As we approach the end of 2019 we are fortunate to live in a time where attitudes towards sexuality and expression of sex are a lot more liberated and relaxed than ever before. In this article we are going to be talking a little bit about the use of sex toys by men and women and how attitudes to their use has changed.
It is true that there has been evidence found of sex toys potentially being used by even very early man! Sex is such a primal, basic instinct that it is of no great surprise that even our earliest ancestors felt the need to pleasure themselves or others with their own makeshift adult toys.
Whether the use of improvised sex toys by our ancestors was approved of or frowned upon, is something we cannot comment on. However, we do know that over the course of the last 100 years attitudes have changed greatly.
Vibrators were developed in the late 19th Century and originally used as treatment offered by the medical professionals of the time to treat 'hysterical' women. The premise was that if these women achieved sexual release in the form of orgasm via vibrational stimulation, then they would be cured of each and every ailment they were currently afflicted by.
Throughout the 20th century vibrators continued to be used as a medical aid for women but soon became more mainstream in their use. By the middle of the century it was infact quite common place for women to own a form of body massager which they may use to achieve a clitoral orgasm.
Attitudes towards sex were much more relaxed in the years after the 2nd World War in part due to the flower power/free love era of the 1960's and this would have been an era of more sexual experimentation with adult toys or sex toys.
Sex toys have become increasingly sophisticated over the last 50 years. More realistic materials for both men and women to use have made them increasingly more authentic and closer to the real thing - e.g. male masturbators for men which resemble the vaginal cavity.
Throughout the 20th century there was a gradual increase in the ways in which men and women acted and spoke about their sexuality and their desires to self pleasure.
Attitudes to masturbation is actually quite an interesting topic to discuss. A lot of opinions where self pleasure was frowned upon, were liable to have been formed as a consequence of religious ideas.
Chastity belts were a concept dreamt up by the church to prevent women from having sex - presumably outside of marriage. They would also have prevented masturbation indulgencies too - even though large silicone dongs and massive silicone dildos had yet to be invented!
Young adult men were also fitted with makeshift gadgets designed to prevent them from self pleasure - one such item would sound a bell warning parents that their son was touching themselves so they could intervene and no doubt offer an exhaustive lecture of the dangers of sin.
Religion has been and to some degree still is, one of the main forces which has shaped the ways in which people view self pleasure. Many religions state that masturbation is unholy, that it is the path to evil. One such anecdote stated that when a woman is touching her clitoris she is infact ringing the devils doorbell!
These notions sound quite laughable but they have no doubt scared and controlled many sexually frustrated adults in the past.