Customer Reviews

Passion & Power

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you've read Rachel Mains delightful book, The Technology of Orgasm (see my Amazon review) you'll love this companion documentary. The book goes deeper than the DVD, of course, but does not include the details of the heart felt and very sad pleasure party spokesperson and local Chamber of Commerce leader, Joanne Webb busted in Texas. What a sad tale of a mom of three (with a husband, also crushed) a former fifth-grade teacher, whose life was hammered by the The Man in Medieval Texas with the help of the county court in Cleburne, Texas, a place one hour from Dallas. Tell me again, please, that we did not really elect a president from this state. I'll let you connect the dots between the war on the vulva and over 5,000 war dead in Iraq.

Indeed, the Webbs' lawyer called it the war against the clitorises, a very Texas theme evidently. Six vibrators and your off to jail. Yes, a family destroyed by an obscenity charge whose cloud still hangs over the Lone Star State. Owning six guns is not obscene there but six vibrators is. Still. (I should be fair. No doubt six brains would get you busted in that vast state as well.) War indeed.

And if you think all this only happens in Texas, and only "a long time ago", read the 2011 review above by the college professor in Chico, CA. (I've been to Chico. Many times!) He showed this DVD in class and was charged with sexual harassment and making students feel uncomfortable. My. Let's not make college students uncomfortable!

The history of the vibrator, invented even before the household vacuum cleaner or the toaster, is a tale that unfolds like any other great junior high history lesson. Only this one's about more fun things than The Civil War. Like: "Children: Can everyone say with me...Vuulvaaa."

The high point for me in this wonderful DVD documentary on the history of the rediscover of the Big O at the dawn of the 70s has got to be that spot where Betty Dodson says women were so excited during that period with all this self discovery Hitachi magic wand thing that they had to start grasping their wands in blissful four hour sessions with a potholder, yes! As they were overheating. Overheating indeed.

A close second among highlights has to go to where Rachel Mains, the main story teller, flips through pages on the history of late 19th century women's stitching and embroidery magazines and stumbles on vibrator ads. Viola. History unfolds. My, my. Dear as well were the trips to the doctor (so bored he was) for a genital massage so a woman could be relieved of the medical condition of hysteria, the womb sickness.

The only flaw in this history lesson here is that for some political reason Joani Blank, founder of Good Vibrations in SF was not interviewed, only her same time contemporary Dell Williams founder of Eve's Garden on the East coast. Like the industrial revolution. The time was right for these liberating tools. The interviews around the history of that iconic NOW symposium on female sexuality were priceless as well.

Rent or stream this DVD. Start a discussion. I'm amazed how many young women know nothing about the history of the women's moment in the late 60s early 70s. What a fun place to start. Oh, and read a book! The companion Technology of Orgasm by Mains, the inspiration for this DVD.

Excellent documentary. However, I urge instructors to be
cautious about showing this documentary to younger students.
I showed this documentary to my sophomore-junior college
students and was then accused of sexual harassment for
having created a discomforting environment (both for men
and women). These are conservative times. Even a documentary
on this sensitive topic can get one in trouble.

Incidentally, there is absolutely nothing inflammatory
or inappropriate about this informative history of the
vibrator. No profanity is used. No diagrams or anatomical
explanations are given. No simulated sex is presented. It
is, all things considered, about as inoffensive as a documentary
can be on this topic.

Why only four stars? I found the interviews visually
disconcerting. The off-center diagonal frames hurt
my eyes. Also, I thought Dodson's (Sex for One author)
comment about "riding the vibrator day and night" a
bit gratuitous. Given the sensitive nature of the topic,
I would recommend editing out that particular comment.
No need to give viewers an excuse to put down an otherwise
important contribution to the sex positive literature.

This is an excellent, feminist documentary. However, almost every woman presented is white and women of color are almost invisible in this work. Remember the Schoolhouse Rock installment about women getting the right to vote and all the animated women are white? This is equally homogenous and disappointing.
At one point, the narrator says, "Middle-class women are forced not to have or speak about sexual desires and feelings." It's great that they brought up class, but race is absent. At that time in history, Black women are stereotyped as lascivious and outside of the elite group of women who could be on a pedestal. The white feminists interviewed here should know that, but they say nothing of it.
The work includes a white comedienne named Reno. I like her and I wish her career much success. However, they could have had Margaret Cho, Mo'Nique, or Margo Gomez laughing about the same women's issues.
In the book "The Color Purple," Shug showed Celie that she has a happy button down there. This work speaks of white women informing other white women about their downstairs equipment, but you never see women of color addressing this issue.
This is a great documentary. Don't get me wrong. However, it borders on what bell hooks termed "white power feminism." In a time when one out of four women in the US is of color, the monochrome presentation of this work is beyond troubling. It's downright shameful!