My understanding is that “hysteria” legitimized the use of the vibrator (not unlike how “weight loss” was used in the 1980s to prescribe fentanyl), but they were around before that, and probably would have found another way of entering the mainstream.
Dildos and vibrators were first a medical devices for hysteria.
Dildos have been around a lot longer than that. https://allthatsinteresting.com/history-of-the-dildo
My understanding is that “hysteria” legitimized the use of the vibrator (not unlike how “weight loss” was used in the 1980s to prescribe fentanyl), but they were around before that, and probably would have found another way of entering the mainstream.
Vibrators, too, if you count the hollowed out wooden dildos filled with angry bees.