ANYWHERE BUT HERE is a three-part portrait series recreating photos from an instruction manual from the 1920s for "Healthy Vibratory Massage." The original photos and instruction manual make no reference to the devices’ intended sexual purposes and instead attempt to convince the consumer of the healthy and hygienic benefits of using their product (i.e. to treat "neuralgia headaches" "weak eyesight" and "deafness").
Research and Artifact Loan courtesy of the Museum of Sex, New York.
Photos by Sheiva Rezvani
Accompanying, abbreviated research for ANYWHERE BUT HERE presented as a TEDx Talk entitled: "A History of Fashion and Science of Sex."
What do dress reformers, underwear, and vibrators all have in common? In this TEDx talk Sheiva Rezvani reviews at a brief history of sexual science at the turn of the twentieth century and how it shaped American cultural definitions and expectations around sex, gender and sexuality. She visually demonstrates how a medically authoritative language around "health" and "hygiene" became the scientific basis for invisibility and shame in everyday experiences with bodies, sex and fashion.