Vibrators and Sex?

[Susan]

A new movie just came out and it's causing quite a buzz. HYSTERIA features some frustrated Victorian women. Anytime you see "women" and "hysteria" in the same sentence, it has to be about sex. And this blog post is explicit, so consider yourself warned.

Back in the 1880s a London physician, Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville, invented the electric vibrator. Who knew? In Victorian England, it was okay for men to have orgasms, but women? Not so much.

In the 19th Century, scientists and doctors believed a woman's "affliction of the nervous system" stemmed from a disorder of the uterus, which they called "hysteria." So when people began to see upper-class women emerging from Dr. Granville's office flushed with excitement and joy, they started wondering what was going on in there.

 Vibrators and Sex?

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

The man invented corn flakes.  That's got to count for something.  A built a town on them.

Personally, when it comes to company towns, I'll take Lynchburg Tennessee over Battle Creek or Motown.  

[Susan]

I dunno Cammy, any town with "lynch" in its name sounds creepy to me. Same with "battle." How bout New Orleans?? Birthplace of JAZZ!

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

You never know whether to laugh or cry over this stuff.

I like the idea of a steampunk vibrator, though.  Might make a nice story.

So where does Rush Limbaugh weigh in on vibrator use?  

He seems like the kind of guy who'd call women sluts for using them and a week later there are pictures of him in National Inquirer having one removed from his colon.

[Susan]

Forgive my ignorance ... what is a steampunk? A rocker with steam shooting from his ears?

Ah Rush Limberger, where do I begin????? You talkn bout da family values guy that sent his maid out to buy his Oxy pills?

[Brian Hoffman]

Steampunk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the genres of fiction and associated sub-culture. For other uses, see Steampunk (disambiguation).

Steampunk is a genre that originated during the 1980s and early 1990s and incorporates elements of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror, and speculative fiction. It involves a setting where steam power is widely used—whether in an alternate history such as Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United States, or in a post-apocalyptic time —that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology, or futuristic innovations as Victorians might have envisioned them, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. This technology includes such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or the contemporary authors Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld and China Mieville.

Other examples of steampunk contain alternative history-style presentations of such technology as lighter-than-air airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's Analytical Engine.

Steampunk also refers to art, fashion, and design that are informed by the aesthetics of steampunk literature.^[1] Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.

[Susan]

Uh-huh. So, cutting to the chase through the Wikipedia verbosity, in 10 words or less, what the hell IS IT?  Want to give me an example? A book? An author? An artist? A musician? Cause I'm still clueless ...

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

It's a genre in which Victorian technology rules, often uses things like computers and airships based on steam technology.  

There is some wonderful art and artifacts, and of course costumes (big on goggles and helmets and corsets)

The first book called that (maybe) was Bruce Sterling's  "The Difference Engine"   Films love by steampunkers include "Wild Wild West",  "The Golden Compass", some of Miyazaki's films,.  

Get some pirarates zooming around in dirgible schooners, locomotive cars on old Londonish streets, some clunky firearms and kicky Vicky  outfits and you've there.

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

Here's a steampunk vibrator  

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_vv5SDGCiuso/SgreacRY7eI/AAAAAAAACQo/anHF30cpp...

Steampunk USB drive

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/11/the-collectiv...

Steampunk cell phone  (they're big on punchcards and  aethernet communication)

http://www.walyou.com/img/steampunk-cellphone.jpg

Steampunk loonies.

http://www.fadstudios.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/12.jpg

Actually I like the clothes and LOVE their stuff.

[Susan]

Yowza!  I never made it past the steampunk vibrator! Who needs a cell phone when ya got onea dem? Cammy, you have opened a whole new world to me!   hahahaha

But WAIT, the US patent office REJECTED it in 1891. What killjoys!

[Susan]

Hey! Like yr new picture, Cammy. Is that a Steampunk bottle yr sipping from?

Whoa, didn't know they had computers in Victorian times ... yeah, airships and goggles. Loved Wild Wild West, don't know the others. Kinky Vicky outfits. Cool!

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

You mean you don't know Jack?

One my oldest intimates and counselors.  (Despite that counsel so often leading me to ruin)

Steampunk is all about anachronism.  It's not historical, it's like history if there were big mechanical spiders in the old west or all the cool stuff in Golden Compass.  Oh, another one,   The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  

The patent office rejected it?   Shabby.  (Bet they kept the prototype, though)

[Susan]

Is that Jack Daniels?  :)

And I think someone in the patent office probably took it home and it was never seen again ...