stag films.

Maines probed deeper(!) into the issue, ultimately authoring the book, The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. Now her research has been turned into a feature-length documentary, Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm. Produced and directed by filmmakers Wendy Slick and Emiko Omari, Passion has been making the rounds at U.S. film festivals to growing acclaim. If the film fails to make it to your local art-house theater, the DVD can be purchased for $30 via the website.

Thanks to jfury for alerting me to Passion and ladies, don't forget to add C cells to your grocery list. You never know when you're going to need some good old-fashioned hysteria relief.
(photo of Barb with vintage vibrator courtesy of A.M. Kuchling)
Wendy Case is The MOLI View's contributing editor for Arts & Entertainment.

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