The dildo: an object of pleasure
Dildos were probably also been used as fertility symbols by priestesses in the oldest forms of worship. Moses, who wanted to instil the idea of a single god, rejected such practises but, imitating those around them, the first Hebrews quickly returned to them and the prophets admonished them for melting gold and silver jewellery to make phallus objects intended for their debauchery (Ezekiel).
Dildos travel through the centuries
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Greek women knew of the olisbos (phallus shaped objects) single or double, of varying sizes, which they used for worship or private pleasure. In a tale dating back to 300 BC, two female friends boasted bout the qualities of such objects made out of leather by a cobbler considered a benefactor. “Men don’t achieve such rigidity […] and with such softness! Like a dream... My eyes were wide with desire!"
In the Middle Ages, a theologian wrote about the young women of the day, “if they do not have a man, they imagine the sexual act and virile penis and begin to rub themselves with their fingers or with other instruments, until [orgasm]... In this way, they subdue their genital parts and become more chaste”. But faultfinders were already beginning to harshly criticise those women who used “women’s objects”.
During the Renaissance, these objects were still fashionable. They could be found everywhere, even in the coffers of ladies of the Court, so much so that French poet Ronsard criticized Hélène, who he courted in vain, of rejecting him because she preferred “her hand and her dildo”.
Dildos around the world
Besides simple models used by hand, there are strap-on models which are attached to the lower abdomen and can be found in paintings of Greek pottery and Japanese prints, used by African and European women alike. It is told that a great prince surprised two ladies of the Court: “one with a large member between her legs, neatly attached with little straps around the body: it looked like a natural member”, and that the prince obliged them to show him how they were using it.
In Italy, glass models could be found, which could be filled with hot water. They were perfected in the 18th and 19th centuries with the addition of rubber bulbs (in the shape of testicles), which were filled with milk and squeezed at the right moment to squirt out liquid and complete the illusion.
In Africa, there were also wooden models, pierced so as to be able to fill with a liquid imitating sperm. To better imitate the flexibility of the human original, the Chinese used a mixture of rubber and resin. The Japanese proposed a variant – a dildo that could be attached to the heel, allowing the woman to penetrate herself whilst keeping her two hands free for other occupations.
Modern-day dildos
The 20th century brought with it the arrival of battery-powered models, and the wonder of electricity enabled the invention of heating, vibrating and massaging dildos, with or without the possibility of injection, including speed controls if desired and interchangeable heads, to provide a variety of sensations or facilitate anal penetration. In the same creative spirit, daily objects have also been diverted from their normal uses by adding a dildo: a shoe, bicycle, rocking horse...
What about men?
Of course, the vibrating and/or anal penetrative properties of these appliances also interest men. For men, “artificial vaginas” were invented as substitutes for penetration. These inflatable rubber objects, scrupulously reproducing a woman’s abdomen and top of thighs to the very last detail, were advertised as “travelling ladies” for sailors and solitary men. The “Captain’s wife” was a full-body inflatable doll found as early as the 19th Century.
The future promises us virtual sex, of which prototypes already exist. Using a full body suit endowed with sexual features, and programming in the characteristics of the ideal partner, our bodies will feel all the sensations of real sex, with pleasure unrestrained by a partner not in the mood, physical incapacity, fear of disease or unwanted pregnancy.
If inventing tools to serve as objects which fulfil our physical needs and increase the pleasure of our senses (like the piano for music and auditory senses, or the oven for baking and taste senses), has always been considered the human way and what differentiates us from animals, then the dildo can probably also be considered a symbol of humankind.
Copyright © 2010 Doctissimo
Posted 23.08.2010
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