Sex... the tech way
Published February 10, 2004
With Valentine's day approaching, what better thing to do than talk about sex ... and its history.
I stumbled upon American Sex Machines: The Hidden History of Sex at the U.S. Patent Office by Hoag Levins. Don't expect dirty pictures or anything of the sort, as this is a historical book.
Hoag Levins takes a look at patents from 1840 to today in a very peculiar way: that of inventions related to sex and therefore gives the reader a sociological look on the history of sex in the U.S. For example, the majority of the first patents are for devices designed to prevent male masturbation (through spikes and electric shocks on the erect penis... ouch!) which was, at the time, considered as the utmost form of evil. But aside from a lot of weird things - and I mean really weird - there's a lot of interesting data, such as the first sex-related patent in 1846 for a contraceptive device.
Amazingly enough, most of the inventions display not only a great sense of technology - ie anti-rape vaginal insertions that chop off the male organ - but also an endless imagination - ie sex furniture.
Lively, entertaining, fun, this book will make you look at sex in a very different way!
- Sex... the tech way
- Published: February 10, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: History
- Writer: Isabelle Hontebeyrie
- Isabelle Hontebeyrie's BC Writer page
- Isabelle Hontebeyrie's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
:-))) One («spiking their erect penises») could most certainly explain the other («obsessive westward expansion and taking pot shots at scurrying Native Americans»).
A fact not mentionned in history books! :-)
Such "intimate" activity explains quite a bit of early-American behavior indeed.....
Spikes and electric shocks? Now that's stimulating ... not!
Fascinating - thanks Isabelle and welcome!
Dear Isabelle,
I think you would enjoy immensely "The Technology of Orgasm," by Rachel P. Maines (ISBN 0801866464). I've been meaning to review it for Blogcritics, but haven't yet gotten around to it. I'd love to read your review of the book.
All best,
Joe Stirt
http://bookofjoe.com
'world's only blogging anesthesiologist'
Famous NBC memo quote:
"Corporately, we believe in orgasms."
How would a corporate orgasm manifest itself?
Corporate orgasm? Isn't it when stocks go up? :-)
And faking a corporate orgasm is... well... look at Enron!
Enron?
Enron: one of Wall Street's biggest scandals. The accounting execs artificially inflated profits of the company.
Actually, I was responding to Joe's question at the same time you were - great minds think alike.
LOL Oups! I was kinda surprised by the question...!
So you think he called himself Ken Lay to compensate for something?
I am certain Ken Lay believes in corporate orgasms....
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I am relieved to hear that pre-Civil War Americans were busy shocking and spiking their erect penises to death rather than participating in such mundane tasks as obsessive westward expansion and taking pot shots at scurrying Native Americans.