if one is to believe movie-makers, women are prone to ‘go to pieces’ in stressful situations – becoming hysterical
the approved method to treat such hysteria and bring the woman back to her senses – get her to snap out of it – is a kindly, well-meaning slap to the face
this scene from “Airplane’ parodies this common practice
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before slapping the woman became the customary form of ‘treatment’ for hysteria, the practice favoured by doctors was to bring the woman to orgasm by fingering her clitoris
such was the number of . . .
hysterical women presenting themselves to the doctor to have their clitoris fingered, however, that doctors began to suffer from what we now would call ‘repetitive strain injury’ – this, in turn, was the trigger for the invention of a mechanical means of stimulating the clitoris, i.e., a vibrator
more information about the history of the diagnosis and treatment of hysteria here – https://thenib.com/the-dark-history-of-hysteria
