Continuing our look at the history of some of the most well known sex toys, we resume today and begin with butt plugs.
Long before platinum silicone butt plugs, back in 1892 Frank E Young invented the rectal dilator.
These dilators were not marketed as sex toys or adult toys for men and women to use for anal fun, quite the contrary. Indeed, they were produced as a medical treatment.
The conditions for which these rectal inserts were designed to be used were constipation and piles.
Obviously we all know that constipation is when a person is unable to empty their bowels and pass a faecal stool. For those of us that are not familiar about what piles are here is a brief description!
If you have a swollen vein inside your bottom then this is known as piles or haemorrhoids. The inflamed veins may be in the anus or rectum and Mr Young believed his ‘butt plugs’ could cure all anal problems!
These initial ‘self retaining’ rectal dilators were made of a very hard rubber and came in 4 different sizes. It is amusing to us that the platinum silicone butt plugs of today are still available in the style which he championed over a 100 years ago!
Aside from treating constipation and piles, Young believed that anal dilators were also a treatment for insanity however critics of the time were less convinced and thought they were merely an excuse for some perversion!
That may well have been quite close to the truth as medicine has shown us that there are lots of highly sensitive nerve endings within the anus and rectum. Therefore, it is reasonable to deduce that the employment of these devices was inadvertently paving the way for the next century of sex toy related anal experimentation and play.
These rectal dilators have spawned the weird and wonderful butt plugs of today and likely influenced a myriad of sex toys such as platinum silicone anal stretchers.
In the 1940’s the United States Government seized and destroyed Dr Young’s rectal dilators as they believed the claims of medical treatment were false. In addition not only did they determine that they were not effective treatments, they concluded that they were not safe the public to use!
From their inception as a medical device, butt plugs were soon misused purely for sexual purposes as is often the case by medical discoveries.
In order to be an effective butt plug it was important that their design incorporated a flared base. If a butt plug sex toy didn’t have this feature then it could potentially be pushed up the anus into the rectum and be lodged inside.
For this reason it is very important that people do not self improvise with adult toys for anal fun. The last thing we are sure you would want to do is to have to wait 4 hours at accident and emergency before having a vegetable removed from your backside! Far better to go for a platinum silicone dildo such as a large silicone dong or huge silicone dildo to play with.
Our sex toys are body safe and hypoallergenic. Furthermore, they are designed for anal penetration – they will not just allow safe pleasure they are actually tailored to fit the anatomy of the anus.
They can specifically target in men the prostate gland. By stimulating the ‘P’ spot the man can achieve a powerful orgasm independent of the penis.
Butt plugs allow a more gentle and safer means to penetrate the anus. While platinum silicone dildos are used by many for anal play, the butt plug was traditionally shorter and therefore have been less likely to cause injury.
Today, some platinum silicone dildos, anal stretchers and butt plugs can be huge silicone sex toys and therefore they could all potentially cause an injury. Therefore use of such adult toys is at your own risk – please use them responsibly and remember that the anus cannot self lubricate (like the vagina can). Therefore plenty of lubricant is essential. Every sex toy purchase of a platinum silicone product from John Thomas Toys receives a free pot of Boy Butter body safe lubricant.