Hysteria Review

21st Jan 2013

In 2006 it was still illegal to sell vibrators in Texas but legal to own firearms. Yep. Really. This is something I have learnt from watching the film Hysteria and its DVD extras.

Hysteria is a Victorian Rom-Com that loosely uses the historically true story of women being treated for the ailment hysteria (this was a catch all for any reason a woman was not behaving as she should with her wild out of control body). And how were they treated? By orgasms or paroxysmal contractions as the were known as in the 19^th century it was not believed that women could have orgasms.

The film stars Hugh Darcy and Maggie Gyllenhaal as the main protagonists. Darcy as the naïve but ambitious doctor who only wants to do good and promote modern science in medicine (down with the leeches!) and Gyllenhaal as the feminist fighting to educate and improve the health of the poor. Hysteria is fine for a quiet Friday night in, there is some witty dialogue and it is an acceptable average period Rom-Com. The film is however quite evidently confused. As talked about in the extras they tried to do many aspects to the story, romance, comedy, some historical truths and looking at the repression of female sexuality in Victorian England. And unfortunately whilst watchable it comes out as a bit of a mess. There are some good actors in this film who are just not given the screen time they deserve. Rupert Everrett’s gay dandy, Ashley Jensen’s alcoholic work house drunk, Anna Chancellor (Duck Face from Four Weddings) as a patient and Sheridan Smith’s tart with a heart. We get glimpses of what could be highly entertaining characters with interesting stories but are cut away too soon so that we can watch some women in a waiting room looking so pleased that they are having lots of orgasms.

What this film also misses as it tries to cram in the wrong things is that this is a very interesting topic. It wasn’t until I watched the featured documentary in the extras that I really began to feel as though I was being not just entertained but perceptually challenged. With my own basic knowledge of how perceptions of the body have changed (did you know that the female organs sexual used to be drawn quite literally as an inverted penis as this was what they were viewed as) I find the discussion around the vibrator and its origins fascinating. We forget that it is only really in the past 10 years since Ann Summers cropped up on our high streets that owning a vibrator (or two) is considered normal. However whilst we think we live in the age of sexual liberation women at the start of the 20^th century were ordering home massagers (yep translate that) from knitting magazines.

I would recommend this film but only due to the extras and hopefully because it may encourage you to think about how women’s bodies have changed in culture and perception. How women’s sexuality, whilst still evidently in conflict, has had a truly rough ride throughout the centuries.

I leave you with another piece of information. In medieval England it was believed that a woman’s orgasm was essential for conception.