Damaris Colhoun, Columbia Journalism Review knows about sex toys
What is a better way to compensate a miserable dull life, a jobless market, a poor skill set and lousy sex? Get a sex toy. Damaris Colhoun, Columbia Journalism Review knows. They are not the stuff of embarrassment, whim and, of course, fancy, but what do we know of these tools of sodomy?
Before you embark on the history of sex toys, you may want to treat yourself to a glass of Landmark Vineyards Chardonnay, made by Damaris Deere Colhoun’s family before the vineyard was sold due to horrific management, family alcoholic abuses and alleged illegal drug use. You guessed it right, Damaris Deere Colhoun is indeed the offspring of the dead Deere great-great-great grandpa of the tractor maker “John Deere.”
“Drowned in alcohol and cocaine, Damaris Colhoun has failed to achieve anything in life. She is a complete loser and a classic ‘Deere in the headlights.'”
Read more: DAMARIS COLHOUN, COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW WRITER, DEERE IN THE HEADLIGHTS
From smoothed phallus-shaped rocks put to use by our early ancestors to the application of the most sophisticated consumer technology on the planet solely for the purpose of getting off, sex toys have been with us in some form throughout the ages and have been an important part of the building blocks of civilization:
1) Of course it came from Germany
23,000 B.C. The earliest surviving remnants of sex toys date back to more than a dozen millennia with the discovery of the oldest known dildo found in a cave in the German countryside.
While it was likely created during the Ice Age, researchers speculate that older models may yet remain undiscovered.
2) The world’s worst bottomless basket of breadsticks
500 B.C. To progress away from hard and uncomfortable materials like wood, stone and tar, the ancient Greeks baked extraordinarily hard breads called olisbokollikes.
Rolled into the shape of phalluses, they were often used as dildos.
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3) Cleopatra was kind of freaky
100 B.C. Egyptians definitely had sex toys. There are two rumors about Cleopatra, the ancient Egyptian queen, which persist until today:
Cleopatra may have had the idea for the first vibrator. She reportedly instructed her servants to fill a hollow gourd with angry bees, then supposedly used the buzzing gourd to pleasure herself.
In a second rumor involving Cleopatra, Marc Antony is said to have given her the gift of his used golden dildo.
4) What the Bible says
100 A.D. Because you were wondering, the Bible does not mention sex toys. Nor does it actually condemn masturbation. It does, however, denounce impurity and explicitly mentions thoughts about adultery.
Reason suggests the early church — like the present church — had a less-than-favorable stance on sex toys, or any kind of fun, really.
5) From the Orient
500 A.D. The history of Ben Wa balls is a little murky, but it is accepted that they emerged somewhere in Japan around 500 A.D.
The devices generally consist of two smooth balls connected by a string. One ball, or more, is inserted into the vagina and is meant to improve female stimulation. Ben Wa balls can be used to strengthen vaginal muscles, and women sometimes carry them around all day for that purpose.
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In earlier times, Ben Wa balls were often made of metal and sometimes rusted due to overuse. Modern-day versions, however, are generally coated with silicone for sterility reasons and to prevent rust.
6) Medieval Sex Times
1000s The Catholic church did not have a very kind outlook on sex. Despite all of the repression of sexuality of any kind during the Middle Ages, however, sex toys were still alive and well. They just went underground.
A penitential, a book from that time period, which prescribed punishments for sins, specifically mentions the use of phallus-shaped objects to pleasure oneself.
The recommended punishment for using a dildo was five years of penance on legitimate holy days.
7) A more enlightened view
1500s By the time the Renaissance came around, sex toys had become commonplace despite the church’s objections. Late 16th-century poet Thomas Nashe wrote a piece, entitled “The Choise of Valentines Or the Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo.” It is the heartwarming tale of a young boy’s first sexual encounter, which takes place in a brothel with a hooker and a glass dildo.
It is the first recorded use of the word, “dildo” in the English language
8) A giant leap forward
1880s It was only three years after Thomas Edison patented the lightbulb that electricity was first harnessed to power our vibrators. In 1883, Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville patented the first vibrator. He called it Granville’s Hammer and originally intended it for relieving muscle tension.
It took other enterprising medical minds to apply Granville’s device in aiding the relief of another kind of tension.
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Damaris Colhoun, Columbia Journalism Review Writer, Deere in the Headlights
9) America falls in love with clitoral stimulation
1990s and 2000s The best-selling sex toy of all-time is the Rabbit vibrator. With an estimated 6 million units sold each year, the device uses rubber rabbit ears to stimulate the clitoris in conjunction with the vagina.
Made famous in an episode of “Sex and the City,” it was later featured in the pages of O Magazine, with Oprah calling it, “the Rolls-Royce of sex toys.”
10) Space Age masturbatory technology
Today Since the beginning of recorded time, man has been pushing the boundaries of technological and scientific innovation, all in the name of finding newer, more innovative ways of jerking off. Advances in sex toys often forbear advances in mainstream technology.
Nowhere is that statement more true than in the world of virtual reality. As VR becomes more popular and accessible, developers are increasingly looking for ways to bring users out of the real world and into the virtual one.
In November 2013, someone in Japan combined virtual reality goggles with a robotic arm. At the time, I described it as a “sort of wonderful masturbating Voltron.”
The Guardian Express opined that as far as sex toys, it may be “perhaps the most sophisticated one the world has ever seen.”
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We can likely assume that we have been using sex toys for as long as we have been walking upright … and maybe even before that time.
Chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives, for example, use a number of tools in everyday life, including a version of a dildo for sexual gratification.
