Buzz

September 1, 2017
The unexpected and underappreciated history of sex toys.Years before sex expert Lieberman earned her doctorate in "Sex Toy History," she invested in her first vibrator, and it became "love at first buzz." She went on to participate in adult novelty parties while living in Texas, where the sale or promotion of sexual stimulators was considered legally obscene (things have changed since). The historically regressive nature of the availability and use of sex toys forms the thrust of the book, and the author's vast knowledge of sex, eroticism, and the art of self-pleasure is on vibrant display. Lieberman describes ancient "phallic batons" in use as far back as 40,000 B.C.E. Though the information is readily available, she notes, there remains no definitive answers on the true origins and usages of sex toys, primarily because their history is shrouded in "male fear," patriarchal regulation of women's bodies, and shame. While Japanese societies celebrate the sex toy, the author encountered difficulty in tracing the tabooed subject matter within American culture until, tucked away in the archives of museums, libraries, and vintage catalogs, she discovered dilators, ticklers, and vibrators and their assorted histories as sexual apparatuses disguised as medical devices. Lieberman introduces us to a colorful cast of creators and purveyors who have played a role in destigmatizing masturbation and revolutionizing the sex industry. Among others, these include an enterprising paraplegic who embarked on a handcrafted dildo manufacturing business, which helped usher innovative variations on sex toys into the mainstream consumer market. Lieberman also profiles the two creative entrepreneurs behind the Pleasure Chest adult novelty chain and American artists and sex educators Betty Dodson and Joani Blank, and she updates readers on more contemporary advancements within the sex toy arena. On a deeper level, through its probing exploration, the text also becomes a sharp commentary on contemporary society's ever changing sexual landscape and how sex is perceived, judged, accepted, and enjoyed with more variations than ever before. Provocative, illuminating, and consistently entertaining.

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October 2, 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.

November 1, 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.

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