see hed. Cite omitted.
I know someone who used to work at a massage parlour. While the majority of her clients were male, she told me that she did have very occasional female customers. The place wasn’t positioned (in the marketing sense) for females, but they’d take them when they came through the door.
I’ve read that there were doctors in the first half of the 20th century who basically would give their female patients a manual orgasm as a treatment for “hysteria”.
*What’s that, Felicia? You say you’re feeling grumpy and moody? That’s nothing a little fisting won’t cure. Step into my office and get in the stirrups.
*
Sorry I don’t know if such things still go on today in massage parlors, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
I’ve read that too, and I don’t get it. Unless the woman is really into it, she’s not going to orgasm. I can’t wrap by brain around a woman getting off on being digitally pleasured by her doctor.
There’s a ladies only “massage parlor” not too far from where I live.
The implication in the movie “Hysteria” is not that women aren’t “into it” but in the Good Old Days Victorian men were not properly educated nor inclined to provide their wife the necessary relief at home; or else the women were too uptight to provide relief themselves, but felt that if a doctor did it, it was OK.
But then, a massage parlour is not a medical establishment and things are a lot more open compared to Victorian times. I would think that unlike men, almost any woman can find unpaid help with her urges.
It took a while. That’s why they invented the vibrator. Lest you think the linked work (“The Technology of Orgasm” by Rachel Maines) lacks substance, it was first published in a journal of the Institute of Eletrical and Electronics Engineers.
+1
I’ve read this too, and until I read evidence to the contrary, I’m chalking this up to urban legend. Humans have be masturbating since the dawn of time. But women 100 year ago are going to the doctor for this? No way.
Did your friend offer happy endings?
You’d be surprised. When I worked in a nightclub I saw a number of women achieve orgasm just by leaning against speakers or sitting on railings. It is not unknown - in fact, not even uncommon - for women to experience orgasms during rape. Technique and patience play a substantial role. Besides, the women who “needed” manual stimulation to treat their “hysteria” were largely self-selecting: they were women who experienced orgasms in the bedroom or elsewhere (and were therefore “unwell” and in need of medical care.)
Yes. Yes, she did.
Not as true as you might think. Women who prefer women especially can have difficulty finding casual partners.
But even for women who prefer men, it can be challenging to find partners in situations that aren’t risky or potentially threatening.
Check out the movie, too. Passion & Power, the Technology of Orgasm. A lovely film about doctors treating hysterical women, early steam and water powered vibrators, and one Texas woman’s arrest for selling sex toys at Schtupperware parties.
Wait, so experiencing orgasms in the bedroom was considered a disorder?
Absolutely. They must not have been thinking of England, Dear.
Desiring sex at all was considered a perversion to be aggressively controlled, especially in women.
What was that hilarious Mathew Broderick flick about John Harvey Kellogg?
“He was hand-a-bugging you!! You let a total stranger hand-a-bug you!!!”
A few years ago, there was (and maybe still is?) a male masseur in Murphys, Ca. (an itty bitty town up in the Sierra Foothills “Gold Country”) who advertised this. I was peripherally involved in massage business and came across his web site while perusing on-line listings.
Sorry, I’ve forgotten his name, and perusing on-line massage listings for Murphys now, I don’t see one that rings a bell. I recall that his site was a perfectly “legit” looking one, except for a link near the bottom that said something along the lines of “Looking for something a little more sensual? Click here”. That led to another page which was rather explicit but reasonably tastefully done, and just slightly NSFW. The page had a background image that was purposefully drawn vaguely and indistinctly, but might have been a drawing of an orchid. Or something.
ETA: I know nothing of the guy or his business other than what I saw on that web site. In particular, I have no idea if he had clients lining up around the block to get in.
The Road to Wellville, also a book.
But if they experienced orgasm why would they need manual help from a doctor?
One question I’ve always wanted to know–if hysteria was a thing back in the day, why don’t women experience it now? That is, there are women who talk about not being able to orgasm yet who don’t seem to experience any of the myriad symptoms of hysteria that happened back in the day.
Okay, I found that web site in Murphys, Ca. The site is totally re-designed from how I remember it from a few years ago. The front page is SFW. Some of the other pages there are, IMHO, borderline NSFW. Link:
(A bit surprising that he’s still in business. He claims he’s been doing this for 11 years. I really have no idea how brisk his business is. “That kind” of massage is illegal in Ca., but I don’t know that it’s strongly enforced. Technically, it’s prostitution. Usually, the better-known whore-house massage parlors are tolerated, except during election campaign seasons if the local mayor is running for re-election; then they have a big crack-down so the mayor can crow about his law-and-order crime-busting statistics.)
Read the book I linked to, or watch the movie Qadgop linked to. All your questions will be answered.