The 46-Year-Old Sex Toy Hitachi Won't Talk About

[Spartan]

 

 

 

1968. It was the year of the Tet Offensive; of Martin Luther King Jr.'s and Robert Kennedy's assassinations; of the Democratic National Convention riots. It was also the first time humans had photographed the Earth from deep space. It was a year of great innovation and devastation. American values were in upheaval and the sexual revolution was well underway, calling into question outmoded sexual stereotypes.

In the midst of all of this, an unlikely star was born.

 

 

The Hitachi Magic Wand box before and after its 2013 rebranding

The US Patent and Trademark Office lists the Hitachi Magic Wand's first use in commerce as April 25th, 1968. In the 46 years since, this big, white hunk of plug-in plastic, which bears some resemblance to a bass drum mallet, has come to represent an awkward duality for many Americans. It's marketed and sold as a personal massager in department stores and pharmacies, while also serving as a trusted masturbation aid.

The Magic Wand isn't what you'd expect from a modern sex toy. In fact, it could very well be your grandmother's vibrator. It weighs 1.2 pounds, measures 12 inches from base to tip and has a bulbous, "tennis ball-sized" head. It's made of hard plastic, has two speeds -- high (6,000 vibrations per minute) and low (5,000 vibrations per minute) -- and connects to a power outlet via a 6-foot cord. It's neither waterproof, nor water-resistant and has a tendency to overheat after 25 minutes of use. Shortcomings aside, the Magic Wand continues to outsell more technologically advanced competitors, even as the company that created it distances itself from what has become one of the most iconic sex toys in existence.

"Electric vibrators were sold as massage machines and I bought them in the small-appliance section of Macy's," Dodson said.

The same year the Magic Wand appeared on the market, a New York-based artist by the name Betty Dodson had her first sexually explicit one-woman exhibition at the Wickersham Gallery on Madison Avenue. According to Dodson, often attributed with single-handedly popularizing the device, the show's opening marked her foray into sex education. Four years later, she launched a series of instructional classes called Bodysex Workshops, where she used vibrators to teach women about masturbation, and in 1974 she released her first book, Liberating Masturbation. Dodson, like so many women at the time, sought sex toys in rather conventional venues.

"Electric vibrators were sold as massage machines and I bought them in the small-appliance section of Macy's," Dodson said.

While Liberating Masturbation was sold alongside the Magic Wand at Eve's Garden, a new and rather subversive sex shop that catered specifically to women, Dodson opted for the Panasonic Panabrator in her early demos. It wasn't until 1975 that she replaced it with the Magic Wand. According to Dian Hanson, former editor of Juggs, Leg Show and various other men's magazine, and current Sexy Book Editor at Taschen publishing, Dodson turned her on to the Wand in 1977 and she's been a devotee ever since.

[Maximus]

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