posted 12-01-2004 10:16 AM                       

quote:

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Those of you who deal with naughty pictures might be interested in the
following...

------ Forwarded Message
From: research@museumofsex.com@museumofsex.com
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 10:31:03 -0500
Subject: Museum of Sex -Request for Participants, Upcoming Exhibition

The Museum of Sex in New York is developing an upcoming exhibition on
historical stag films, an important part of American history. To assist
our efforts, we wish to interview men who have viewed these films and can
give us their personal (anonymous) account.

As the early precursors of modern porn, these stags were silent 10-minute
b/w 16mm films that depicted explicit sex acts between men and women.
Usually these films were created in secret, by private individuals. Most
included a basic plot and some had humorous ?inter-titles? (blank slates
with writing) between sequences.

Produced between 1907 and the mid-1960s, these historical stag films
typically were viewed in an all-male group environment such as a men?s
club/lodge or a fraternity. These stag ?events? would feature many of
these short films. For the most part only American-made stags were
screened, but sometimes foreign produced stags were included in the
line-up.

The Museum of Sex would like to interview men who attended at least one
stag event in the 1950s and/or 1960s in an all-male club or fraternity
environment setting. Men will have an opportunity to tell the story of
their youth (with complete respect to their anonymity) and add to the
academic study of the stag film genre.

We offer a small financial reward to interested male participants and/or
anyone who can put us in touch with such individuals.

If you are interested in being interviewed, please contact Sarah, assistant
curator, at 212.689.6337 x103, or email research@museumofsex.com

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posted 12-02-2004 01:45 AM                       

quote: Steve Kraus

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IIRC Beate Uhse was/is a woman who runs an upscale chain of sex toy shops

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posted 12-02-2004 09:49 AM                   

Allison: I don't think I can top that.

But on the theme of supposed healthful benefits from erotic stimulation I will re-mention that a hundred or so years ago women went to physicians to be treated for a condition known as hysteria, the treatment being, to put it bluntly, having the doctor masturbate them to orgasm. ( Hey, it's a God-given right, yes?)

The doctors hands were tiring and they soon improvised motor-driven stimulators to take over, and thus the vibrator was born. This was documented a ways back in one of the engineering journals of the IEEE. The author later expanded her article into a book.

Just to stay on topic note that the "cover" was blown when these devices appeared in early erotic films:

IEEE Abstract:

quote:

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Abstract:
The case of the electromechanical vibrator, as a technology associated with women's sexuality, involves issues of acceptability rather than legality. The vibrator and its predecessor technologies, including the dildo, are associated with masturbation, a socially prohibited activity until well into the second half of this century. Devices for mechanically-assisted female masturbation, mainly vibrators and dildoes, were marketed in the popular press from the late nineteenth century through the early thirties in similarly camouflaged advertising. A history of the electromechanical vibrator is presented. The electromechanical vibrator emerged in the 1880s as a medical instrument designed to mechanize massage techniques used by physicians since antiquity. Among these was vulvular massage to orgasm as a treatment for hysteria in women. The sexual character of the therapy was camouflaged in medical rhetoric which characterized female arousal as a pathological syndrome from which relief was obtained in the `hysterical paroxysm'. Manual massage was fatiguing and slow, however, and water and steam-powered methods capital-intensive; when portable vibrators powered by line electricity became available at the turn of the century they quickly became dominant medical massage technology until the appearance of vibrators in erotic films in the 1920s eroded the instrument's social camouflage

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posted 12-02-2004 06:06 PM                    

quote:

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The truth according to historian and author Rachel Maines is that though these tools were advertised as chiropractic devices, their salubrious effects were overshadowed by their more ecstatic applications. In her book The Technology of Orgasm, Maines, who spent time researching at the Bakken Library, traces their origins back to the Victorian medical treatment of “hysteria,” a condition thought to be caused by a woman’s failure to come to orgasm. Victorian doctors treated the “disease” by massaging their patients’ genitals, and turned to the electrical gizmos to make their jobs a little easier. According to Maines, as electricity became available across the country, these vibrators saw new domestic uses, though ads for them only hinted at anything beyond simple chiropractic relief.

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Minneapolis is full of fun, secret stuff!

posted 12-02-2004 08:32 PM                      

quote: Allison Parsons

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hey, what about us women?! geez

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Allison, if they were for women, they wouldn't be called stag parties.

posted 12-02-2004 08:56 PM                 

quote: Steve

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I'd like to see the steam powered one!

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posted 12-02-2004 10:09 PM                       

quote: Tim Reed

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Allison, if they were for women, they wouldn't be called stag parties.

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hehe, your right. But I'm sure that secretly women wished there were Doe parties in town.