Chastity belts
Grim artifacts from a backward time. Or maybe not.
Alex Q. Arbuckle
11th-17th centuries
Note: the authenticity and specific dating of these artifacts is uncertain.Chastity belts — iron locking contraptions placed around the genitalia of women — were supposedly first used to prevent knights' wives and partners from falling to temptation while knights were away for years at a time.However, recent research indicates this is most likely a modern myth embraced by 18th and 19th century historians eager to illustrate the backwardness of medieval civilizations relative to their own enlightenment. The first known sketch of a metal chastity belt comes from a German treatise written in 1405, but it is believed to be a joke, rather than a depiction of any actual devices in common use. Other references to chastity belts from the 16th and 17th centuries can be interpreted as ironic, satirical or metaphorical within their historical context.Though the symbol of a tied rope belt had been used to represent a bride's chastity in ancient Rome, the idea that medieval women would wear metal belts for extended periods of times is medically dubious — prolonged contact of skin against metal would lead to abrasions, wounds and infection. Contemporary historians suspect that many of the chastity belts allegedly from the Middle Ages and Renaissance are actually forgeries created by Victorians. In fact, the Victorian belief in the dangers of masturbation led to the creation of many patents for real chastity belts — for men.
It is probable that the great majority of examples now existing were made in the 18th and 19th centuries as curiosities for the prurient, or as jokes for the tasteless. - The British Museum
