The Updated Big “O”.

Show of hands…who remembers this book? I do.

From Wikepedia:

“Our Bodies, Ourselves is a book about women’s health and sexuality produced by the nonprofit organization Our Bodies Ourselves (originally called the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective). First published in 1973, it contains information related to many aspects of women’s health and sexuality…”

I clearly recall a chapter or chapters devoted to female anatomy and the physiology of the female orgasm. I guess there have been several updated versions released in the intervening decades, but I’m kind of fond of the innocence of the original.

There’s a new book out, kind of a Gen X version, The 4-Hour Body, An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex and Becoming Superhuman, by Timothy Ferris. Wow. A whole lotta bases to cover in one 567 page book (with index).

There’s an entire section describing, well, teaching a man or woman how to give an orgasm-challenged woman an orgasm. Somebody sent the book to my husband…now don’t go gettin’ the wrong impression, it weren’t me. It’s one of those books she thought a doctor might find interesting. Which section do you suppose hubby turned to first? Rapid Fat-Loss? Becoming Superhuman? Hah! As if. Don’t you know him by now???

Truth be told, we were both grossed out by the clinical nature of the process described. It wasn’t touchy-feely like Our Bodies Ourselves; rather this book reminded me of the 19th Century treatment for hysteria in women. You remember studying that in college psych, right?

Also from Wikepedia:

“A physician in 1859 claimed that a quarter of all women suffered from hysteria. One physician cataloged 75 pages of possible symptoms of hysteria and called the list incomplete; almost any ailment could fit the diagnosis. Physicians thought that the stresses associated with modern life caused civilized women to be both more susceptible to nervous disorders and to develop faulty reproductive tracts. In America, such disorders in women reaffirmed that the United States was on par with Europe; one American physician expressed pleasure that the country was ”catching up” to Europe in the prevalence of hysteria.

Rachel P. Maines has observed that such cases were quite profitable for physicians, since the patients were at no risk of death, but needed constant treatment. The only problem was that physicians did not enjoy the tedious task of vaginal massage (generally referred to as ‘pelvic massage’): The technique was difficult for a physician to master and could take hours to achieve “hysterical paroxysm.” Referral to midwives, which had been common practice, meant a loss of business for the physician.

A 1918 Sears, Roebuck and Co. ad with several models of vibrators.

A solution was the invention of massage devices, which shortened treatment from hours to minutes, removing the need for midwives and increasing a physician’s treatment capacity. Already at the beginning of the 19th century, hydrotherapy devices were available at Bath, and by the mid-19th century, they were popular at many high-profile bathing resorts across Europe and in America. By 1870, a clockwork-driven vibrator was available for physicians. In 1873, the first electromechanical vibrator was used at an asylum in France for the treatment of hysteria.

Hmmm…what do you think? You gonna run back to the future and get The 4-Hour Body to enhance your big “O”? I’m still stuck on the title.

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