Sextoy, Olisbos, rabbit, Dildo, dildo…, so much vocabulary to designate our intimate and naughty toys, but what is it really about the history of the sextoy?
Widely democratized and publicized since the end of the 20th century, through television series such as » Sex and the City », The stars of showbiz like Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham or Teri Hatcher, or simply because more and more women claim and affirm a fulfilling sexuality, the history of the sextoy seems to go back to the dawn of time.
Indeed, there is not a civilization or a continent where archaeologists have not succeeded in bringing out numerous vestiges in the shape of a phallus. Let us remember for all practical purposes that in Greco-Roman Antiquity, the phallus designated the erect male sexual organ. Indeed, the history of the sextoy is full of testimonies where the phallus was the object, either of a particular cult in the name of fertility or fertility, or of an object of pleasure, or even of a medical object. intended to treat certain pathologies that we will discuss later.
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History of the sextoy since prehistoric times
According to’history of the sextoy, it seems that the use of the first naughty toys dates back to the distant times of the Paleolithic era. Indeed, it was discovered in the cave of Hohle Fels located in the locality of Schelklingen in Germany, a phallic-shaped object (about 20 cm in size) which the less daring claimed to be a striker. The carbon dating of this stone sextoy would place it in a range going from 27,000 to 28,000 BC. If today there is no certainty as to the use of this object, it nevertheless appears that the grooves of the upper part reinforce the phallic character of the instrument.
The history of the continuous sextoy in the times of the Hebrews, the people who became monotheistic by the way of their prophet Moses, sometimes showed signs of bewilderment. We then find in the books of the Prophets a testimony of the existence of the cult of the phallus. Ezekiel indicates, in a fairly precise way, the making of this indecent simulacrum and the abuse that women made of it. » You have, he said to them, taken your rich clothes, which you have sewn together, to make the ornaments of your high places and you fornicated on these high places in a way that has never had nor will never have an example ”.
Ancient Egypt is full of frescoes, sculptures, amulets, phalluses isolated or associated with objects or gods. Thus, in Egyptian mythology, the god Osiris, was also symbolized by a disproportionate phallus. Likewise, as Jacques-Antoine Dulaure evokes in his work “Les divinités generatrices” (1805), the historian and explorer Herodotus of the 5th century BC, who attended this ceremony, describes it to us in this way: “ The Egyptians celebrate the feast of Bacchus in much the same way as the Greeks; but, instead of Phallus, they invented figures about a cubit high, which are made to move by means of a cord. Women wear, in towns and villages, these figures whose virile member is not much smaller than the rest of the body, and which they make move. A flute player walks at the head; they follow him singing the praises of Bacchus … « . Below is a photo of a showcase at the Louvre museum:
In Antiquity we also find traces of the history of the sextoy, the Greeks prove to be fiery followers of the phallic cult. The paintings, sculptures and pottery show erect sexes towards which the hands or the mouths of women and men stretch out. The poet Aristophanes of the 5th century BC, stages a play, Lysistrata. This work, whose essential message is a message of peace, highlights women who complain about the abstinence to which their husbands are cornered, who devote their time and energy to war. We then see a cult dedicated to the god Dionysus (god of the vine, wine and pleasures) where women carry giant phalluses in procession, to improve their fertility and fertility. At that time, the Greeks called the sextoys of the term « Olisbos ». Visible in everyday life as in ceremonies, carved in wood or stone, also made with leather, these objects are dedicated to the gods or to personal pleasure. Their sizes are varied and they are used by both sexes.
This phallic cult will be preserved by the Romans through the god Priapus, god of fertility, recognizable by his gigantic penis, constantly erect.
On the other side of the planet, other regions of the world are not left out and there are also traces of the history of the sex toy. Whether it is the statues of Hindu temples, Japanese prints, suggestive pottery from Peru, erotic statues from Malagasy tombs, the sexual accessories of the Kama-Sutra, the phallus is really everywhere. It is an object of pilgrimage or of worship for women wishing to give birth, to fight against sterility or more simply to satisfy personal pleasure. Thus, Pierre d’Assy in his work Mentor (edition of the Manuscript) specifies that » the traveling Japanese confirmed their high degree of civilization by preferring to entrust an olisbos to lonely wives « . Thus, while the Asians offered dildos to their wives in order to guarantee their fidelity, the Western lords « gratified » their women with chastity belts !!!
Closer to home, in Western Europe, the craze for phallic objects continues to cross the ages. Thus, in the Middle Ages, naughty toys are called « Gaude Mihi » which literally means in medieval Latin « Rejoice Me », which will later give the term of dildo, shortened to Gode. However, it was in Italy that dildos became “Diletto”, which later gave rise to the Anglo-Saxon term “Dildo”.
A testimony from the 16th century in France marks the history of the sextoy on their use, is also revealed to us through the poet Pierre de Ronsard, in the sonnet for the attention of the one he courted in vain, leading him to write :
« Love, I do not complain of the endurcy pride,
Ny of the cruelty of my young Lucresse;
Ny like, without help, to languish she leaves me:
I’m complaining about her hand and his godmicy «
History of the sextoy from the 19th century
Even closer to us, in the 19th century, dildos were used in psychiatry to try to cure hysteria in women, perceived at the time as the result of sexual dissatisfaction. Morality was not an obstacle to this medical treatment since at the time, clitoral enjoyment was not identified.
It was not until 1883 that Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville, an English doctor, invented the first electromechanical dildo to facilitate orgasm and thus obtain better clinical results. In 1900, the Universal Exhibition brought together a whole collection of vibrators in Paris. However, it was their use at the start of the 20th century in the first pornographic films that gave sextoys their sulphurous and shameful reputation!
The advent of electricity, the invention of batteries, the discovery of rubber and the progress in the manufacture of various plastics also revolutionized the history of the sex toy. Now glamorous, chic, these naughty objects, whose shapes are no longer exclusively those of the penis, have become objects of emancipation but also of discovery of his sexuality and its privacy. The act of buying is relieved of guilt in favor of a liberated sexuality, without being libertine.
By way of conclusion on the history of the sextoy, as Agnès Troussier, sexologist could write: » Women recognized in their expectation, relieved of the guilt of a confined, contained pleasure, can take a new step in the expression of their pleasure and their enjoyment … Object of freedom, it can be the source of several games … C ‘ is the tool of a pleasure that is consumed when you want it, where you want it and with whom you want it. A freedom conducive to the empowerment of pleasure. Support object of fantasy …, owning an olisbos is like owning a pen: with it you can write all the stories of pleasure, imagine fantasies from the simplest to the wildest. He is there to unleash creativity, to increase it tenfold … « .
