In February 2023, Twitter was abuzz with the news that archaeologists had identified an artefact from a Roman site in Northumberland as “a dildo”. For the unaware, there is plenty of evidence – written and depicted – of the Romans using sex toys but, until now, little in the way of surviving physical artefacts. In fact, there are phallic-shaped objects dating back some 30,000 years which may well have served a similar purpose. One letter-writer to the Guardian suggested an alternative, however: that it was a drop spindle – cone-shaped, with a knob at the top. Sure enough, it’s not dissimilar. But hey, why can it not be both?

Dildos have been around for centuries, if not longer, but the vibrator is a much more modern invention. The electromechanical vibrator first appeared in the late nineteenth century, marketed as a tool for carrying out vibrotherapy – massage for pain relief in areas very much other than the genitals, and for men as well as women. In 1883, British physician Joseph Mortimer Granville published a book entitled Nerve-vibration and excitation as agents in the treatment of functional disorder and organic disease. The contents are about as catchy as the title. His lengthy descriptions read more like those of a TENS pain-relief machine, claiming it will offer alleviation of neuralgia and constipation.

Let’s nix one thing, though. Despite tales of how vibrators were used to cure “hysteria” in women, there is no evidence of that actually being the case. The claim was made in Rachel Maines’ book The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria”, the vibrator, and women’s sexual satisfaction, which suggests that bringing a woman to orgasm was seen as a solution from the time of Hippocrates onwards. Try as I might, when I was writing my book, I couldn’t find any sources to back this up. I wasn’t alone. Hallie Lieberman, author of the highly enjoyable Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy, has a PhD in sex toy history. Her research into historical gynaecological texts drew a blank when it came to evidence for using vibrators to treat hysteria. Nevertheless, in the nineteenth century, industrialised nations liked industrialised solutions to whatever ailed them.

When they weren’t being used as a treatment for sore muscles, vibrators were being sold as beauty devices. There’s every probability they were being put to other uses, it’s just that there isn’t really a concrete record of it. Early twentieth-century advertisements alluded to their potential but couldn’t be forthright about it. Magazines contained lines like: “Continued use over different nerve centres will bring an undeniable tingle which has not been felt in a long while.” Laws and propriety forbade any sexual references and so the explicit was made implicit. For the female body, where orgasms predominantly (if not entirely) depend on clitoral stimulation, this was a wonderful breakthrough.
Almost 150 years later, sex toys have moved into a design-led phase where functionality has been refined and their form is now much more important and interesting. We have access to a wide and wonderful range of products suited to all body types, to be used together, alone, or across a distance via an online connection. Some of them look comical, some of them are downright stylish. Best of all, the taboo around them is lessening all the time. That said, we’ve not reached utopia quite yet…

There is no evidence vibrators were used to cure “hysteria” in women

An extensive study published in 2017 in Archives of Sexual Behavior highlighted the prevalence of the orgasm gap: a notable gap between heterosexual men and women in frequency of orgasm during sex. The authors reported on how the female orgasm is viewed as “elusive”, despite their findings that lesbian women orgasmed more regularly and frequently than heterosexual women (although not as frequently as heterosexual men), suggesting there are plenty of sociocultural factors holding women back. “Oh, how unexpected,” thought no woman, ever.

So, am I going to link this to International Women’s Day? You bet I am. This year’s IWD theme is #equity, and equity is about giving people what they need so that the outcome, rather than just the starting point, is equal. Maybe sex toys can be a part of that. And before I am accused of trivialising IWD, let me state that my feminism is pro-sex. In all the research I have done, with all the people I have spoken to, I think that sex is something everyone should be able to enjoy in the way that they prefer, provided it is consensual. We should be able to enjoy our bodies and our sex lives without being judged for them – and women have been judged for being sexual from time immemorial. I believe that everyone, especially women, should have the agency and the ability to be sexual, to make their own decisions. A good sex life is something that can enhance our lives in wonderful and positive ways; why shouldn’t we close the gender gap in the bedroom as well as the boardroom?

Kate Devlin is an academic and author of “Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots” (Bloomsbury, 2018)