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Add an extra comment in place of our in-person class discussion this week.

====== Nye, 238-286, “A Clean, Well-lighted Hearth” ======

First comment: This chapter discusses the transformation of the American household from the Victorian era to the Progressive era. Overall, the author argues that the adoption of electrified urban homes resulted from various debates within the middle class rather than being determined solely by technology or corporate influence.  
Extra comment: I found it interesting to see how the discourse on technology often intersected with views on gender. In particular, Edison’s idea that technology would evolve the housewife’s brain and make it “equal” to her husband’s reveals the connection between patriarchal biases and optimistic expectations for technological progress. - Nikolai Kotkov

This chapter opens up with ideas that we discussed during the “More Work For Mother” lecture on Tuesday about electric powered technology, like the washing machine, being domesticated and marketed as “labor saving.” The author discusses how the modern woman uses these products to keep a clean home and do it all in less time, but as we know that only added to the list of things for women to do in terms of domestic labor. - Grayson Donohoe

While reading this chapter I thought it was interesting on how the interior of homes adapted to adhere to the new technologies present in the home. Rather than it just being for aesthetic or personal preferences. As well as deeming certain parts of the property such as in a late Victorian house where it was separated in three different spaces: a place to present to guests and family, for production of domestic goods, and for privacy. – Izzy Ellenberger

THis chapter explores further commodification concerning electricity in a more abstract sense. As inventions like the washing machine are produced on a per-home scale, the role of women at home shifts. The work itself is less hard and there is more time to engage in leisure. - Kaden Crim

This chapter focuses on changes both inside and out of the home as more and more of the US transferred from gas and fire lighting and appliances to electric ones. It discusses how interior design was drastically changed from this switch, since electricity brought about more distinct types of rooms separated by interior walls. I was very interested in the concept of feminist apartment hotels, and I’d love to read more about those! - Noah Rutkowski

====== Pursell, 116-143 ======

===== Maines, Socially Camouflaged Technologies =====

First comment: This chapter focuses on the ways in which technologies for sexual satisfaction were socially camouflaged. The latter concept is defined as the use of rhetoric that suggests a product’s purpose without “actually endorsing its socially prohibited uses.” In the case of vibrators, this social camouflage took the form of medical discourse, as the device was initially presented as a tool for massage and the treatment of hysteria.
Extra comment: I found it very interesting that many technological censuses omitted mention of vibrator production in their listings. This fact strongly reinforces the author’s argument that such technologies occupied an ambivalent position within the gendered economy of early twentieth-century America.  - Nikolai Kotkov

I found it intriguing that the practice of manually massaging by means of hysteria treatment was not viewed as sexual due to the idea that penetration was the only way for women to achieve orgasm. Meanwhile, insertion of the speculum was widely criticized due to an "immoral effect" on patients. The conception that these treatments didn't result in orgasm without penetration camouflaged the sexual nature of vibrators later on. - Hannah Holstrom

I thought Maines’ example of the vibrator as a camouflage technology was really interesting as well as her discussion on the marketing strategies that took place in order for the product to be successful. It’s an interesting grey area between being a socially acceptable and illegal product that Maines discusses in her essay. Extra comment: I think it’s interesting how the intended or what today we understand as the purpose of the vibrator was such a taboo that it was mainly seen as a medical device to treat hysteria. It’s a great example of how we see technology and more so how it gains its popularity as a reflection of social values because through this we can see how American society treated the conversation (or lack thereof) in the 1890s and 1930s of women’s sexuality. - Grayson Donohoe

In this section it expresses that the massaging was specifically set for the means of clinical use, or as it was camouflaged to be. Otherwise it would have been societally marked as immoral. – Izzy Ellenberger

This chapter explore the nuanced approach taken to sexual technologies. With any other approach, it may have been considered a taboo. By marking these inventions as possessing medical benefits and clinical backing, consumers feel less immoral by engaging with the product. - Kaden Crim

I am actually in a Perspectives in Sexuality class this semester so this chapter was especially interesting for me to read, and I’d like to add some supplemental information I learned in that class here (I brought this reading up in that class for discussion, too). One of my readings for that class this week was about the evolution of feminist sex shops that first came about in the 1970s, which is quite relevant to our reading here. Something more technology-related that I learned in that reading was that many sex toys sold to women used a dangerous material called “jelly plastics” which contain toxic phthalates. While these materials are still used today, many feminist sex shops have banned them, and there was even the creation of a Coalition Against Toxic Toys (CATT) in Minneapolis that reflects the pushbacks against certain technologies that we’ve learned about in this class. - Noah Rutkowski

I love the idea that these kinds of things implied it wasn't really sexual when it wasn't penetration, when now we know it's often the opposite that's true. The messaging and way that it is advertised is very specific as a way of hiding the true sexual/pleasuring nature, which means that it can bypass societal standards. --- Oliver M

===== Document A -- Taylor =====

This document went through the mechanical aspects of a seat design and 'rubbers' and how it worked to effectively pleasure a patient. This idea that self-pleasure is a medical problem that has to be cured like every other medical problem is particularly interesting. Especially when sex for much of human existence particularly for women follows that "close your eyes and think of England" the notion that pleasure did not really matter but only the producing of children or just the manly pleasure aspect did. ---James C

Document A prefers a clinical approach as with the previous one concerning socially camoflauged technologies. Due to a large population of christians in the country it was of utmost importance to ensure that faith was considered, specifically in regards to chastity and the taboos of sexual gratuity. By shifting the reader's impression from that of a sexual proliferation, the document subtly indicates that there is something okay about this specific invention. - Kaden Crim

This is an interesting document that can be used to reinforce Maines’s argument, as this machine is advertised for medical purposes, i.e. it is socially camouflaged. - Nikolai Kotkov

This document went over a new better way to pleasure yourself with an improvement in medical rubbing. It uses the term medical rubbing as it is a medical thing to pleasure and goes on how it mimics what you would do with a hand and describes the comfort of the invention. - Will C

In the context of the previous essay, we can see how the early models of the vibrator were being marketed as medical devices with the use of “patient” throughout this document. - Grayson Donohoe

This document is an example of the earlier reading in the book. We’re seeing these devices being masked as medical devices when their intention is clearly more leisure focused. - Justin Hoskins

Interesting that "releasing pleasure" was a advertised as a medical problem. There's something interesting about how now the same thing is beginning to happen with mental health and how toys are now advertised by releasing pressure and anxiety and stuff. -- Oliver M

===== Document B -- Snow =====

This document primarily concerns the potential medical use of vibrators, but I found it interesting that it also mentions “static electricity,” linking it to the broader discussion of technological development and medicine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. - Nikolai Kotkov

Document B goes into vibration and use of therapy. It can help with disorders or other treatments and is described as a therapy and a way to keep calm and pleasure. - Will C

Document B discusses the usage of sexual aides and how they can benefit a customer as a source of therapy. While partly true, it is largely a play on words and an interpretation of what can otherwise be marked as sexual satisfaction. - Kaden Crim

In this document we’re again seeing the link to medical practices through the marketing/development of the vibrator. This document is listing things that can be treated using the product. - Grayson Donohoe

In this document, we are still seeing pleasure devices being sold as medical apparatuses. This is another example of camouflaging. I do find this particular one interesting as it seems to have a significant focus on masking as a medicinal device, using a vast amount of medical terminology to further the illusion. - Justin Hoskins

This document discusses different medical conditions that would be cured by the vibrator. I found it interesting that although the topic is inherently sexual, the language of the document is strictly medical, and doesn't illude to anything that would be deemed as "inappropriate". It is marketed as a way to keep calm and relieve pain. 
- Hannah Holstrom 
===== Document C -- Eberhart =====

The document covers a wide range of illnesses that were believed to be treatable through the use of vibrators. Interestingly, they were thought to cure not only hysteria but also impotence in certain cases. - Nikolai Kotkov

This document lists ways and reasons to use the vibrator for medical purposes as well as giving a “guide” to differentiating if the product is good or not. - Grayson Donohoe

Crazy that in this time orgasms were seen as the cure all to all of these. Why hysteria? Why in a time that sex is so taboo that *this* is being advertised? Very interesting. -- Oliver M
===== Document D -- Covey =====

The document shows how medicine and machinery are very much intertwined with marketing. The apparatus promised message but also a multifaceted one or an "intro-gymnastic treatment." It's like there is a spectacle being sold, and a fear of missing out on it. Very much so the actual ability of it was equal to the display of the tool. Is the technology more about treating the 'medical' issue or impressing the patient? ----James C

This document mentions that physicians were enthusiastic about the development of vibrators because they replaced manual methods of massage. I found it particularly interesting that in some cases doctors feared that technology would replace them, as seen in one of the previous readings on pulse measurement, but in this instance they were instead relieved by the technological advancement. - Nikolai Kotkov

The document shows that the invention was considered a good thing as it can replace manual ways of pleasuring yourself. It talks about how when selecting a vibrator you need to consider one that is capable of changing strokes in fast and slow, and rotary and lateral. - Will C

This document talks about the advancements in “vibration therapy” technology and all of the things that the machine would need to do to make the product better. Also, I thought that the camouflage of this technology was pretty apparent in this document because if I didn’t have any context my first thought wouldn’t be that we were talking about a vibrator until halfway through the first paragraph. - Grayson Donohoe

This document focuses on the adaptability and “inventive genius” of the Siebert-Welch apparatus. It’s described as a “condensed mechanism” that physicians could use for treatment that was both convenient and discrete. I like that this gave physicians a way to professionally provide medical care to what probably was a fairly common, and I would venture to say awkward, practice. - Izabella Martinez

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