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http://www.intimategifts.com/Intimate/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=253&CATID=1&af_id=145
http://www.intimategifts.com/Intimate/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=589&CATID=1
http://www.intimategifts.com/Intimate/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=193&CATID=1
Guilty Pleasures
“Don’t play with yourself!”
It's a phrase that's been heard by far too many impressionable young children. When girls and boys start to discover their bodies it can be a source of much embarrassment for parents. Soon children consider the exploration of their private areas as bad, or even forbidden. And so starts the association between guilt and pleasure.
It does not end here, however. As the insecure adolescent enters high school, he or she is confronted by another social taboo. It is quite clear that it is not okay to talk about masturbation. Thoughts of social acceptance are paramount and it's important not to rock the boat. Self-exploration is a forbidden subject. Myths and rumors abound, leaving the adolescent alone in a world filled with questions and far too few answers.
Furthermore, teenagers are bombarded with moral admonitions against promiscuity and pre-marital sex, not to mention the ever-present fear of STDs and unwanted pregnancies that often go hand-in-hand with such behavior.
What all this leads to is an association between sexual pleasure and guilt. Sexual gratification - an eminently important and essential subject most people have a vested interest in - becomes relegated to the margins of polite society. Sex in all its glorious forms becomes clouded in a haze of misinformation and innuendo. Even a half-century after the publication of Kinsey's groundbreaking studies on human sexuality, North American society remains haunted by a nagging Puritanism.
It's easy to see where sex toys got such a terrible reputation. Up until about 10 years ago, you couldn't even find a book on sex toys. There were talked about in two-page summaries in sex manuals, which is hardly the treatment they deserve. A search at Amazon.com for "sex toys" produces a paltry 9 results. In many ways, sex toys are the final stumbling block on the path to sexual openness. Birth control, homosexuality, masturbation - these are all facets of sexuality that have by and large been brought out into frank and open discourse. Mention a vibrator, however, and you'll still elicit a few embarrassed giggles from those around you.
Sex toys are a completely healthy - dare we say natural? - way to explore sexual pleasure. Because of the society we live in, however, they continue to be a guilty pleasure. This is slowly changing. Mainstream media is starting to admit that sex toys do indeed exist ,and yes, people do use and enjoy them. From Citizen Ruth to Sex And The City, sex toys are slowly gaining acceptance.
So let the guilt slide off your back and:
Go play with yourself!
Sex Toy HIstory
A History Lesson
Finding a detailed history of human sexuality is a difficult task. Foucault's History of Sexuality makes a valiant attempt, but it goes no further than the Victorian era. Finding a detailed history of sex toys, meanwhile, is next to impossible. One thing is clear: sex toys have been around for thousands of years.
Ancient Greece
The first documented use of a dildo comes from Ancient Greece, where merchants sold something called an olisbos. Fashioned from stone, leather, or in some cases wood, the olisbos became a tool bought primarily by single women - or so the cultural evidence would have us believe. To call into question such a conclusion is only natural, as the same general impression (that dildo ownership is the domain of single women) persists today. But we now know that dildos are enjoyed by people of both sexes, from all walks of life.
"Diletto": The Delight of the Dildo
We next turn to Renaissance Italy, where olisbos became diletto, from the Italian for delight. Even with a liberal amount of olive oil as lubricant (no joke!), the diletto was not as comfortable as today's models. But as evidenced by today's booming adult toy industry, the dildo continued to evolve and grow in popularity.
Victorian Era
It was around the mid-nineteenth century when the world was first introduced to the rubber dildo. Rubber dildos of the day were much more comfortable and 'life-like' than anything introduced previously.
It was also during the Victorian Era when the world was first introduced to the vibrator. At the time, vibrators were prescribed to treat a condition known as "hysteria". This term is derived from the Greek hystera, meaning "uterus," and reflects the ancient and patently false notion that psychiatric disorders in women spring from disturbances in the uterus. At the time, women were not regarded as sexual beings, and the use of a vibrator for sexual pleasure would have been regarded as scandalous. In turn, vibrators grew in popularity by being marketed as massagers.
By the early twentieth century vibrators began to appear in early erotic cinema. Their popularity was stunted in the 1940s, when the advertisement of such products experienced a steady decline.
Today
In the last 30 years sex toys have experienced a renaissance, of sorts. Unfortunately, the seventies saw the proliferation of substandard products with a generally sexist tone to their marketing. During the eighties things began to improve thanks to a new attitude pioneered by organizations and companies like San Francisco's Good Vibrations.
The nineties saw a continuation of this trend with numerous sex-positive boutiques providing a comfortable place to shop for sex toys.
References:
Sexy Origins and Intimate Things : The Rites and Rituals of Straights, Gays, Bi'S, Drags, Trans, Virgins, and Others by Charles Panati
The Dictionary of Sexual Slang by Alan Richter
Sex in History by Reay Tannahill.
? http://www.intimategifts.com/Intimate/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&User_ID=3779409&st=7762&st2=59148187&st3=-42046340&Product_ID=636&CATID=1
http://www.intimategifts.com/Intimate/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=253&CATID=1&af_id=145
http://www.intimategifts.com/Intimate/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=589&CATID=1
http://www.intimategifts.com/Intimate/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=193&CATID=1
Guilty Pleasures
“Don’t play with yourself!”
It's a phrase that's been heard by far too many impressionable young children. When girls and boys start to discover their bodies it can be a source of much embarrassment for parents. Soon children consider the exploration of their private areas as bad, or even forbidden. And so starts the association between guilt and pleasure.
It does not end here, however. As the insecure adolescent enters high school, he or she is confronted by another social taboo. It is quite clear that it is not okay to talk about masturbation. Thoughts of social acceptance are paramount and it's important not to rock the boat. Self-exploration is a forbidden subject. Myths and rumors abound, leaving the adolescent alone in a world filled with questions and far too few answers.
Furthermore, teenagers are bombarded with moral admonitions against promiscuity and pre-marital sex, not to mention the ever-present fear of STDs and unwanted pregnancies that often go hand-in-hand with such behavior.
What all this leads to is an association between sexual pleasure and guilt. Sexual gratification - an eminently important and essential subject most people have a vested interest in - becomes relegated to the margins of polite society. Sex in all its glorious forms becomes clouded in a haze of misinformation and innuendo. Even a half-century after the publication of Kinsey's groundbreaking studies on human sexuality, North American society remains haunted by a nagging Puritanism.
It's easy to see where sex toys got such a terrible reputation. Up until about 10 years ago, you couldn't even find a book on sex toys. There were talked about in two-page summaries in sex manuals, which is hardly the treatment they deserve. A search at Amazon.com for "sex toys" produces a paltry 9 results. In many ways, sex toys are the final stumbling block on the path to sexual openness. Birth control, homosexuality, masturbation - these are all facets of sexuality that have by and large been brought out into frank and open discourse. Mention a vibrator, however, and you'll still elicit a few embarrassed giggles from those around you.
Sex toys are a completely healthy - dare we say natural? - way to explore sexual pleasure. Because of the society we live in, however, they continue to be a guilty pleasure. This is slowly changing. Mainstream media is starting to admit that sex toys do indeed exist ,and yes, people do use and enjoy them. From Citizen Ruth to Sex And The City, sex toys are slowly gaining acceptance.
So let the guilt slide off your back and:
Go play with yourself!
Sex Toy HIstory
A History Lesson
Finding a detailed history of human sexuality is a difficult task. Foucault's History of Sexuality makes a valiant attempt, but it goes no further than the Victorian era. Finding a detailed history of sex toys, meanwhile, is next to impossible. One thing is clear: sex toys have been around for thousands of years.
Ancient Greece
The first documented use of a dildo comes from Ancient Greece, where merchants sold something called an olisbos. Fashioned from stone, leather, or in some cases wood, the olisbos became a tool bought primarily by single women - or so the cultural evidence would have us believe. To call into question such a conclusion is only natural, as the same general impression (that dildo ownership is the domain of single women) persists today. But we now know that dildos are enjoyed by people of both sexes, from all walks of life.
"Diletto": The Delight of the Dildo
We next turn to Renaissance Italy, where olisbos became diletto, from the Italian for delight. Even with a liberal amount of olive oil as lubricant (no joke!), the diletto was not as comfortable as today's models. But as evidenced by today's booming adult toy industry, the dildo continued to evolve and grow in popularity.
Victorian Era
It was around the mid-nineteenth century when the world was first introduced to the rubber dildo. Rubber dildos of the day were much more comfortable and 'life-like' than anything introduced previously.
It was also during the Victorian Era when the world was first introduced to the vibrator. At the time, vibrators were prescribed to treat a condition known as "hysteria". This term is derived from the Greek hystera, meaning "uterus," and reflects the ancient and patently false notion that psychiatric disorders in women spring from disturbances in the uterus. At the time, women were not regarded as sexual beings, and the use of a vibrator for sexual pleasure would have been regarded as scandalous. In turn, vibrators grew in popularity by being marketed as massagers.
By the early twentieth century vibrators began to appear in early erotic cinema. Their popularity was stunted in the 1940s, when the advertisement of such products experienced a steady decline.
Today
In the last 30 years sex toys have experienced a renaissance, of sorts. Unfortunately, the seventies saw the proliferation of substandard products with a generally sexist tone to their marketing. During the eighties things began to improve thanks to a new attitude pioneered by organizations and companies like San Francisco's Good Vibrations.
The nineties saw a continuation of this trend with numerous sex-positive boutiques providing a comfortable place to shop for sex toys.
References:
Sexy Origins and Intimate Things : The Rites and Rituals of Straights, Gays, Bi'S, Drags, Trans, Virgins, and Others by Charles Panati
The Dictionary of Sexual Slang by Alan Richter
Sex in History by Reay Tannahill.