Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society - Sex Toys

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

Hidden in bedside tables or proudly displayed on mantelpieces, wherever you keep them (if you do), sex toys have come a long way since the first phallic-shaped object was found around 30,000 years ago.But before they were arriving through our post boxes in unmarked, tracked packages, what did sex toys look like? What were they made from? And why were doctors using them to treat... back pain?!Kate is joined Betwixt the Sheets by writer, sex and gender historian Hallie Lieberman to discuss the first dildo, the myth of the vibrator, and more…Find out more about Hallie's book, Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy, here.*WARNING this episode includes fruity language and themes of an adult nature*Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Seyi Adaobi.Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.This episode includes music by Epidemic Sound and an archive clip from public vocational video from 1940. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. Just a heads up. This episode, we will be discussing all manner of sexiness, sex toys and general obscenities. So if that's too much or if that's not your thing, get out while you still can. The tool is stationary while the work is moved back and forth.

Hidden in bedside tables or proudly displayed on your mantelpiece. Wherever you keep them, if you do keep them, sex toys have come a long way since the first phallic-shaped objects were found around 30,000 years ago. But before arriving through our post in unmarked tracked packages, where did sex toys start out? Yep, you've guessed it. We're obviously going betwixt the sheets to find out. What do you look for a man? Oh, money, of course. You're supposed to rise when an adult speaks to you.

I make perfect confidence of whatever my boss needs by just turning a knob and pushing the button. Yes, social courtesy does make a difference. Goodness, I feel for them. Goodness has nothing to do with it, Jerry. Hello, and welcome back to Betwixt the Sheets, the history of sex scandal in society, with me, Kate Lister. Did you know that the global sex toy market was worth $27.17 billion US dollars in 2019, and that was before the pandemic? The industry is expected to be worth over $80 billion by 2030, meaning that there are items of all shapes and sizes made of silicone and rubber, a bit of leather here and there, lit it all around

bedrooms and red rooms all across the world. But what do you think the first sex toy was made of? Charlotte and Sophie were sent out, yet again, to ask some unsuspecting strangers what they thought. What was the first sex toy in? Yeah. It'd have to be a dildo, surely. Definitely. There's what? Cockering. Copper bide. I potentially think it could be something to go in the bum bum, right? And it was probably made of wood or some sort of porcelain. I am absolutely buzzing to be joined today by Hallie Lieberman, writer, sex and gender historian, and author of Buzz, The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy,

to discuss the first dildo, the myth of the vibrator and swathe. so much more. So thank you so much for joining me Betwixt the Sheets. I am absolutely buzzing. It's sex toy historian, Hallie Lieberman. And thank you, Kate, so much for having me on your podcast. I'm a big fan of your book, of your work, so I'm very excited to be here. Hallie, I want to know your expertise. I mean, as long as there's been people, we've been carving dicks and sticking stuff places that we probably shouldn't have been

putting them. But what's like the oldest sex toy that has been found? Okay, so the oldest sex toy that has been found is like 30,000 years old. It's a stone phallis. There are debates found in like the whole felds cave in Germany and their debates whether like these stone fallaces were dildos because there are no pictures of them like shoving them in orifices. So some people think that they were ceremonial, but it could be a sex toy. So that's all this. Whenever they unearth, what's clearly a dick, they're then in shoes a big conversation about what is it? And you can't say it's a sex toy because we don't know. It could be a coat hook. It could be ceremonial is what they usually say. So like, what's the argument for?

This one at 28,000 years old is definitely a dildo. And what's the argument against? Yeah. So I don't think people are saying, It's definitely a dildo. It's more like, this is something it could be. And then the argument against will be like, oh, it could be a spear sharpener. That's the other thing. And it's like, why do we need to sharpen our spears on dick-like objects? Like, we don't do that today.

Should. I would love that. But for me, like, when I was researching it, it's like this kind of male fear of dildos and sex toys goes back so far. so even if we see something that's clearly a dick, sometimes other excuses are made for them or they're dismissed in some way. So that's possibly the earliest sex toy that we've got. Let's like jump it on thousands of years

because we've got to talk about the vibrator in the room, don't we? That myth. You know the myth that I'm talking about, Halley. Take it away. Yeah. So there's a myth that probably some of your listeners have heard of, which is that vibrators were used to treat hysteria in women in doctors' offices in the early 1900s. And so the idea was women went into doctor's office.

They said, oh, I'm complaining of hysteria. And what was hysteria? It could be anything. It could be just general malaise. It could be anxiety. It was this catch-all diagnosis. And so they would complain and doctors would say, hey, I've got a great treatment for you take off your britches or whatever they were calling them then and I'll put this vibrator

on your clitoris. I will give you paroxysm as the story goes and you will be cured and a paroxysm is orgasm. But the cure will only last for a short time. You have to keep coming back. And the reason that vibrators were used as part of the myth is meant hands were getting tired, male doctors hands were getting tired giving hand jobs to women for history. Now, this on its face of it sounds absurd and untrue, and it is. But this myth has lasted forever and it won't die and there are lots of reasons for that. And it's been the subject of two films as well, hasn't it? It has, one starring Maggie Gyllenhaal.

So it definitely seeped into popular consciousness. So how do you go about dismantling that? How did you prove that that didn't happen? Yeah, well, it started a long. time ago when I was in grad school and the assignment was check the citations of a book you're using for your research. And I did it. And so did the whole class. And I was the only one whose results were, like at first I thought I was like, I'm misunderstanding this. I mean, grad school, none of these citations are adding up to what the book is saying. There's something I'm missing.

And my professor said that you're absolutely right. These don't add up. And then I actually went to the archives, Bakken Museum in Minnesota, and checked all our citations and found out none of them said this practice was happening. The problem wasn't that I found this out. The problem was getting anybody to believe me. No one wanted to publish it. They're like, oh, you're only a grad student.

You don't know what you're talking about. Like I was trying to like get it peer reviewed and published. And they were like, no, no, you're assaulting and disgusting. in the field and it's like, I don't care anything about the scholar. I just want the truth out there. And that made me cynical. It took me almost seven, eight years to get it published. And finally, it was just like I gave up and just threw it to a new journal. I was like, this journal just came out. They have nothing to lose and it worked. Thank God. And the earliest ones are stone, but just speaking of how people made sex toys, Halley, like what were they making them of?

presumably the stone model would have been replaced pretty quick. Like if you were in, I don't know, medieval, what would you make a dilder out of a medieval period? Yeah, I mean, there were dildos made out of all sorts of things like leather. There were dildos made of ivory. Those were like the main things until like rubber came along. And when rubber came along in the mid-1800s, well actually, rubber was before then. that that was when it was vulcanized. So there were these rubber dildos, except that they would crack

because they were like this bad material, like, before vulcanization. And they couldn't be sanitized and they had a strong smell. And so that's what, there were a lot of rubber dildos. I've seen like polished wooden ones, but these must have been quite pricey. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention wood. Yes, dildos were something like for the upper classes. These were not something that, like, right now, anyone can afford a dildo. We can go to Amazon.com.

We could all order dildos one second. It would be like $5 cheap. But, yeah, back then they were expensive. They were handmade. You know, we didn't have an assembly line making them. And so it was upper classes owning them. And just from my research, it looks like they were marketed to men to buy for their wives, the men who weren't intimidated by them.

I mean, but they weren't that widespread. They weren't like what we would think of today. In the 1950s, so sex was illegal in the U.S. And sex toys started being illegal in the U.S. in the 1870s with Comstock, who was this anti-vice reformer. And one of the ways to get around these sex toy laws was to sell things as marital age, which these laws stayed on the books for like 100 years. We still have anti-sex toy laws. in Alabama in the U.S.

But there were two ways to get around it. One was to say it was for use in like a marriage relationship and it was for help with penetration during sex. So it was okay to sell a dildo that was a strap on penis that was designed as a marital aid for a man to wear during sex with his wife. And it would specifically say this. And this is even in the 60s and 70s during the so-called sexual revolution. That's how dildos were sold.

even though women were obviously in men using them to masturbate. If you sold them that way, you could get arrested. Even if you sold them this other way, I've looked at the records and there are complaints saying it's obscene. When they were selling it like that, this is a marital aid that a husband can use. Was that like the way that herbal heys or sold as air fresheners, like everyone knows it's bullocks, everyone knows what it's being used for really? Or were they actually trying to sell it to men to strap on?

It was a little bit of both because when I talked to manufacturers, they said there were men who wrote in who were impotent. I mean, because this was before Viagra. This was before there were treatments. So it was a little bit about, but I do think people knew there were jokes about marital aids. Like, I think people knew that also this was their way of getting around the laws. I mean, vibrators were sold as marital AIDS too, even though mostly used during masturbation. And there were some sex devices. This is during second wave feminism. in the 1970s and 1960s or vibrators, there's one called the prelude. And it was called that because it was considered a prelude to sex.

And it very clearly said, it was penetrated. You're going to learn how to please yourself so that you can have sex with your husband better. And that was kind of the mentality and that was a way to get around the laws and the stigma. Oh, my, I've never heard of that. So it was almost like this is a dress rehearsing. Dildo. I love that term. Exactly. Yeah. Just to take you back, because I think that we'd need to just go back to the Victorians, who invented them? Who invented the vibrator? Do we know who invented it? So, Granville, who, Joseph Warburneville, who mentions in her work, was invented the electromechanical

vibrator from that era. So he invented the plug-in vibrator, but before then, there were vibrators, There are hand crank vibrators, one called the VD, super popular in England and U.S. Wait a minute, the vibrator was called VD. Oh, that's a marketing error. It is. Oh, no. It's like V-E-E-D-E. But the hand crank, it was like, so you'd crank, crank, crank, crank, and then it would vibrate.

But it was like, I mean, it would hurt your hand. It's like you might as well masturbate. And this kind of vibrator, actually a hand crank vibrator, came back on the market about 10 years ago as like earth-friendly vibrator, like one that didn't require batteries. It was like this eco-vibrator. An eco-vibrator. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Okay. And Mr. Granville, when he invented this, you can't see any here, but what it looks like is it looks like a lead weight on a piece of.

string that kind of, he called it percussing, didn't he? Like it kind of taps the body. Is that right? Like it's not what you think of when you think of a vibrator. And it's certainly not anything that you'd want near your genitals. So what was it supposed to be used for? So there were like attachments that he discussed in his writings. But one of the earliest uses he mentioned was for impotence. So it was male impotence. And so it was for vibrating the perennium was one of the earliest uses and sexual uses. He actually said don't use it on women initially. And he was worried about that.

But yeah, I mean, he tried it for all ailments. That's kind of like what vibratory massage was, like sciatica. You know, they were trying it for deafness at the time. Deafness. Oh, my God. Yeah, you can see old vibrator ads and they have like attachments. it's, you know, go in your ear. So he kind of threw it out there as a doctor basically saying, like, we're going to try out these different treatments. Here's what I have tried out. Here's a tool that people can use. And doctors took it and ran with it. And even cancer, like they tried to treat

cancer with it. I mean, we're talking about the 1800s. We don't have antibiotics. Medicine is so kind of archaic. I was just reading about leeches being used on the vagina last night. Anyway, so we have all sorts of bad treatments and the vibrator was thought like, hey, like this isn't going to hurt people. They feel good. Let's try it for indigestion. And it actually works for that. People do it for babies. But anyway, all these different things. Whoa, no. So I go back. Whoa. Vibrators on babies for stomachache. Well, okay, so they marketed vibrators to babies back. I mean, obviously babies don't mind.

That's okay. And can't purchase them. It was in the ads. Like it would have for all age groups. So this is ads we're talking about in 1910s around then. I mean, they were trying to sell this product. It wasn't entirely sexual. It was marketed as this kind of cural.

It's like CBD of today or snake or. of them. So they're trying to get the biggest market that they could, and it would be babies, it would be grandparents, it would be all ages. And just to clarify, these weren't vibrators that you were supposed to use sexually. These were like actual massaging things that you were supposed to use. Nobody in their right mind was actually suggesting that you use it sexually on all ages. No, so basically it was, and I'm just going to, because I have it here, I'm going to hold it up,

but this is a vibrator from the era, and it was basically like had this big, heavy motor and lots of different attachments. And so a flat attachment might be what, which is on here right now, which of course people can't see, but it's like this flat rubber disc. And they would say, you know,

you could massage a baby with that, but you could also order in a catalog where some came with a phallic attachment, which looked like a dildo, or a rectal attachment. And those were usually $150 or $2 or more expensive than anything else. And that was for vaginal and uterine problems or for impotence or rectal problems.

That was not marketed for kids. So. So obviously no one can see the vibrator that you are holding up. But if I described that, I'd have to say it looks, you know, like the old-fashioned whisks that you used to have with like the two attachments? Like if you don't have the metal prongs in it, It looks like that, but with, like you said, a flat thing that kind of pats on the skin, like, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Yeah, and it's interesting that you mentioned that because that same motor that was used for the vibrator was used for a bunch of different things, including vacuums, including blenders, which is similar. This motor was used for small appliances, like, you know, they just try to sell for everything. Vibrators want a lot. See, think of that next time. you're whisking your eggs for that technology. When did they stop looking like a weird egg whisk? Because obviously the traditional shape, like the cock shape has been quite consistently popular, hasn't it? Like through, and you know, like one of the weirdest things that I've found reference to, just jumping around now. But when they find like 18th century dildos, they have plungers in them

to like simulate cum. Like, surely one of the best things about a dildo is there's no come. Who designed that? Men, of course. Yeah, no, the plunger dildos are really interesting and they'll say like you can put warm milk in them. And it's like, gross. No, I don't want warm milk in my cooch. Ugh.

Oh, just the thought process there of like, well, they must want the grand finale. Yeah. They can't possibly want this. And like, what were these women doing? What, they make their dildo come? And then they go, oh, well, we better go to sleep now because it's all over. What?

I know. Dildo's gone to sleep now. It's pretty ridiculous. And that is like kind of the story of Dildo design is hyper realism. Like the assumption when they're designed by men is that women want sex toys that look exactly like penises. I mean, some sex toys designers look at their own dick and made them all of it. But actually one of my favorite sex toy designers did that who worked with the feminist. movement later, Gossinil Duncan. He was paraplegic engineer who was designing a sex toy to allow himself

to have sex with his wife because they got engaged before he got injured. So stick a pin in that. We're coming back to that one. But when did they start being marketed penis shaped on mass market and not like an egg with? Yeah. So I tried to find this. This was hard to find, but I believe the first one I have ever seen was the 1950s. That doesn't mean they didn't exist before them. And that was hard plastic. They would use the hard plastic outside. And I think it was in part because of battery technology,

because these were battery. Oh, of course, yeah. Yeah. But those actually, so I saw one from the 50s, but you really start to see those in the 60s. And again, even though they look like dicks, like, you know, abstract dicks. In ads from the 60s, you see women holding them up to the 60s. face going, ooh, personal massager. And it's like, uh, what?

Has anyone in the history of sex toys used one of those neck massages to massage their neck, you know? I wouldn't guess no. Or maybe like... No, that never happened. Yeah, never. But tell me about this guy, the paraplegic guy who invented a sex toy. I had no idea. Yeah, so his name, like I said, was Gausdonl Duncan, who was born Grenada. He immigrated to the U.S., and so he went to Brooklyn, met this woman.

Well, he'd known her from his town, got engaged to her. But yeah, he was in this accident. The International Harvester Company in Chicago where truck bed fell on him. He became paralyzed from the waist down, and he was devastated because he was a ladies' man. He had four kids from four different women before this happened. And a skilled calypso dancer. This guy was amazing. Oh.

But I know. It was really sad, but he was like a very positive person. And so he did months and months of rehab. He got married in the rehab facility, like to Angela, this woman he was in love with. But he said it was rehabbing. No one mentioned sex. And this was in the 60s. No one.

And they didn't see, you know, disabled people, sexual beings. And he's like, well, what am I going to do? How am I going to have sex? And there were some sex toys on the market. They sucked. He was like an inventor. So he went to this conference in 1971 in Indianapolis, a disabled conference. He said, would any of you buy a dildo or a device for handicapped people, a bunch of hands raised up?

So he decided to design one. He actually ended up inventing the silicone dildo. No way. Yeah. Oh, my God. What was his name again? Gossonl Duncan. All hail.

Oh, my goodness. What an, that's an un-sung hero. Oh, my God, yes. And he was dark-skinned and was annoyed that all the sex toys came in Caucasian. That was like flesh color was Caucasian flesh. And if you wanted anything else, it was like, I'm holding this up thinking we're on video, but it was like just matte black color, not skin color. So he worked with GE to design the silicone and to get different pigments that showed black and brown sticking colors.

So he was a real revolutionary. My God, that's incredible. And so when he pioneered the inclusive range of silicone dildos, was that not for his pleasure, presumably, but so he could pleasure a partner? Yes. What a legend. Oh, yeah.

He's absolutely a legend. This is like a great immigrant story. But yeah, it was initially for Angela and for the disabled community, but he couldn't sell enough. He was making his basement. Brooklyn, literally like making molds, like pouring them in there, curing them and selling them. And people would send him these letters so he'd advertise. And he would, you know, they'd say, this is my disability.

And then he'd say, well, what are your penis measurements? And they would send him little pieces of string to measure the circumference. And he would make one to their specifications. I don't know how that's managed to be really hot and kind of cute at the same. time. That's just like, oh. Right, well, he deserves a plaque or some kind of national day. Don't let anyone tell you immigration doesn't reap positive benefits. My God. I'll be back with Hallie and more naughty talk in just a bit. I can talk about him a lot, but you mentioned there about Dildo's Sex Toys and the Feminist Movement. What did Dildas? Actually, when I said that out loud,

is you could be forgiven that the feminist movement might be about going, we don't need dildos. Like, you know, like any getting rid of the penis, you know, the more radical stuff. But so how does that fit together then? Yeah, so in the 70s and 60s, most feminists weren't talking about sex toys. Okay, let's just be honest here.

But when they started talking about sex toys, they were against them for the reasons you say. Like, they were physical embodiments. Yeah. physical embodiments of the patriarchy. So it was like if you're you know fighting against a patriarchy at day and then you know masturbating with a giant dildo at night you're a hypocrite. That was the view of a bunch of feminists. So there was that kind of thing like you can't do it in lesbians. There was a stereotype at the time that all lesbians just really wanted penises.

Like they actually like lesbian sex wasn't satisfying and what they wanted were dicks. And so a lot of lesbians kind of internalized that view. And I didn't mean to make a pun, or wasn't even a pun, but anyway. And they said, we won't use a dildo because for, you know, these political or philosophical reasons, especially because everyone assumes we like them. And penetration is male. And so a lot of lesbians and feminists who wanted to use dildos did it on the down low. And they were in the closet about it. surreptitious dildo use absolutely and so then with vibrators basically vibrators had a mixed reception as well so betty dodson this masturbation pioneer so she was a second wave feminist pioneer but she was like

hated by a lot of other second wave feminist so she was this artist who couldn't have an orgasm during sex with her husband and she's like what is this what's going on she ended up learning about the clitoris she ended up learning about vibrators. So a lover was getting a haircut and they used a vibrator on a scalp because they didn't back then in the 60s. I confirmed it with my father. He's like, it felt good. Can you imagine today if you just go to the haircut and their head just whipped out a rampant

rabbit? I'll just finish off here. Oh my God. They would probably get arrested. And rightly so. Yeah. That's right. Like if my hairdresser did that, I would be so terrified to probably call the police. So anyway, that's how she got introduced to it.

She started using Hitachi magic, well, the precursor to that. And she wanted to share this knowledge with other feminists. So she started these kind of groups where there were these liberating masturbation groups where she'd teach people about their genitals because a lot of women were insecure about their labia and still are. and the requirement was you had to get naked before you entered the group. And that was like the worst part for most women. And then you get naked and she'd basically say you were normal and, you know, you'd look at your vagina and labia and then she taught women how to masturbate.

And a lot of people in these groups had their first orgasms. So she was the real push to bring vibrators in the feminist movement. That doesn't mean they were accepted. She was criticized so much for doing this. And just to make, I mean, again, she can enter my sex pantheon Hall of Fame. But just to clarify, when you're talking about vibrators here, we're not necessarily talking about the fake dicks that vibrate. We're talking about like specifically for the clit. They're called wands.

Yes. Is that right? Like the Hitachi wand or as I like to call it, that one. Yeah, that's exactly what we're talking about. Things that were at the time sold as gifts for Mother's Day in the New York Times. No. Yes. And so we still have these two kind of uses in culture.

We have Betty Dotson going, I've had 100 orgasms from this and you should too. It's changed my life. You don't need a man anymore. And then you have, oh, buy this for your mom like on May 8th. And so it was this weird. And we still kind of have that in our culture, but it was this weird kind of double life of the vibrator. And Hitachi wasn't admitting the uses. And she's like, Hitachi should have sponsored me.

So these really were massaging devices to start with. They really were. And Hitachi just kind of just went, no, no, no, no, for a long time. Exactly. But they knew what was going on. So it was like a tacit acceptance. Like they didn't tell her to stop, but they never said until I think it was 2010 or something, 2015, then they, you know, admitted they were first.

2015 was when they finally went, yeah, all right, we know what you do. doing. That's wild. It took a long ass time. And yeah, so it's pretty crazy. But she introduced them and, you know, she made this larger philosophical argument, which I mentioned briefly, which was like,

you shouldn't have to depend on a man for an orgasm that women are having these like financial relationships with men where they're trading financial security with sex, but they're not even having orgasms for men. So don't worry about it. you know, make your own money, your sex isn't tied up to a man, use a vibrator, free yourself. And that was a very threatening message to men, even to other women, to gender roles and marital roles at the time. Wow.

We've come a long way then, aren't we? Because talking about sex and pleasure, I mean, I would have said that's a central part of the feminist conversation. Or maybe that's just the conversations that I'm having. But like making sure that you get yours. Yeah. The third way feminism has come a long way. Absolutely. So at the time, like Betty Ferdan argued like a thousand vibrators can't make a difference in the status of women.

And others were arguing like get rid of this orgasm politics. But now I think, you know, I mean you see on Instagram people promoting vibrators even though it's against policy to market, openly market sex toys on Instagram. or Facebook. But anyway, you see people posting things talking about the orgasm gap and how women deserve to have as many orgasms as men. And so, yeah, it's shifted. But I still think that women are reticent about demanding orgasms in a relationship. I still think there's a lot of public-facing stuff that says that, but I still think they're in the bedroom itself. Some women are still uncomfortable about that. And by some women, I'm thinking of one of my friends in particular. Who I won't pay you.

I know. So I think that that is true. We're better, but I think we're still on this script of like when he has an orgasm, that's kind of it. Yeah. You know? And that's, no, no, no, no.

You get yours. But just while we're speaking about men, sex toys for men, what's their history? Because you think sex toys, you tend to think sex toys for women. I mean, what sex toys are there for men? And what are their history? So, I mean, the biggest, like,

Like is the artificial vagina or pocket pussy. Did you say, of course? Yes. And you shake your head like very knowingly. That is very, very old. I mean, there are ones, I'm sure they're going back further than this, but I've seen like Japanese ones that are like 300 years old that are gorgeous, actually. Fabric.

I mean, I don't know if they worked well. I'm not saying they were great like for use, but they look. pretty. And there were also sex dolls made of fabric and things like that. Yeah, so those have almost as long a history as dildos, but they've never been as written about as much. And I think, again, they aren't as threatening, so they don't have that kind of cachet, whatever. But in the 50s and 60s, they were sold as marital AIDS as well. And they're like these vaginas that look like deflated pool toys. That's the best I can, like the things people wear around their arms, little kids.

Like on bands, yep. Yep. It looks like a deflated version of that and Caucasian flesh colored. And it's sold as a way to, you know, have sex with your wife. So that's how that was sold in the U.S. in the 60s. But what we have today, and there's sex dolls, there's sex robots that are like so low-tech, like they don't really work well. like everyone's afraid of sex robots

and then you look at a video and it's like the head can move. It can't walk. It can't do anything. Like the fear of sex robots outshines the actual reality. But I would say the biggest thing for men are the flashlights.

Wow. I mean, yeah, there's a whole big thing in there about sex robots, but like, you know, my phone won't even hold a charge. Like, what are we going to do with a sex robot for God's sake? But speaking of that,

like, what's the future of sex toys? Where's it going to go? Like, you know, the design, I suppose, is it either goes in or it's something to stick something in and variations on that. But, like, futuristic sex toys, what are we talking? What's coming our way? Yeah, you know, as far as futuristic, I just spent like three days in a sex toy store, actually, for a story. And I was looking, and what struck me is how old-fashioned the technology is. Like, the case looks different. The rabbit vibrator may be in a different color or may be made of silicone, which was a big innovation in the 70s.

But the actual, like, eccentric motor used to power it is the same that we've been using for 100 years. So in a way, the change, I mean, the biggest thing in sex toys is like the womanizer, the air, whatever they call the air suction vibrators. Do you know the womanizer? I'm not familiar with this, but I'm going to make some notes, so carry on. Okay. Yeah, it's a clitoral stimulator, and so it creates like a suction on the clitoris, and it's almost like you're vacuuming. This is terrible when it's describe it, because it's not sexy, but it's almost like you're vacuuming, you're clitoris. Nice.

I like to keep a clean shop. Yeah. These are really popular. So that's like the new technology. But the future is, you know, possibly in things like sex robots, but people have been saying that's the future of sex toys forever and they haven't come to fruition. One of the things that bothers me is sex robots and sex dolls are designed for men, just like in the very few male dolls. So even male dolls designed for gay men are hard to find. And then you see in these sex doll forums, the female users are like, oh my God, this thing's too heavy. I can't move Ken. You know, I can't move Steve around. Like, he weighs 80 pounds, which is a lot. And so they can't move him around and they're like, I can't get off on my sex

doll because he's just got like a regular dick and there's no clitoral stimulation. So that again, designed and have some of the same issues that like having sex with a human is. So there aren't any sex dolls designed for women. Yet sex doll technology is really, you know, expanding, but women have been kind of left out of it. I mean, if it was designed for women of a clitoral stimulator on the mouth, on the genitals, on the anus, who knows, it would just be like a giant clitoral stimulator with hair face or something. Do you think that that's really telling that like sex dolls for men, like a massive success? And when they just made a sex doll for a woman that was just a man, it was shit.

Yeah, I think it says so much. And not only was it shit, there were all these articles, especially in the UK, was like male sex dolls with bionic penises are taking over the world. It's like, no, they're not. Jesus. No, they're not. What about something like virtual reality?

Is that? Because presumably, as soon as they've got that tech, that porn will play a part in that. Well, yeah, so porn is huge for VR right now. Huge industry. There's a lot of money to be made. It's already here. Okay.

And I've got a VR to buy. actually I don't look at porn on it because it's PlayStation and so maybe I could but anyway I play Beat Sabre. But that has become huge and I've interviewed people who make porn for virtual reality and do sort of like cam girl where like you hook up your sex device and this porn star is actually controlling it and I said well have you tried you know doing cam boys for women and that hasn't caught on they haven't really made an effort and even Even like, I mean, a big problem with VR porn is it's male gaze on steroids. So that's what it is.

I know like a few videos created for women. But mostly it's like the man's view of what's sexy. And here are all these women you can have sex with. And it's not designed for women. And I think there's a real misopportunity because I think women could really get into VR porn. God, yeah. I mean, like, you don't want just like the VR where it's just somebody just getting you

off. You want something like to be placed into that scene in Pride and Prejudice where Colin Firth was coming out of the pool and then suddenly the virtual reality takes over and suddenly, yeah, you're doing him. That would sell, right? Oh, my God. Just to have I given away too much of myself there?

No, that would be totally amazing. Like, yes, everyone would love or Bridgerton or, yeah, I mean, it could be a big hit. But again, it's been ignored and that's kind of like my pet peeve is like the leading edge of technology for sex products is again, you know, being directed towards men, even though like the great thing is that vibrators have been accepted on a level that they haven't been accepted since 1915 when we were pretending there was something else. Although still, you could advertise them more widely back then in the States, which is terrible. But yeah, this leading edge, so there's good and bad. Also, the other thing is Tel-Dil.

the communicating via apps. Thanks to the internet, like if you had a vibrator right now and I had this device, I could use my app and make it vibrated. Oh, that's quite clever. hilarious, but clever. I mean, you'd just be buzzing your friends

like when they were trying to do a presentation at work or something, wouldn't you? That's... Yes, that is one of the downsides because they can be hacked. So when this first came out, people were... No. Yeah.

Oh, now there's an error. There's a glitch. It's a real glitch. Like, you do not want someone hacking into your bot plug. Like, that is a nightmare. No, you don't. Of all the things. I have my bank details.

Just don't do that. But I was just thinking, like, yeah, bank details will be preferable. But, I mean, that could be a good, you know, way to destroy a world leader, like a Putin wore a bot plug. And we hacked into it during, like, an important meeting. That would be great. But yeah, so there's issues with that they're trying to fix or they have fixed. And then there's other ones that you and your partner are both wearing a device and you're both controlling it.

And so that stuff's kind of cool. That is kind of cool. Jill, I would love to stay here, chatting with you, but I've got to kind of wrap things up. But the last question that I'd like to ask you is, they were spoken a lot about the history of sex toys. And if anyone wants to know more, Halley's book, Buzz, the history of sex toys, have I got that right? Is that the title? Give me the full title. I don't want to get it wrong.

Yeah, it works. I think it's right. Yeah. Do you think it's right? Go and read that because it's absolutely incredible. But if we've looked at the history and we've spoken a bit about what's coming towards the future, but as someone who studies sex toys for a living, is what is the future that you would like to see for sex toys and women? Like, if you were in charge, what would you roll out? So if I were in charge, I think that I would roll out

A, a sex doll for women, like I described, that had all the clitoral stimulators. That would be one of the things I would do. I would also have more research on women's sexuality at universities so that we can like, and research on sex tech at universities. And there's some millions of dollars of spent on military tech and technologies of death, as I call them. If we spent even a fraction of that on technologies of sex, which could come up with something new. So I feel like that would be the greatest thing to me, is if more research funds were put into this, studying women's sexuality and women's sexual devices.

And men's as well. And men's, but they've been the star of this one for a long time now. I think that, yeah, that would be amazing, wouldn't it? More research, more money, more resources, and more learning around sexuality and pleasure and women's sexuality in particular. Yeah. Amazing.

Oh, Hallie, thank you so much for joining me today. You are an absolute treat. Thank you. This was so much fun. Thank you so much for having me. Like, it was great. I love your book as well. I have it. I read it. I cherish it. Thank you. We should just get together and just talk dick somewhere over a cup of tea. But until then, thank you so much for joining me betwixt the sheets. I hope that you have found this stimulating, intellectually, if nothing else. Thank you so much to Hallie. Lieberman for joining me and sharing your research. If you liked what you've heard,

please don't forget to like, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. In the next few weeks, we've got episodes on royal sex, vasectomies and corsetry. This episode was produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie G. Join me again betwixt the sheets, the History of Sex, Scandling Society, a podcast by History Hit. This podcast includes music by Epidemic Sounds.