Human beings have always had a fondness for sex toys. A few years ago, researchers in Germany dug up what is surely one of the world's oldest dildos -- a full eight inches of siltstone love for some prehistoric ancestor's happy orifice. You can check out my post Female Self-Loving and the Dildo: A Short Pleasurable History for more info. This short video from the Kinsey Institute contains some very old "sex toys". I put the term in parenthesis because many of them look more like bawdy party favors (similar to our modern equivalent the penis shaped ice cube tray, which I am sure you all have, right?), than actual devices for sexual stimulation. 


  


We have come a long way since most of these gadgets were invented. We now have toys that will vibrate, shake, stir, suck, squeeze, and penetrate all of your erogenous zones, at the same time, in short order. And some are pretty pricey too. In 2010, a talented French jeweler released a white gold dildo that had an 18 carat diamond ring mounted inside of it. This fancy dick was sold at Maison Victor for a mere 59, 154 dollars (40,000 euro) and was designed "...for rich people who want to declare their love in a special way," according to the manager at Maison Victor. Oh, to be that rich and that horny...

This short video deals with our insane cultural attitudes about sex. Our society is so dichotomized about this issue. On one hand, the most searched term on the internet is "sex", pornography brings in billions of dollars a year in revenue, and yet abstinence based sex ed has been the rule for years, vibrators are illegal in some states (sadly, I happen to live in one), and politicians want to plan your family for you. The importance of sex is blown way out of proportion by the mass media, and reflects our cultural hysteria around sexuality. The more something is repressed in our unconscious (Freud 101, here), the more preoccupied we are by it. The technical term for this is erotophobia, and it seems like everybody has it in one form or another.

One of my favorite examples of this trend was the case of Joanne Webb, the Texas homemaker and former school teacher, who was arrested in 2004 for selling vibrators at a Passion Party ( kind like a Tupperware party but with dildos). Her story was featured in the great documentary Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm. When her attorney Beann Sisemore tried to discuss the ridiculousness of this case with the legal authorities involved, she jokingly asked, "What's the deal with the war on the clitorises?" The guy involved with the case looked up, dumbfounded, and hastily replied that he wasn't going to arrest the "clitorises" just Joanne Webb.  Frankly, I think that about sums it up in a nutshell.