The Technology of Orgasm:

This scholarly but lively feminist history of the vibrator covers a lot of jaw-dropping and troubling ground. The idea of hysteria as a disease afflicting women arose in the middle ages—basically it was thought to be what happened when women were deprived of sexual stimulation. "Vulvular massagers" aka vibrators, were invented to treat it. Readers of this book will be treated to illustrations of early vibrators that look like medieval torture devices, as well as a history of what happens when sex is defined solely from a masculine perspective and doctors are called in to try to get women to comply.