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Home » The origins and uses of the chaise lounge

The origins and uses of the chaise lounge

The New Neo Posted on by

You will not believe this. I’m not even sure whether I believe it.

It all began innocently enough. I was visiting my son, who had a space problem in the main living area of his apartment—not enough room for a regular couch. For various reasons he thought a chaise lounge might fit the bill and leave things feeling not too cramped and claustrophobic. We were talking about it, looking at photos and prices online, and came across a type of chaise that used to be called a “fainting couch.”

Here’s an old-timey version:

And a modern, streamlined one:

Interesting, a bit different—and then there was that curious name, “fainting couch.” Designed, no doubt, for those Victorian ladies to conveniently and gracefully recline in whenever they felt a swoon coming on, which was often.

At least, that’s what I supposed. And that’s probably something it was indeed used for way back when. But that wasn’t its only purpose, as I discovered when I Googled “fainting couch”—you know I like to do research—and went to its Wiki entry.

At first I thought it might be some sort of hoax, perhaps the Onion at work. But no; this stuff seems to be real (children, please leave the room now):

The second most common theory for the predominance of fainting couches is home treatment of female hysteria through manual pelvic massage by home visiting doctors and midwives. As a “disease” that needed constant, recurring (usually weekly) in-home treatment with a procedure that through manual massage could sometimes take hours, creating specialized furniture for maximum comfort during the extended procedure seems likely, as does the later creation of fainting rooms for privacy during the intimate massage procedure.

That’s a bit cryptic, but it’s describing pretty much what you think it might be describing. There’s more here. Much, much more. But you’ll have to go there yourself.

Comments

The origins and uses of the chaise lounge — 25 Comments

  5. Hysteria was at one time a condition proprietarily female but is now extended to the unbalanced feminine psyche more evident in girly boy pundits and columnists. You’ve come a long way guys and you have Mr. Obama to thank for the tingles cum vapors. Where’s that damn couch? Vibration is Life.

  6. Uhhhh, back to furniture… the chaise is ancient. Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks were using them for feasts in the time of the Bible – or even before.

    In the Book of Esther, the evil Haman’s fate is sealed when he falls in a drunken stupor on Queen Esther’s chaise during a feast.

  7. Women dresses of that epoch (before bra were invented) contributed a lot to prevalence of faint. I always wonder seeing costume drama how often these actresses happen to faint at the stage.

  10. All of which seems to miss the original point of your post, Neo — is your son planning on doing much fainting?

  11. Now I’m eagerly awaiting your disquisition on the ‘easy chair.’

    Actually, it sounds to me like the doctors were doing these women a good turn. Presumably women able to afford the ministrations of a physician were also burdened with religious restrictions that could only allow treatment of their ‘condition’ if their ethical concerns were eased by some pretext that consciously avoided any connection with sexual self-gratification.

    Of course, we can only hope the docs maintained a upstanding demeanor during the period of treatment.

  12. Not to be a Fainting Freddie or anything, but the correct term is actually “chaise longue” – “long chair.” Still, “lounge” has persisted, because, let’s face it, these things are good to lounge upon, and lexicographers will not vow to spit on your grave for saying “lounge.”

  13. Must have been a rich lady’s disease. My great-grandmother was a midwife in a rural area; she only delivered babies and massaged out the afterbirth. Then again, no one in her family had a fainting couch, nor did they have electricity until about 1952 (except for the dairy barn), so they really missed out!

  14. So, I wonder….were doctors who were good-looking and/or otherwise attractive able to achieve the end result of this treatment in substantially less time (“could sometimes take hours”) than their less-desirable colleagues? Or was the sexual aspect of what was going on so deeply repressed that the hotness of the doc had little effect?

    I’m betting on alternative #1.

  15. Wrap one’s body up in a tight corset with stiff whale-bone stays, pulled as tight as possible to cut off breathing and, yea, fainting and hysteria are soon to follow.

    Or, maybe that was the excuse that was used to get “medical” treatment? (“pull that corset tighter, Gertrude, I want to see the doctor this afternoon”)

  16. Rachel P. Maines wrote a vastly entertaining account of the physician’s aid (and timesaver!) invented in the 1880s, the vibrator. The Technology of Orgasm is still available at Amazon. I’m one of those Capricorn types who don’t laugh much at regular comedy, but I was rolling on the floor reading this academic history.
    You may want to add it to your listie on the right.

  17. next your going to find out the secret to kellog and his cornflakes, and why flakey came about… 🙂

  19. hmmm, maybe it was a Hollywood thing but I thought the Romans had them. You be lying down and could reach your food on the floor with your right arm.

  21. The only problem was that physicians did not enjoy the tedious task of vaginal massage (generally referred to as ‘pelvic massage’): The technique was difficult for a physician to master and could take hours to achieve “hysterical paroxysm.”

    Now THAT’s something I bet they don’t teach in med school.

    And now I’m never going to look the same way at the heretofore innocuous chaise lounge.

  22. bwahaha! Sounds more like the men of the day were the ‘deficient’ ones.

    Go work some 12 hour shifts at the steel mill and see if you have any excess energy when get home…

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