Did you know that that the history of the vibrator goes back 2,500 years? A documentary, called Passion & Power: the Technology of Orgasm, by filmmakers, Emiko Omori and Wendy Slick [click here for the film's web site], explores the history or the vibrator form the victorian era through the 1920s (when vibrators first started showing up in blue movies) to the present day. Along the way, the documentary uses the history of vibrators to explore a variety of issues including feminism, orgasms and female sexual satisfaction. You can add it to your Netflix queue here.
Antique Vibrator featured in Passion & Power
Here’s an excerpt from a review by San Francisco Chronicle of the movie:
Among the humorous highlights of “Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm,” a documentary about the history of the vibrator, is Betty Dodson – the “masturbation movement godmother” – proclaiming, “Independent orgasms will lead to independent thoughts. Once a woman has given herself her own best orgasm, she’s on a roll.”
Although such assessments may seem overblown to the current generation of sex-positive women, this doc is a reminder that female sexual satisfaction is a fairly recent concept and one that remains taboo in the more conservative and religious areas of the country.
. . .
However, it is Dodson, the New York sexologist, who is the true star of the movie. She describes with great poignancy and bravado how she was “dumber than s-” about her own sexuality until she began talking with women and men about female pleasure. Then she became a sex activist, holding workshops and writing books. “Sometimes on a Sunday afternoon I’d masturbate for three, four hours,” Dodson says. The vibrator would get so hot, “I learned to hold it with a potholder.”
In a positive review [click here to see full review] in the Village Voice by sex writer Tristan Taormino, offers the following critism:
The film’s screening was followed by a lively Q&A with the filmmakers and several of the women featured in the movie, including Rachel Maines, Betty Dodson, Dell Williams, and Reno. One audience member asked about something that I noted: the glaring omission of any images of pussies. While plenty of flowers bloom on-screen, no vulvas or clits were actually shown. I think this contradicts one of the core messages of the film, about reclaiming knowledge about women’s bodies—especially our genitals. Co-director Wendy Slick admitted from the stage, “We wanted it to be able to reach the mainstream,” though as it is, they don’t yet have a distributor.
Dell Williams, feminist pioneer and founder of Eve’s Garden, is one of the women profiled in the movie, but strangely, she stands alone as a vibe peddler. My other critique of the film is that there is no acknowledgement of the work of sex-positive sex-toy stores in bringing vibrators—along with sex education and empowerment—to the masses. Besides the briefest mention of Good Vibrations, it and others like it (Babeland, A Woman’s Touch) are overlooked.
Film Trailer:
