Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy

by Hallie Lieberman

Overview

In the vein of Mary Roach's Bonk, a brilliant microhistory of the sex toy that ultimately tells the story of our changing sexual mores and evolving cultural values. 

Once only whispered about in clandestine corners, vibrators have become just another accessory for the suburban soccer mom. But how did these once-taboo toys become so socially acceptable? The journey of the devices to the cultural mainstream is a surprisingly stimulating one.

In Buzz, Hallie Lieberman traces the tale from lubricant in Ancient Greece to the very first condom in 1560 to advertisements touting devices as medical equipment in 19th-century magazines. She looks in particular from the period of major change from the 1950s through the present, when sex toys evolved from symbols of female emancipation to tools in the fight against HIV/AIDS to consumerist marital aids to today's mainstays of pop culture. The story is populated with a cast of vivid and fascinating characters including Dell Williams, founder of the first feminist sex toy store; Betty Dodson, whose workshops helped 1960s women discover vibrators; and Gosnell Duncan, a paraplegic engineer who invented the silicone dildo. And these personal dramas are all set against a backdrop of changing American attitudes toward sexuality, feminism, LGBTQ issues, and more.

Both educational and titillating, Buzz will make readers think quite differently about those secret items hiding in bedside drawers across the nation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681775982
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	27 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Hallie Lieberman obtained her PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2014, with a dissertation on Sex Toy History. Her writing has been published in Bitch, Bust, Eater, The Forward, and Inside Higher Ed, among others. She has given talks at many university events and conferences. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Hallie Lieberman obtained her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2014, with a dissertation on Sex Toy History. Her writing has been published in Bitch, Bust, Eater, The Forward, and Inside Higher Ed, among others. She has given talks at many university events and conferences. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

1 Selling Sex Toys 1

2 From Cavemen to Kinsey 17

3 The Ventriloquist and His Rival 39

4 Fake Vaginas, Female Masturbation, and Porno Empires 61

5 NOW, Sex, and Women's Liberation 77

6 Duncan's Dildos 91

7 Inflatables 109

8 Female Masturbation 129

9 A Garden of Sex Toys, Condoms for All, and Sturman's War 149

10 Doc Johnson and Sisterhood 173

11 Dildo Debates 197

12 Grids and Good Vibes 215

13 Meese and Masturbation 239

14 The Government vs. Everyone 261

15 21st-century Toys 279

Bibliography 293

Endnotes 315

Acknowledgments 355

About the Author 359

Editorial Reviews

10/02/2017
Focusing on American cultural history from the 1950s to the present, Lieberman, who wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on the history of sex toys, traces the commodification of the sex toy and its path into American mainstream culture. She populates the book with the colorful stories of many of the sex-toy industry’s most influential activists, inventors, and entrepreneurs, among them Reuben Sturman, who built a vast, sleazy empire on including masturbation booths in his adult stores, and Betty Dodson, a feminist activist who argued for the importance of the female orgasm and women’s sexual liberation. Lieberman writes that “sex toys soaked up the meanings of whoever was promoting them” and that they “were always political, but the politics they embodied were up for grabs.” The dildo, for example, threatened many straight men who feared it was a replacement for them, a reaction Lieberman contrasts with the perception among some lesbians that the dildo was a reinforcement of heterosexual, penetrative sex. Lieberman’s history is a fascinating account of the way sex toys have touched feminists, queer communities, and American perceptions of sexuality. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"An engaging survey of a largely unconsidered history, Hallie Lieberman's Buzz gives America the long-overdue backstory to the grownup contents of its nightstand drawers with the flair of a practiced storyteller and the research of a well-trained historian."

Hanne Blank

"A wealth of well-researched and thoughtful social context on the development of the self-stimulation device from antiquity to today."

New York Times Book Review

"A lively exploration of the history of sex toys. Lieberman, who has a Ph.D. on the subject, follows the journey of erotic toys—once taboo—into the cultural mainstream, telling the story of changing social mores and attitudes."

New York Post (This week's must-read books)

"While you might think it’d be titillating with maybe a few nudge-nudge-winks, that’s not the case. Lieberman doesn’t do that to her readers. Instead, what you get is exactly what its subtitle promises: Buzz is a history of sex toys from ancient times to modern day and their use by straight people, the disabled, the LGBT community, and feminists. This isn’t a book to shock—it’s meant to inform and that’s accomplished, enjoyably. The prurient, the curious and pop-culture fans will love Buzz, no batteries required."

Washington Blade

"Buzz takes readers along for the long, hard journey (sorry, sorry) that led to the creation of the modern sex toy."

New York Magazine

"Lieberman’s diverting book is as much a study of sexual mores — and hypocrisy — in the United States, as it is the story of a multi-million dollar industry. A jauntily written, illuminating history."

The Spectator

"A masterclass in how to make academic writing engaging and relevant. From Ancient Greece to Fifty Shades via a profusion of frustrated conservative attempts to police sexual activity, Buzz is at once historical survey and manifesto. Lieberman’s style is simultaneously informed and informal, often very, very funny, and occasionally deeply poignant."

Emma Rees

"Initially, her plan for Buzz was to offer an in-depth examination of objects, not people, Lieberman says. But readers will find that the majority of her book is dedicated to a colorful cast of characters who have shaped the sex-toy industry in America since the 1950s."

The Washington Post

"Fascinating. Buzz taught me I have brave and creative erotic business pioneers to thank for the wide array of sex toys on the market—and that I'm not risking jail time for owning a drawer full."

Rachel Kramer Bussel

"In Buzz, Hallie Lieberman reveals the fascinating role that sex toys played in the burgeoning feminist movement of mid-century America. Lieberman’s history is an informative journey that goes from taboo to transcendence."

Shelf Awareness

"In this penetrating text, scholar Hallie Lieberman explores how the history of the vibrator is linked to the history of women’s sexual freedom."

Bust

11/01/2017
In her first book, historian Lieberman transforms her dissertation on the history of sex toys into a thoughtful and densely footnoted tour of the individuals, business enterprises, and politics that have shaped the creation, distribution, and use of sex toys in the United States from the mid-20th century to the dawn of the 21st century. The work begins on a personal note as Lieberman describes her experience selling sex toys in Texas during the early 2000s. Chapter 2 offers a fast-paced prehistory of the modern sex toy, from ancient carved phalluses through to early 20th-century plug-in "point massagers." The remaining 13 chapters introduce readers to entrepreneurs who turned sex toys into a money-making industry and, often, an implicitly political practice. These manufacturers and retailers, Lieberman argues, helped to reshape American sexual practices and beliefs; particularly beliefs about masturbation, technology, and sexual pleasure. This work focuses on dildos and vibrators, though other toys—from ben wa balls to blow-up dolls—also make brief appearances, as do sexually explicit literatures and sex educational practices. VERDICT This engaging popular history introduces the material, economic, and cultural aspects of an industry that has received little historical attention. For general readers.—Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc.

Library Journal