Kink isn’t all about sex. As a matter of fact, sometimes it’s about not having sex. Or masturbating. Specifically, sometimes it’s about not having sex or masturbating because your genitals are locked inside a metal cage to which only you’re beloved domme/dominant has the key.
Chastity is hot. And it’s hot because of a complex web of cultural, sexual and historic associations. Kinky people didn’t invent it. In fact, an obsession with the idea of chastity (and chastity-enforcing devices) has been around for a while.
Here, then, is a brief history of chastity devices through the ages. Hopefully it can be interesting, inspiring, and perhaps even alluring.
Contents
Chastity belts in medieval times
Chastity devices in Victorian times
A side note: the cornflakes thing
First, a caveat
As with any kinky thing, chastity play is a way of exploring a fantasy version of something that, were it to happen “for real” would actually be quite unpleasant.
Being locked in a medieval chastity device would be uncomfortable, gross, and quite likely bad for your health. And if you believe everything you read online, they were used for all sorts of shitty reasons. Reasons like:
- Punishing the weird or witchy
- Enforcing religion
- Locking down a spouse
- Preventing rape while on the road
But: the fact that human history is kind of grim is no reason not to feel intrigued, aroused, curious or queer about any of the devices or practices described here. Our kinks are inspired by history and culture. Enjoying a fantasy version of something does not endorse the horrible real-life version of that thing – just like dressing up as a pirate does not endorse historical freebooting.
And besides, most of the most horrible chastity stuff probably never happened anyway…
Chastity belts in medieval times
It is a generally known and accepted fact that chastity belts were a thing back in medieval times. Knights would lock their beloveds into these metal devices before heading off to crusade or pillage or whatever knights did. Fair maidens would wear them when travelling through bandit country to preserve their virtue if their caravan was attacked.
We’ve got pictures of them. You can even see medieval chastity belts in museums. They must be a real thing, right?
Right?
Well… probably not. There’s little evidence that these kinds of devices…
… were made or worn during medieval times. Which makes sense. A cursory look at most things which claim to be medieval chastity belts should be enough to determine that they’d be uncomfortable, ineffective and impractical.
So where does the idea that chastity belts were in common use in medieval times come from?
The evidence for chastity belts being A Thing in medieval times is thin at best. You can find a drawing of one in the Bellifortis – an illustrated manual of military technology by Konrad Kyeser von Eichstadt. But this text also includes a number of fanciful and fictional inventions, including an invisibility shield and a fart-powered transportation machine.
Given this context, and the fact that the chastity belt illustration is accompanied by this text…
“These are hard iron breeches of Florentine women which are closed at the front. Padlocks unto the four-legged creatures, breeches unto the women of Florence. A joke binds this lovely series together, I recommend them to the noble and obedient youth.”
… it’s reasonable to assume that Kyeser was just making a ribald joke.
In the late 1500s, we see drawings of women locked into chastity belts as their husband heads out the door. These images typically all have one thing in common, however: there’s always a lover (or two) waiting in the background with a copy of the key. These pictures aren’t an academic account of the way real people lived. They’re cartoons.
There are other references to chastity belts, but they’re almost always rhetorical or intended in jest. Which leads to one simple conclusion: medieval chastity belts just didn’t really exist.
That being the case, then, where do all the rusty iron chastity belts we see in museums come from?
Chastity devices in Victorian times
The Victorians were fascinated by the idea of ancient chastity belts. They loved nothing more than “discovering” (or, more often inventing) fanciful sexual torture devices from the barbaric middle ages.
Many of the belts on display in museums around the world are fakes – crafted in the 18th or 19th century by Victorian blacksmiths with a naughty sense of humour (or a wicked hard-on for the idea of medieval maidens being locked in chastity).
The British Museum, for example, adds this caveat to its display of chastity devices:
“It is probable that the great majority of examples now existing were made in the 18th & 19th C as curiosities for the prurient, or as jokes for the tasteless…”
As someone who loves curiosities for the prurient, I’m honoured.
Anti-masturbation devices
While the Victorians were busy clutching their pearls about how brutal the middle ages were, they were simultaneously inventing hundreds of incredibly brutal and complicated ways to stop guys from wanking.
At the time, it was a widespread belief that masturbation would lead to a range of physical and mental disorders. People legitimately thought that excessive wanking could lead to insanity, sterility and even death. Orson Fowler, an American phrenologist (IE crackpot) wrote the following on the subject of wanking:
“It not only poisons your body, destroys your rosy cheeks, breaks down your nerves, impairs your digestion, and paralyzes your whole system; but it also corrupts your morals, creates thoughts and feelings the vilest and worse possible, and endangers your very soul’d salvation! No words can describe the miseries it inflicts throughout your whole life down to death…”
Geez.
This anxiety around the harmless act of self-pleasure was fueled as much by doctors as by religious figures. Why would men of medicine get behind such a ridiculous moral panic? There are lots of theories, including:
- It was a hangover from religious puritanism
- Doctors enjoyed exercising power and control over their patients
- Doctors had no idea what they were doing, and so seized on anything that was fashionable
- Doctors (who had previously been on a par with butchers) were looking to professionalize, and needed to weigh in on social/sexual issues
Whatever the reason, the Victorians were extremely keen to get a handle on the problem of wanking, and they came up with a lot of extremely nasty-looking devices to help with this.
The Jugum Penis, for example, was a spiked metal ring to be worn around the base of the cock. When you got an erection, those metal spikes would dig into your prick and swiftly neutralize any sexy feelings you might have had.
Other devices used other methods. One device that resembles a modern cock cage featured a lockable cap that was attached to the flaccid penis and then clamped to the wearer’s pubic hair. If the penis became erect, the device would give the hair a painful yank.
There were also some female chastity devices around during this time, but they were pretty tame by comparison. Many of the pseudoscience-fuelled anxieties around masturbation were all about the spilling of sperm, which it was often believed would deplete the body. Since women spilled no sperm, they mostly escaped the anti-masturbation device boom.
A side note: the cornflakes thing
As we edged awkwardly from the 19th into 20th Century the hysteria over masturbation started to calm down a little bit. Spiky cock rings gave way to more gentle anti-wanking technology. Like, for example, plain foods.
The most famous factoid going around is that cornflakes (lovely, sexless, crunchy cornflakes) were originally invented as an anti-masturbation diet supplement.
I see why this fact is popular. It’s quite amusing. But, alas, it’s also untrue.
Cornflakes were invented by American nutritionist J H Kellogg. He sold them mainly on the basis that they were simple, healthy and easy to chew. He also entirely separately said that a plain diet would help curb masturbatory urges. He never tried to hawk cornflakes on the basis that they’d stop you from jerking off.
Modern chastity devices
Cock cages designed for kink purposes are a relatively recent invention. You can find them as far back as the late 1950s and early 1960s. Most chastity devices on sale today are designed for men.
Over the course of decades, many small companies have manufactured and sold chastity devices including cock cages for men and belts designed for both men and women. Most of these companies remained small and were relatively short-lived, despite the often-excellent quality of their work.
Today, a few chastity device designs predominate. Metal and plastic cock cages are fairly common, and there are a number of silicone and rubber sheathes also sold as chastity devices. Here’s a rundown of every different kind of cock cage and sheath on the market at the moment.
Qiui have also entered the scene with the world’s first app-controlled cock cage, the Cellmate. It’s an interesting idea, but not without a few issues, including a vulnerability to hacker attacks. Here’s more about the colourful history of the Cellmate.
Female chastity belts are a little harder to find. Most consist solely of a thick leather strap that runs between the legs, and which can be (sort of) locked in place. The Dominix Deluxe Leather Lockable Female Chastity Belt (available from Lovehoney UK and Lovehoney US) is a good example.
Sources
The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making Process by Albrecht Classen, published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Misconceptions About the Middle Ages by Stephen Harris and Bryon L Grisby, published by Routledge, 2008.
“Why was masturbation such a medical concern in the 19th century?” by Jodie Collins, published via Jode Bloggs, March 2015. Link: https://jodebloggs.wordpress.com/2015/03/19/why-was-masturbation-such-a-medical-concern-in-the-19th-century/.
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