Even in the rarified climes of academia, sex sells.

In 1999 Cornell historian Rachel Maines caught media attention with her award-winning book, "The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator and Women's Sexual Satisfaction" (Johns Hopkins University Press), that chronicled the curious history of the vibrator, which was invented by doctors to cure women of "hysteria." Now, the once controversial book has been made into a documentary film, "Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm."

Produced by Wabi Sabi Productions, the film will debut at New York City's Lincoln Center in the Walter Reade Theater, Saturday, July 28, at 9:15 p.m.

"It's unusual for a scholarly book from a university press to end up as a feature-length film, but that's what's happened to my first book," says Maines, a visiting scholar in science and technology studies at Cornell. She says that the double standards surrounding the history of the vibrator has far-reaching contemporary implications for sexual freedom, civil liberties and the right to privacy.

The film -- and book -- chronicles the invention of the vibrator and its impact on sexual politics by tracing it from a labor-saving device invented by doctors to cure women of "hysteria" to a household product manufactured and sold by mainstream companies, such as Sears Roebuck, General Electric and Hamilton Beach. In the 1920s the vibrator went "underground" and was rediscovered during the rise of feminism in the 1970s.

In 2004, the story continues, a Texas housewife was arrested for breaking a state law by selling vibrators to two undercover police officers posing as a dysfunctional couple. Texas and three other states had passed such laws, the film asserts, as a backlash to the feminist movement. Yet, as the book and film point out, it is legal to sell Viagra in these states.

The film uses interviews with Maines, feminist pioneers, the Texas housewife and her lawyer and others to tell the story. Many of the film's interviewees, including Maines, will be available at the premiere to answer questions after the screening.

"This high-spirited cliché-busting documentary reveals all you ever wanted to know about the M-word, the O-word -- and more," says Gina Ogden, a Massachusetts sex therapist and author. "You'll laugh, gasp and open your eyes to the longtime control of what women really want -- and how freeing it can be to take pleasure literally into your own hands. As a sexuality therapist, I've heard many a woman confide, 'My vibrator is my significant other.'"

Tickets for the premiere are available at http://www.filmlinc.com or by calling (212) 496-3809.