There can’t be many new DVD releases of short film anthologies which are unstintingly riveting all the way through. But here’s one. For the past couple of days, I have been glued to the BFI’s incredible collection The Joy of Sex Education, which is a compendium of sex education films from 1917 to 1973.

I’m sure you’ve already seen it, Jessica, but for anyone who hasn’t,the book Rachel Maines wrote is titled The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction.

No I hadn’t seen it. I really don’t do anything with sex. Er … you know what I mean!

Laura Vivanco wrote:

The question of whether sex toys are by nature sexist is a tough one and, I think, mostly a matter of personal opinion. The first charge against them is that women should not have to pay any more for masturbation than men do.

I had never considered this question, probably because it seems to me that any woman who uses a sex toy is pretty far ahead in the “taking charge of your sexuality” stakes.

katiebabs wrote:

The video made my Friday!

I’m here to serve!

The history of the vibrator and its medical use had virtually vanished until historian, Rachel Maines, researching needlework patterns in early 20th century women’s magazines, ran across ads for electric vibrators. Piquing her curiosity, she traced the origins of this early electrified appliance and made an astonishing discovery.

I’m sure you’ve already seen it, Jessica, but for anyone who hasn’t,the book Rachel Maines wrote is titled The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction. There’s a significant amount of it available via Google Books.

I saw it in the University library near me and was very tempted to get it out and read it, but as I already have piles of romance-genre-related secondary reading to do I didn’t feel I could justify adding it to the stack. Maybe I’ll get round to reading it someday.

The f word had an interesting article about the ethics of sex toys in which Ms Razorblade noted that

The question of whether sex toys are by nature sexist is a tough one and, I think, mostly a matter of personal opinion. The first charge against them is that women should not have to pay any more for masturbation than men do. It’s generally considered that the only equipment a bloke needs is, well, his hand. The implication is that women (unless they are using the trusty old “carrot” technique) have to fork out for vibrators, batteries and possibly lube.

I think that’s a good point, because it shouldn’t be assumed that women can’t manage to masturbate successfully with no more equipment than their own hands either.

A different issue which is raised in the second part of the article, and which I was reminded of while watching all the vibrating jelly-fish-like creatures in the video, is there are environmental and health concerns (e.g. about the chemicals used) about some of the available products. Admittedly those articles were written in 2004, so maybe things have changed a little, but I’m sure at least some of the concerns are still relevant.