When did you get your first vibrator?

Woman A: I got my first vibrator as a gag Secret Santa gift from a coworker friend at my high school job at a pizza place!

Woman B: I was 21, in college. My best friend and I went to a friend’s birthday/sex toy party, you know, where they have a lady there who explains all the toys she has and then you can buy them. I was super drunk. And we all bought vibrators. Fun!

Woman C: I was 22 or 23, the year or so after graduating college.

Woman D: I was 21. My boyfriend at the time bought it for me at the checkout counter of a sex toy shop.

What kind was it?

Woman A: It was glow in the dark, the cheap wand kind you get from Spencer’s.

Woman B: Ack, I can’t even remember. It was …

Masturbating regularly is healthy for you, and thanks to sex toys, you have a little help in that department. Unsurprisingly, these little orgasm assistants have a very interesting history. Let’s explore 15 things you might not know about them.

• The world’s first dildo dates back about 28,000 years. If you’re under the impression that ancient people didn’t have playthings around, think again. In 2005, the BBC reported on a very old phallus discovered in a cave in Germany. It was 20 centimenters long and three centimeters wide and assembled from siltstone.
• The modern vibrator was born out of a need to quell female hysteria. Way back when, hysteria was a deemed illness among the female population that consisted of a “wandering womb” (OK?). Docs thought these women just needed a good lay – or rather, an earth-shattering orgasm. In 1869, the steam-powered sex device came about, thanks to American physician

…

I got my first vibrator when I was 18, yet I didn’t start using sex toys with a partner until I was 26. Letting someone else in on my solo sex routine felt almost like peeing with them in the bathroom (which I’ve also done, TBH, so I’m not sure why this was a big deal). But I used a finger vibrator with my partner for the first time last winter, and now that I’ve experienced the joys of simultaneous orgasms, I ain’t ever going back. I’m a total sex toy evangelist.

How did I not come around sooner? It seems so obvious that what will make you feel good alone will have the same effect in another’s company. But the truth is, I’d always had a nagging feeling that sex with a toy wasn’t “real” sex— that it would be less connected or romantic. The one time I suggested …