Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Hysteria

Episode Date: July 26, 2013

Welcome to Sawbones, where Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy take you on a whimsical tour of the dumb ways in which we've tried to fix people. This week: We follow a wandering womb. Mu...sic: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers (http://thetaxpayers.net)

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey folks, just Macro here. Listen, just with a warning ahead of time while this week's show will still be free profanities you've come to Expect from us. We do get into some adult topics. So if you're listening with the kids, you might want to make sure They're comfortable with that. I guess. I don't know what your relationship is like with your kids. I'd have that whole bird's in the beast talk with them before listening to this episode if I were you. You go ahead and knock that out.
Starting point is 00:00:31 Thanks. Saw bones is a show about medical history and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. One is about to books. One, two, one, two, three, four. We came across a pharmacy with the two windows blasted out. We pushed on through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around
Starting point is 00:01:28 Some medicines, some medicines that escalate my cop for the mouth Wow! Hey everybody! It's me, you, but it's just a natural welcome To solve a Miracle to this guy to Madison. You know me. I'm Justin tonight here with you Cross the ages across the radio week.
Starting point is 00:01:57 Okay. Well, I'm Sydney, Mac Corroy. What what's that thing you're doing there honey? Oh, you told me that tonight's show was for the ladies. So of course I'm trying to accommodate them. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I get it. Show for the ladies.
Starting point is 00:02:20 I see what you're going for now. I may have misled you. Yeah, baby. Tell it to me nice and slow. I don't know. I don't know that the ladies are going to enjoy this. Oh, history has proven that to be incorrect. The ladies will most certainly enjoy.
Starting point is 00:02:42 Um, I'm going to have to ask you to be really careful in this particular episode that you don't offend all the women who listen to our show. Oh baby, that seems unlikely. What are we talking about? Okay, I think you're already offending them. Oh yeah. But we're.
Starting point is 00:03:00 She's gonna inspire us, that's me. You never know what you're gonna get shown as well. Okay, see, it's just getting worse. That's me. You never know what you're going to get. Okay. See it's just getting worse. Just getting worse The topic I hoped we could discuss was actually suggested to us by our our very soon to be a sister-in-law Rachel Hey Rachel She suggested we talk about hysteria. Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if my sensual voice was the right call for this topic. This is of course for the ladies. So I guess in that regard, I was 100%
Starting point is 00:03:35 correct. It is for the lit well, could we say women is for women? It's for the women. Oh, that was worse. Don't ever say women like that again. Just don't say women anymore. Just, yeah. So why? What are we talking about that could be so offensive? So the concept of hysteria is one that you may not be familiar with now, Justin, because it doesn't exist anymore.
Starting point is 00:03:59 No, that's not true. I've heard hysteria. I've heard people mention hysteria before. Well, the word certainly exists, but the idea of it as a, as a malady of women is outdated. It's no longer accepted. So it was a malady? It was like a sickness? Yeah, so hysteria, the condition hysteria, the illness, dates back honestly to like 1900 BC. They found Egyptian papyruses, papyri, papyrri?
Starting point is 00:04:29 Papers. Papers. That documented a condition where women were, they weren't behaving themselves and they were very upset and they were kind of nervous and they documented a nervous condition at that time that they identified as hysteria. Of course, they didn't call it that because it's actually a Greek word. What did they call it, do you know?
Starting point is 00:04:51 No, I mean, it wasn't really a term. It was just pictures they were telling, yeah, of like really women who were really freaked out. Just going nuts. And it was already, the reason that they identified it as the condition that the Greek Slater called hysteria is that they indicated that a woman's uterus or womb, as you may colloquially refer to it, was moving around inside their body. Right, that's bound to happen.
Starting point is 00:05:21 No. No. No. And that's actually where the term hysteria comes from. It's hysteria or wandering womb from the Greek hysteria for uterus. So as your uterus migrates around inside your body, it causes you to stress. Now, Sydney, what causes the, what causes the womb to start migrating? Is it just get that wanderlust? Get here in the call of the open road and want to see what's going on with the kidneys or why does the womb to start migrating. Is it just get that wanderlust? Could hear the call of the open road
Starting point is 00:05:45 and wanna see what's going on with the kidneys? Or why does the womb start trucking? Well, in all honesty, Justin, it doesn't. Okay. So that's the first thing you need to know. But this idea had persisted and Plato actually had a theory. So in fourth and fifth century Greece, Hippocrates, held this belief, Plato wrote about it in Tameas. And he
Starting point is 00:06:08 likened the uterus to a living creature that wandered around the body largely in response to smells. Okay. So it's like a bloodhound that you store your babies in. He actually referred to the uterus as an animal within an animal. Cool on several levels, though. He did it not so much I can't imagine he was popular with the ladies with that kind of But in that but in that it in those days the society was even more patriarchal than we have now
Starting point is 00:06:38 So maybe they just assumed well his name. He's named after Plato. He probably knows what's going on Do you mean named after Plato, the Plato stuff? Right. He was named in its honor, like the, the dough toy. I may have taken my persona as the guy who doesn't know about the thing we're talking about. I may have, I may have overstepped. I'm going to overshot with that one. I'm going to walk back back. I think you overshot with that one. I think you overshot. Uh-huh.
Starting point is 00:07:07 And you know about something, presumably. There are things. There are things you know about. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, yeah, actually, I played a believe that the uterus moved in response to smells so that in good smells, it would move towards them and with bad smells, it would move away, which was actually a way that you could move the uterus back to its expected position. It just puts bacon on the tongue. Well, if you think it's, sure, if you actually, if you think it's too high, just put something that smells good down, you know, what smells good to a womb? I mean, I think that pretty much what they believe smelled good to women. So floral
Starting point is 00:07:56 smells, she stores. Okay, see, cross the line. Was that good? Cross the line. See, I'm really worried about doing episodes about women's stuff because I love, I mean, I'm a very, you know, I'm very progressive and I'm very, I like to think I'm very aware of my privilege. I like to think I just sometimes I'm trying to say stuff that's funny and I just say stuff that's not the right thing to say. I know. You're trying though. You promise to tell me if I'm trying to say stuff that's funny. This is a stuff that's not the right thing to say. I know, you're trying though. You promised to tell me if I'm like offensive.
Starting point is 00:08:29 I'm gonna, I believe me, I will tell you. Okay. So the uterus moves towards, you know what, you know what, it would be a good thing for you to say Justin. Tell me. You know what smells best to a woman? What?
Starting point is 00:08:39 Equality. Hahaha. Try that on for size. I will. Oh well. Man. We'll stand to that truth. So by second century Rome, this idea was still widely held. And Galen who wrote a lot of medical opinions at the time said that he believed that the
Starting point is 00:09:01 problem was that women basically weren't freeing themselves of their, I'm going to have to just go ahead and say what he called it, of their female semen enough. Okay. So during, they believe, Gailin sounds familiar to me. Where have we talked about Gailin before? We talked about him in the, I think in the bloodletting episode. Oh, he had a yeah, he was an early physician and Rome and he wrote many opinions on many things. Many of our ideas where different medical concepts come from originate there.
Starting point is 00:09:39 Some wrong, some right. Galen, got you. This one wrong. I strike Galen. So, so this is also why at the time hysteria began to be known as the woman, the widow's disease, because the idea is that basically intercourse could relieve hysteria. Good job, man. And so if a woman was no longer married and wasn't regularly engaging in sexual activity Then she would become hysterical and so if she didn't have a husband or a male partner But it would have been a husband at the time As a physician you could always kind of do her a favor in the name of science and the Hippocratic oath Gross, yeah gross caveman doctors will call it gross doubt in the name of science and the Hippocratic oath. Gross.
Starting point is 00:10:25 Gross caveman doctors. We'll call it. We'll call it what they call it, pelvic massage. Shut up. Yes, pelvic massage. So physicians at the time, now this idea, we'll talk about it in a little bit, really didn't take hold until much later.
Starting point is 00:10:42 But this is where it first came from. That is how you could relieve a woman's hysteria is by causing a hysterical peroxism. Go on. A.K.A. orgasm. Got it. So they knew about it even then. Well, they didn't equate the two at the time. One of our many misconceptions that we've cured up over the millennia that the female orgasm exists. We've dispelled that one. I've personally dispelled it many, many, many times.
Starting point is 00:11:14 Many, many, many, many times. Many times. So the prevalent idea at the time was basically that if a woman wasn't having sex with men, her uterus was sad. And she would become hysterical. There were conflicting opinions at the time, soreness or sereness, sereness, who is known as kind of the father of obstetrics and gynecology actually.
Starting point is 00:11:43 He had an opposite approach. He advocated that you don't have sex and instead just, you know, get a massage, take a bath, hit the gym, treat yourself. Treat yourself. Treat yourself. That's right. Eat some chocolate. All of these are horribly sexist views of women, but that was kind of the only way when people viewed women at the time. Right. So, although considering that our last suggestion
Starting point is 00:12:13 was to let your doctor have sex with you, I think the hot baths were pretty good. Oh, no, no. That's a fair point, Justin, but let me clarify. Your physician was not supposed to have sex with you. This was a medical procedure. So, just like our female listeners today, we'll be familiar with when you go to get a pelvic exam, and it's very sterile.
Starting point is 00:12:37 You're covered in a sheet and you put your legs and stir-ups, and the doctors doing what they do down between your legs. This is the same kind of situation. It was all manual. That's what we're talking about. Okay. So, just to be clear, still wrong, still gross, but not quite the same. So she did it herself? No, he did it.
Starting point is 00:13:04 Just use his hands. No, he did it. Just use his hands. Oh, okay. All right. Thanks. You're welcome. Now, sorry. And also, sorry.
Starting point is 00:13:13 It's basically all the time. That's just a lot of time. You should just keep saying that throughout this episode. I plan on it, actually. Now from what I have read of medicine, you know, in our brief journey with this show so far, the middle ages, the dark ages, were pretty much a time when everything was gross always. Okay, and then you're scientific.
Starting point is 00:13:38 That's my opinion, because at the time it seemed like everybody, everything just smelled bad, and so that was pretty much what everybody thought the problem with everything was, and because at the time it seemed like everything just smelled bad. And so that was pretty much what everybody thought the problem with everything was. And so the solution was always to make something smell better by inserting a suppository with something with some poperiana somewhere or use a SAV there. And that was usually what doctors suggested at the time. Oh, here's a tincture, just rub it down below and things will smell better and then you'll feel great.
Starting point is 00:14:10 Now, it's important, I think, to like, we're going so far down this treatment path. Like, it's important to remember, I guess, that this is made up, right? Absolutely, yes, if I haven't. Like, first of all, it's manifestations for whatever they think hysteria was. So, okay, hysteria, first of all,
Starting point is 00:14:34 it could have been anything that a woman exhibited that was considered, you know, in proper behavior, but specifically nervousness, faintness, insomnia. If you were having muscle spasms, shortness, insomnia. If you were having muscle spasm, shortness of breath, if you're irritable, if you didn't want to have sex, or if you did want to have a lot of sex, if you lost your appetite,
Starting point is 00:14:55 or you wanted to eat a lot more, or just the general statement, a tendency to cause trouble. God. All of those were symptoms of hysteria. So it's basically a sort of catch-all for, you're not acting the way you're supposed to act. Exactly, it probably originated from women
Starting point is 00:15:15 who were not interested in having sex with men, and that idea would have been considered preposterous. Do you think that, you mentioned the widows, you know, calling it the widows, you know, training at calling it the widows disease? Do you think that some of that may be considering the age of most women in that category? Do you think so? It could have been connected to menopause because obviously, you know,
Starting point is 00:15:36 we didn't understand that whatsoever. Oh, certainly. I think I think it's what we would consider like a bucket diagnosis. It doesn't really mean anything. It's just where you put a bunch of symptoms that aren't already otherwise assigned. If you don't know what's going on, call it hysteria. And, you know, it's probably the first documented nervous disorder among women. So it was the first time a psychiatric disorder was diagnosed in women. And they pretty much said, well, women aren't that interesting,
Starting point is 00:16:06 they aren't that complicated. They were considered inferior to men, so they probably only have one psychiatric problem. We'll just name it the same thing. I mean, that was really the prevalent idea. If you, you know, in the middle ages, we have, you know, weird saves and spositories, but there were also women who were exercised for this it was blamed on demonic possession if you didn't know
Starting point is 00:16:29 what was causing it well and if your treatments didn't work well then it was probably the devil. So we we tried spositories, saves and stuff in the middle ages. What do we try next? So by the 1600s Nathaniel Heimor and English surgeon put together that this was probably an orgasm, this hysterical peroxism that we thought was still the prevailing idea of the cure for hysteria was probably just an orgasm. That was when we finally put that together.
Starting point is 00:17:02 And because I can see the sheet in front of you, I don't want to spoil the punch line, but why don't you go ahead? He also said that knowing this is essentially useless because achieving a female orgasm is pretty much impossible. And he likened it to trying to rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time. Hey, listen, the fan you're. My brother, my five centuries removed brother.
Starting point is 00:17:26 I'm there with you, man. So I thought, you know, I like that concept that well, we know what's causing it. We know what to do about it, but. Well, it might as well try to catch a unicorn. Who can do that? Yeah, the cure might as well be leprechaun gold. Like we have no ability to achieve this.
Starting point is 00:17:45 Our buddy Thomas Siddenham I believe you may remember him from our opium episode. He ranked it the second most common disease he got in on it too. Yeah, of course. And said that pretty much at some point in their lives all women are going to get it. Which just underlines the fact that this was just it was a bucket diagnosis. It was sure if a woman got PMS, she was probably labeled hysterical if she was upset about something normal
Starting point is 00:18:11 or if maybe she just didn't want to do what her husband said or maybe if she wanted to have sex or didn't want to have sex, all of those things. And sure, maybe things that were actual disorders like menopause or not disorders, but you know what I mean, causing actual symptoms like menopause or a disorder like anxiety, everything.
Starting point is 00:18:27 I'll fell into that catch all. The Salem witch trials probably related to hysteria. These women would probably, at the time, have been labeled hysterical. Now, again, this was hysteria caused by, you know, being a witch, demonic possession. But again, this would be another example of women who were behaving badly according to the, you know, moreays of the time labeled hysterical. So this persisted until the 1800s, essentially. So in 1859, they began to tease out kind of the idea that there was hysteria, there was some kind of nervous disorder that was brought on by the pressures of modern society on our poor
Starting point is 00:19:16 fragile female contentances. And it never, I mean, it never occurred to us that like maybe this is not a real thing. Like, we had so many different things that it could be connected to. It maybe is not a single issue. No, opposite. By 1859, Pierre Brickett thought that a quarter of women had hysteria and there was a list of at least 75 symptoms of it, and that was an incomplete list, but it was the best he could do.
Starting point is 00:19:52 So the more things we blamed on hysteria, the more likely we were to die, we just kept saying, well, it's just more common than we thought. It actually, it was, of course, first in Europe, it was diagnosed. And then in the young America, as more women were diagnosed with hysteria, it was a sign that the country was becoming more modern. You're finally, your country is progressive enough to free cool women out. We're quite cosmopolitan now.
Starting point is 00:20:16 We have fully 20% of our women diagnosed with hysteria. We really feel like with just a couple more tall buildings and some faster-paced music, we could get that up to 24, 25% by the end of the century. It really, at this point, though, in the 1800s, that was really when we kind of pinned the problem. Because nobody's still, I mean, since it was on a real thing, you couldn't say what caused it.
Starting point is 00:20:43 There was no evidence as to where it came from. So we really began to pin it on this idea that women were not having enough hysterical peroxisms. And the number one symptom they began citing of hysteria was erotic fantasy and excessive vaginal lubrication. I'm sorry women, I don't mean to laugh. It comes from a place of sadness. I assure you, we're just despicable and I mean I can't do anything for you now. And I am sorry again, I said he predicted.
Starting point is 00:21:20 I am apologizing to you once again. I am the only male representative on the program. So I feel like I'm taking it a little bit of a matter of heat, but I am just totally just wicked sorry. So super, super sorry again. It's actually, we're making jokes about it, but it's a really interesting topic. If you do some reading online, I looked at the National Medical Library at the National Institute of Health and I had a free article that was written kind of charting the progress do some reading online, I looked at the National Medical Library at the National Institute
Starting point is 00:21:45 of Health and I had a free article that was written kind of charting the progress of hysteria through the, I mean, centuries and the way that it shaped our view of women and it's really fascinating how this disease, you can't even call it that, but this concept, this false concept has shaped women's role throughout a Lot of history whether it is the vast majority of history, right? Exactly whether it is as this wild Temptress this you know this thing that is this creature that is prone to leave lead men to sin or this fragile nervous to leave lead men to sin or this fragile, nervous, frail thing that we must protect or, you know, the way that women are accused of using sex as a weapon, holding it over men's heads. All of this gets tied into this concept of hysteria, which was basically a man's way
Starting point is 00:22:38 of saying, this woman isn't doing what I want her to do. And I'm going to color sick. Yeah, and I think it's actually a really instructive example of a society using a male dominant society using the its structural powers. The control it has over the system as a whole rather than a one-on-one I control you. It's the system being built, I mean, it's a rigged game for women while this, you know, any behavior that didn't, wasn't in lockstep with how men saw their role at the time could be blamed on it. And even the women, I think it's interesting to kind of take a quick step back to the middle
Starting point is 00:23:20 ages. Even the women of the time who were, there was a female physician, believe it or not, Chotula de Rujero, even she wrote about hysteria as if it was an actual thing. And the best she could say as well, it's probably not good to, you know, if sex is the cure sex, you know, at the time was still viewed as, you know, kind of a sinful idea for women to just engage
Starting point is 00:23:42 in for their own pleasure. So she advised taking sedatives, youatives, to calm you down, basically quell your sexual desires and take some mint and some musk oil and take an app and get over it. So even women who are writing about it at the time were within that same context. They held the same biases that men had placed on them. Well, and I would imagine this is just extrapolation on my part and probably no small amount of wishful thinking, but I imagine there were probably some women who would take solace in the idea of a disorder that could explain it any feelings that you yourself weren't crazy about or
Starting point is 00:24:21 urges you yourself didn't like. I mean we see that today with disorders and stuff that are not real. But people take a lot of comfort in, you know, some people take a lot of comfort in the idea that this illness is responsible for all of their, you know, any struggles they may have be having in life. So absolutely. No, and I, without naming anything so that we don't cause problems, there are certainly examples of this. I think that some physicians would point to
Starting point is 00:24:51 within our medical lexicon today that are these same concept of a basket diagnosis or a bucket diagnosis that we don't know what it is. What causes it and our symptoms and presentations can be varied, but we're gonna call it all the same thing because that's simpler. But I think what's really important, Justin, that we haven't talked about yet is that starting in the 1850s, we finally got serious about how to treat this awful malady. Thank God.
Starting point is 00:25:20 Let's get those friggin' wombs in their place. Exactly. Now, and let me clarify, at this point, the idea that the womb was actually moving was pretty much done away with. Okay, so we still thought this theory was real, but the cause that we came up for it, we didn't think it was real anymore. No, we pretty much, actually, soreness, if we go all the way back to Rome. Soreness was the first one to say,
Starting point is 00:25:45 you know what, the uterus probably stays in pretty much the same place except for when it's prolapse much, much later in life. So that's probably not the problem. And the idea that this had to do with either sexual repression or sexual desire or something like that became much more prevalent. It was still not well understood. But it is this theory that led to the first treatment, the first kind of prescribed treatment in the 1800s, the pelvic douche. Similar to the idea of a douche that no one should use today, except you just direct a stream of pressured water at the pelvis until you feel better. I mean, I'm going to say that sounds refreshing. Does it, Justin?
Starting point is 00:26:32 I guess. I don't know what it's like in there. I like, I like the simplicity of that. But what I like you in better is that in 1869, there was an American physician, George Taylor, who said, forget that noise. This is America now. We do things steam powered. I'm gonna build the first steam powered vibrator. Thank you very much.
Starting point is 00:26:50 All right. Yep, it was essentially a big table that you were just strapped to that had a hole in it with a vibrating sphere that you stuck in the hole. And ladies loved it. Well, I don't know if they loved it, but I'm sure they used it. Uh, well, I don't know if they loved it, but I'm sure they used it.
Starting point is 00:27:05 You're welcome, women. See, men give us a very small thing and they take away, uh, take it away a vastly larger amount. Hey, hey, you got that in the deal, huh? You have to understand. Go vote. These were, these were medical devices. So as we go through this history,
Starting point is 00:27:26 these were not to be used alone. A woman was not to take her giant steam powered vibrating table to the basement, strap herself to it, and have fun. Honey? Honey. Was that you? I heard it on the stairs. It sounded like, honey, it sounded like someone was pushing a big metal table on the stairs.
Starting point is 00:27:44 You okay? I'll be able to minute. All right, you okay? You need any help? Just a minute. I'll come help you. Lay me alone. It's of the neighborhood men.
Starting point is 00:27:53 Welcome help you carry that metal table on. Now, this was done under the supervision of a physician or at the very least, if you're going to have this in your home, under the supervision of your husband. Don't do this alone. And this continued to apply to the 1880s version when Joseph Mortimer-Granville invented the battery-powered vibrator. It only weighed about 40 pounds.
Starting point is 00:28:14 Perfect. Convenient. Put it in your purse. And physicians were thrilled because you have to remember, up until this point, they were still actively causing hysterical peroxisms for women. This late. Yeah, that's insane. There's actually a great movie about this.
Starting point is 00:28:34 Well, I say it's great. I read about it. I would see it yet called hysteria where they document a physician who spent so much time catering to the needs of wealthy English women that he got Carpal Tunnel. And so out of desperation created the battery powered vibrator. I'm kind of have to Netflix that. And physicians at the time did actually, they were thrilled with this because they said
Starting point is 00:28:57 that this terrible task with which they, you know, their Hibocratic oath forced them to perform for women that took hours, now only took minutes. I actually do believe that, but you know, there was one guy. It was one guy who they'd all call, like, ah, just get weird Dave. He loves this. I don't know. The Freud, of course, jumped in on this topic, you know, why wouldn't he? This seems ripe for Freud in the 1890s. And they, him and another physician Joseph Brewer kind of came up with the idea that you could talk women out of it. Just bring up all the repressed memories and their sexual needs. And would that be close? I mean, that's closer. I mean, while obviously hysteria is still
Starting point is 00:29:42 not a real thing, if you're used, I mean, that's closer to at least some sort of actual, at least they are talking through whatever was the perceived problem. I think that's fair. If there, I mean, we have to assume there were women who weren't just not doing what there has been said, but who actually had maybe conversion disorder. That's one theory that maybe had anxiety, you know, who some kind of therapy, some kind of talk therapy would have been helpful
Starting point is 00:30:10 for the treatment of that. So it's certainly possible that this was closer for some women to a cure, but you also have to understand that there were probably women who had epilepsy that were called hysteria as well. Well, okay, so, all right, fine. So what I'm saying in my great, in my great male
Starting point is 00:30:27 gender apology tour of 2013, what I'm saying is we may have accidentally helped a small percentage of the women. Exactly. We may have accidentally helped someone. Okay. That's all it need. By the late 1890s, I think this is great. It was recognized that another, if you couldn't afford a battery powered vibrator, you could ride a horse, ride in a carriage, or vigorously use a rocking chair to alleviate your own symptoms, or you could buy an electric saddle machine for your home, which essentially is like one of those toy horses
Starting point is 00:31:03 that you can put a quarter in and kids can ride outside the grocery store Only not shaped like a horse home assuming just the saddle just the saddle Mm-hmm and women could keep those in their homes and in the 1900s all It's actually central to the plot of urban cowboy By the 1900s all kinds of vibrator machines Exist it. I don't even know yeah, they're're junctrubled to movie, where is it? Is it?
Starting point is 00:31:27 Mechanical bull rider. Oh, yeah, I don't know. I don't know either. But by the 1900s, there were all kinds of vibrators available. It was actually the fifth home appliance to be electrified. So they made the sewing machine, the electric fan, the electric kettle, the toaster, and then the vibrator. Priorities.
Starting point is 00:31:47 It beat out the vacuum and the iron by over a decade. She's so peed, really? Exactly. I know. And at the whole time, people are still saying, this is strictly for medical use. There is no more. There is nothing pleasurable about it.
Starting point is 00:32:03 I mean, there is no better indicator. I think of how small rural women played in medicine that like no one had delved any deeper into this question. Nope. This is this is and you can use these and your husband can watch you and help you. They actually advertise these machines for the whole family not to be used in the same area perhaps but you know hold it on your face or your arms or your back, vibrate something. Vibrations were essential to a healthy life. We had that stupid machine with the belt
Starting point is 00:32:34 that would help you lose weight. Yeah, that's that same kind of idea that those vibrations were good and some of them were marketed as weight loss machines. I mean, they weren't. They weren't. None of this was real, but hey. None of it was real.
Starting point is 00:32:44 And by the 1920s, these machines started showing up in pornography, and people started being honest about what they really were, which kind of shoved them underground for a while. And in the 50s, you know, they showed back up, but, you know, people were pretty uptight then. So, they kind of fell out of favor, and then finally in 1952, at long last, everybody whysened up, and the American Psychological Association said, you know what, this is bunk. History is not a real thing. No, it was just like to masturbate and just let it go, guys.
Starting point is 00:33:17 We had a, he listened. We had a good run. It's been 4,000 years. Let's give it up. So the term history was dropped from the diagnostic catalog. There was no diagnosis made and we realized that there were probably lots of other problems that we missed or things that weren't problems at all that we just didn't like. I thought this was interesting as I went on my tour of sex toys throughout history that
Starting point is 00:33:40 in Alabama you still can't buy a sex toy for anything other than medical purposes. At least as of 2009. So you gotta get two streamerschrains.com. Hey, the wrong show, wrong show. Now, you have to sign a waiver that says this is strictly for medical purposes when you buy it. So trust me, I just have hysteria. Wink, wink. We hope you've had a hysterical laughter
Starting point is 00:34:08 Listening to I think I think we're still allowed to use that word. That's the one thing I don't know from my research. Can I still say hysterical? I think it's lost some of the gender the you know the gender I hope so and I I should make this quick now, Justin. There were men who were diagnosed with hysteria throughout history. Not really. Yeah, there were times where it was considered a thing that might infect men later after it was, you know, decided that it wasn't because the uterus was moving around. But this is largely a disease of women.
Starting point is 00:34:41 I mean, largely, that is the part of our society that it impacted us. Us. Uh, uh, you, sorry. Whoa. Hey. Whoa. Hey, you wish. Uh, thank you so much for listening to solbons. We've hope you had as much fun listening as we've had making it.
Starting point is 00:34:56 Um, thank you, Rachel, for your great topic suggestion. Yes. Thank you soon to be McRoy. Uh, we, uh, we hope you enjoyed the suggestion. You can follow us on Twitter if you want to suggest a show topic. Just send a tweet to at solbons. We actually asked you to do that whenever you're tweeting about the show. Maybe you want to share our link to our iTunes page. We would sure appreciate that or a link to maximumfund.org where our show lives along with many other fantastic programs. Jordan Jesse go and stop podcasting yourself. My brother, my brother and me.
Starting point is 00:35:28 So many other fantastic programs. We'll help you check those out. Go to the forums, talk about the show. Tell a friend about it, follow us on Twitter. Tweet at us at Justin McElroy. And at Sydney McElroy. It's S-Y-D-N-E-E. Make sure you join us again next Friday for
Starting point is 00:35:45 Sob bones. I'm Justin McRoy. I'm Sydney McRoy. There's always dope for ho. Alright! Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone Listener Supported

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