The Wonderful World of Wand Vibrators

Wand vibrators have a really neat place in our cultural imaginary. Originally designed as a round vibrating ball attached to a long handle, the wand vibrator provides powerful stimulation that’s been bringing vulva-havers to orgasm for decades. It now comes in many different shapes and sizes. Wand to know more? Come with us on a brief introduction to the wand vibrator, its history, and its benefits. When most people think of wand vibrators, they think of the Hitachi Magic Wand. This well-known wand emerged during the late 1960s and early 1970s and was originally marketed as a sports massaging device. It didn’t take long for women and vulva-havers to discover other, non-sports places to target this tool’s powerful and rumbly vibrations, offering pleasure and relief beyond just easing the pain of sore muscles. Carina Hsieh, sex and relationships editor for Cosmopolitan, writes “Initially marketed as a general body massager for sore muscles, the Magic Wand quickly gained a cult following in the early '70s for the off-label use as one of the best vibrators for clitoral stimulation.” Since then, countless iterations of the Magic Wand have emerged, some more explicitly categorized as sex toys than others. When we think about the advent of the Magic Wand in the context of American culture and politics, its introduction in the late 1960s corresponds nicely with the emergence of the Women’s Liberation Movement. This was a time in the larger history of feminist movements and activism that women’s sex and pleasure became unapologetically prioritized. Birth control and abortion access were main tenets of this wave of feminism, but so were sex and pleasure. Feminists themselves began to have nuanced debates about the role of pleasure, relationships, pornography, and even kink. These debates are often referred to as The Feminist Sex Wars and many of these conversations are still happening.

The wand’s introduction and increased use during this time was yet another tool of the complicated and exciting feminist goal of liberating women.

Very strategic in their marketing, Hitachi didn’t publicly acknowledge the Magic Wand’s use for sexual pleasure until the 1990s. This allowed many women to use it with a sense of discretion* as well as freedom. *There is no data available on how many of the personal massager’s users had claimed “taking up a new sport” to justify its purchase to friends and neighbors. With up to 75% of vulva-havers reporting needing clitoral stimulation to orgasm, the wand vibrator was the first entry in a now robust line of options working to close the pleasure gap. That now-infamous bulbous head gives broad stimulation to any erogenous zone, and most popularly, the clitoris and surrounding vulvar area. Wand vibrators are usually pretty powerful tools that offer intense external clitoral stimulation. And, because they are so powerful, they can still be used for non-erotic massaging purposes. Our main takeaway here: the wand is badass feminist icon and has been subverting patriarchal mores around pleasure for decades now. So, of course, we needed to make our own. We called it Com, because it’s the most comfortable wand to date. Introduced in January of 2022, Com is our body-friendly take on the classic wand shape, upgraded for comfort. Great as a first wand or for more experienced players craving intense external stimulation, Com’s curved handle makes it easy to hold while it works its magic. It’s cordless and much lighter than its predecessors, fitting naturally against your body to reduce strain while you focus on yourself and your pleasure. Com is made with Dame’s most powerful motor to date and can double as a personal massager, much like its predecessors. Where it differs is its flexible neck and bendy, bulbed head. This allows for broad clitoral stimulation as well as accessibility for people of all body types. If you’ve been curious about wand vibrators but find their size or shape intimidating, Com could be the perfect solution. It offers a more intuitive amount of vibration that is less likely to overstimulate, encouraging you to get comfortable as you play and explore external erogenous zones. So whether you’re looking for power, broad pleasure, or a new way to participate in feminist history, you may want to give a wand vibrator a try. At the very least, you’ll have something to recommend the next time a friend mentions a vague “sports injury” that needs massaging.