Dark History - 49: Sex Toys: Sinful or Medicinal?!?!

Episode Date: August 10, 2022

Welcome to the Dark History podcast.  Sex has been a part of humanity since the dawn of time. Do you know what else has been around for a while? Sex Toys. Oh yeah. There’s proof of dildos as far back as 30,000 BCE. But how did it go from phallic rocks to the multi-million dollar sex toy industry we have today. On today’s episode we go into the surprising and complicated history of the dildo. We’ll figure out what’s true, what’s a lie, and how the dildo is still around even after many attempts to ruin it. Episode Advertisers Include:   Hello Fresh, Apostrophe and SeatGeek. Learn more during the podcast about special offers! And make sure to  use code DARKHISTORY for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/DARKHISTORY 

Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Serian and I'd like to welcome you to my study and to the podcast our history. Hi, welcome. This is a chance to tell the story like it is and to share the history of stuff We would like honestly never think about that's like the whole like you know what the season goal is So what I want you to do is just sit back relax and let's talk about that hot juicy history Goss okay, so I already opened up my dark history book over here to chapter Dildo let me tell you how I got here. Because in the intro, I like to explain

how I arrived to today's topic. Because sometimes they're just random. It's like really how did we get here. So let me tell you, I was shopping the other day. Okay, I just needed a couple of things. You know, I need some candy, I need some booze, I need some tampons, beat-bop-boop.

I'm going down the lady aisle at something that rhymed with Yarget. So while I was looking at the tampons and all that great, fun stuff we love so much, I spot something I've never seen before in the aisle. A mythical creature, something called a vibrator or a vibrator. I was like, eh, would you look at that? I guess I've been conditioned to think that a vibrator belongs

in a sex store, you know, I've been conditioned to think that a vibrator belongs in a sex store. You know, like, why is this here? Why don't people just go by a vibrating toothbrush like the rest of us did? I saw it and I was just like, blushing and I was just so embarrassed. I was like, oh my god, a vibrator, like, ugh. I was acting like a 12 year olds. And then I caught myself and I was like, hey, Bailey, wait a minute.

Isn't this what we want? Isn't this a good thing? Fibrators being accessible. Then, after a few moments of clarity, I was like, yes, make fibers accessible to everyone. Because honestly, it's the only thing we got going for us right now. Like, just keep that thing charged up and close by, okay? If you don't know, I'm one of those people who talk to herself out loud. So I'm like thinking thinking like, I wonder if they masturbated in the olden days. Maybe they used wooden sticks or something banana, I don't know. And I'm Bailey.

And when I have a question or I'm curious about something and don't know the answer, I start googling. Hey Google, did women in the 1700s use dildos? The results? They were a little sloppy. But boy, did this leave me down a wild path? Because let me tell you something. You see, before the wheel was even invented, the people were riding something else. Dildos. No lie. Dildos have been around long before Jesus. Oh yes. So I have my dark history book open to chapter Dildo and we're gonna jump in.

Where did the Dildo come from? I wanna know. So back around the year, 30,000 BC, that's before Christ, if you don't know. The people who lived in what is now considered Germany were taking rocks and making them into very interesting shapes. Well, kind of shapes. Well, long hard ones. And some scientists guessed that these big long rocks were used to make fire, like flint.

You could like bash these rocks against other stones to make sparks and then it would create fire. But some other historians came along and were like, let's not overcomplicate this. It's possible they were using them to take the bullet train to Pleasure Town. There were ancient dildos found from 30,000 BC. Huh, I was just thinking like, that'd be cool to have like some ancient dick in you.

Eh, yeah, that'd be kind of cool. So the ancient Germans, they were very crafty with what they made their tildos out of. Some of them were made of bone, ivory limestone, and there were even some dildos made of teeth. I tried to find a picture of that one, I had no luck because I wanted to know. How did that look?

Some of these dildos had piercings. Oh yeah, way back when they had piercings to the tip, some of them had tattoos on the shafts. I mean, back then, they were, I don't wanna say they were advanced, but I guess they were, but they were more open-minded. It wasn't just happening in ancient Germany,

Nene. They pop up pun intended. In ancient Pakistan, China, Turkey, India, I mean all over the world. They were also a big part of ancient Egyptian mythology. The ancient Egyptians used to honor Osiris, the god of fertility, by wearing a belt with their version of a dildo. So the myth says that Osiris was killed and sliced into a bunch of pieces and his wife, ISIS,

was just devastated. So she tries to put all the pieces back together to bring her boo bear back to life. And she ends up doing it and she's like, yay! But one thing that's missing and the one thing she also loved the most, is penis, kind of important in a husband. So she gets crafty, Icist does,

and she starts searching all around her, and she's like, Osiris babe, I'm gonna get you back, you're dick, don't worry. And she does! After that, the two have a son together and live happily ever after. To them, you could say the dildo was sacred, But she does! After that, the two have a son together and live happily ever after. To them, you could say the dildos was sacred, but it's the ancient Greeks who really ran

with the concept of dildos. In fact, they basically invented sex toys. The Greeks were wild. They like the party. Oh yeah. We missed out. We were born in the wrong era, Paul. So around the year 500 BC, dildos showed up in ancient Greece.

They were made out of leather, brass. This one's a little bizarre. They made Dildos out of like loaves of bread. Yeah, sounds like a yeast infection to me. But... Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Thank you, I'm here all day. Greeks even invented lube when they started using olive oil to soften their fancy leather dildos. So it makes sense that the Greeks had like a pretty progressive view of sex.

I mean, they thought it was super important to have a healthy sex life and a good way to cure some ailments was by having more orgasms, which hell yeah, play- Aristotle, and other famous Greek philosophers believed that a neglected uterus was a sad uterus, and ain't nobody want a sad uterus. Now, this ended up being a core belief for women's health in ancient Greece. Some doctors were even known to recommend Maynath rituals. Maynaths

were followers of the god Bacchus, the Greek god of wine and sex, so you can maybe guess, a Maynath ritual was basically a big old orgy. Wine and sex and great pleas were just everywhere. And yeah, the ancient Greeks knew how to party you. Dildos were pretty mainstream and women were allowed to be openly sexual. In arts and culture, sex toys were pretty present and openly talked about in plays. They were put on pottery and paintings and they just did a lot with it. So go Greek.

Well, ancient Romans, they were the ones who didn't really like Dildos. Let's be honest here, they didn't like anything. They didn't like Dildos, they were the ones who didn't really like dildos. Let's be honest here, they didn't like anything. They didn't like dildos, they didn't like people having orgasms. They viewed orgasms as a form of epilepsy that could turn, easily turn into other diseases that are like, leave you vulnerable to other diseases. And in the second century AD, a Roman doctor,

his name was Sorenis. Yeah, I don't even need to say anything about that. That's a joke in itself. And Sorenis over here, he really ruins everything for everyone. Sorenis said that women's health problems come from quote, the Toils of Procreation, aka sex, and that women could recover by practicing abstinence.

So fun fact, some sources credit Sorenis with being the founder of scientific gynecology, which is kind of odd because he didn't believe women should even have sex. So that's, I think we're off to a rough start there, but okay, cool Sorenis. So yeah, Romans didn't believe in having fun with Zildos. In fact, the few times Dildos show up in ancient Roman culture was in like de-flowering ceremonies where women who were about to be married, they were forced to stick a stone dildo inside of them

so that they would lose their v card to a certain Roman god. So like, yeah, that's kind of gross. Like you're giving your virginity to this Roman god. Like what's he gonna do with it? But unfortunately, Sorenus, his views on sex and how women shouldn't be having it become very popular in the middle ages. Oh yes, they do.

In the 1200s, an Italian priest named Thomas Aquinas heard this theory. And let me tell you, he was like obsessed. Thomas was a big fan of Aristotle's belief that a woman was a failed man because of their sins. He's like, oh yeah brother. But I need a second to think about that. A woman is a failed man. I don't need a second to think about that, I believe they believe that. But because Thomas is a priest, he gets religious with it. And this is when sex and sexual pleasure, anything that isn't about making a baby becomes sinful. So he's actually the reason why priests and nuns

are not allowed to have sex or get married, which is wild, right? But where there's a will, there's a way. and nuns are not allowed to have sex or get married, which is wild, right? But where there's a will, there's a way. Supply and demand, baby, everyone was looking for something to stick up their lady parts. And then by the 1400s, Italy, oh, they really step up their game. And they become the number one exporter of dildos.

And, interesting fact, some believe that the world Dildo actually comes from the Italian word Deletto, which means a woman's delight. I mean, they got the cars, the art, the fashion, the pizza, now they got the Dildos. It's like, what don't the Italians do amazingly? So there's this guy, his name is John Wilmot. I don't think it matters, but shout out to you, John,

because he helped make these Italian models of the Dildo's extremely popular when he mass-exported them to England for his quote-unquote ballers club. It was a sexual society. So this club is dedicated to drinking, dancing, and just being naked. So balls, ballers club, dildo, it kind of like, it's the trifecta of fun.

That's what they were going for. So John was such a fan of the dildo himself. So he wrote a popular poem called, Signore dildo, aka Mr. dildo, which was basically about how these Italian Dildos were better at satisfying women than Englishmen were. It was like a flex. But these Italian Dildos were different from the ones we know and love today. A lot of them were hollow. They were like a hollow glass tube that you could fill up with warm water,

milk, or even pea, which was an option. It was an interesting choice. And you're probably thinking, well, why warm liquid? Well, that's a great question, Paul, I hear you. The Italians, they were very, they liked realistic shit, you know? And they wanted something to imitate ejaculation. With pee? Yeah. You know, I'm not here to kink shame.

Okay, that's what they did. Good for them. Anyway, the glass dildo. It was very bougie very luxurious very high-end Very expensive and only available to the rich people per use these were actually covered in like a soft material They'd wrap it like white velvet or silk. It was just looking super looks So these were so popular at these glass dildos that sometimes rich women would travel outside of their own country, go to Italy, stack up on these dildos, you know, and come back home, the sexy little souvenir. So naturally when we like something we talk about it, and these dildos became the talk of the town.

And other countries were like, hey, we keep hearing about these dildo thingies like we wanted on this. So people all over Europe start making and selling their own dildos. And in France, they experimented with like a bunch of different versions. They made a safer option,

which was made out of hard rubber, doesn't sound that safe, but okay. So there's a famous brothel in France, and the woman who owned it, her name was Madame Gordon, and she started actually selling her own line of dildos. Oh yeah, like iconic. And it became extremely popular. She called them Consoliders,

which means something to console you. Instead of a dildo, it kind of sounds nice. You know, cheer you up. And who was her biggest audience that needed extra cheering up? You'd be surprised to find out that it was actually nuns and priests. Not very true.

After Madame Gordon died, they found hundreds of letters from members of the clergy asking for her special tools. I mean, I get the allure. Some of her models even had balls attached to them, and the liquid would squeeze out of the dick when you squeeze the balls. Interactive. Innovative. She would have crushed it on Shark Tank, but people hated seeing this woman win. And in the late 17th century, law started popping up in Europe banning women from making dildos, just women, just women only. If you were caught traveling with a dildo in your luggage, they had their own version

of TSA, right? So they would take that dildo and burn it in front of you. Like drama. But thankfully, not every culture was as prude as as they were so let's hop on over to Japan for a second so around the same time as those lady-hate and laws in Europe the Japanese were featuring Dildos in their porn which was called shunga and shunga it would depict women enthusiastically buying and using dildos. Just having a good time.

And in one Japanese erotic book from the 1680s, a picture shows the ideal bedroom, which had like velvet drapes, a big-ass bed. There's maybe like a jar of sweets. You know, a little... Shagratch. And then you would see like the dildo, but there wasn't just one dildo, there were dildos everywhere.

Just room decor. In Shunga, women are shown as extremely sexual, even aggressive. So the Japanese, just like the Greeks, saw how useful, helpful, therapeutic, good for you, dildos could actually be. And fun. They show that the idea of women not only reading pornography, but also being turned on and master being with a Dildo existed in culture. Even though they started cracking down on sex toys in the 1700s, Shunga lived on in underground

markets, and you know, it's kind of interesting to see how sex played out in cultures that didn't have. Catholicism or Christianity as the central religion. One Japanese company even went on to create the most popular sex toy of all time. It's called the Hitachi Magic. WOOOOO! But we'll get back to that later. While things seem to be going okay for the dildo at this time, it's across the ocean,

where her story takes a dark turn. But let's pause for an ad break first. Welcome to the 1800s in the United States. When it came to all things sex, America was super repressed at this time. Good for us. You could order sex toys, but it was usually a male order service and it was very hush, you know.

You definitely weren't talking openly about your favorite dildo and sex was so taboo and still is, I guess, that even seeing an ad in a paper for a female condom where a dildo would set people off, all the way off. And guess who had their underwear in a big old twist? The Young Men's Christian association, aka the YMCA. Yeah, you may know them from the dance.

The YMCA believe that people's morals were all out of whack and the cause, porn and sex, of course. Especially sex toys like the dildo. So the YMCA, they're like we want to make all this shit illegal I'm talking the cock rings the French ticklers the Dildos the porn. I mean all the way down to contraceptives and like a condoms and diaphragms How come men always want to be all up in our business? Why can't you just leave us alone to be happy?

Huh why the YMCA out of it all things. I was like how did they get involved with Dildos? I guess she's so random you guys. I think you guys are a little pervy. But the YMCA they decided to team up with a man named Anthony Comstock. Now this man Anthony Comstock, he was a big anti-fun activist, just kidding, but he didn't fancy dildos and porn, and he didn't like the idea that it was available. It's the public. So they decide to work together and think of a plan

that's big and splashy that will get the government's intention and hopefully get the government on their side. Some of you, this is a signal. If you're listening at home, hi, I love you. How's it going? Great. Maybe you watched my murder mystery and makeup. Do you remember Anthony Comstock? I did a murder mystery and makeup about Betty Page.

Do you remember? I love Betty Page. Don't get me wrong, love Betty Page. But Anthony, he was involved with her whole thing when she was trying to mail. It's just such a small world, just what I'm getting at, right? It seems like the same handful of people are involved with everything, right?

Okay, that's all I've noticed. Thank you, Paul, for backing me up on that one. Sometimes it's weird, because I'll ask a question out loud and then I remember that there's nobody here and I'm talking to myself. So when I don't hear an answer, I get all nervous. Like, wait, what?

Yeah, it's weird. Anyway, they go around these two, why I'm CA and Anthony and all that. They gather up all the dildos and porn that they can find. They put it all in a briefcase and carry it straight to Congress. They're like, look, look at this. Shaking the dildo.

Look at it. It's ruining society. And apparently Congress was so scared of these dildos that they decided to pass a law, and it's called the Comstock Law. Remember Betty Page? You know, you don't. Great.

Love that. Check that out. Maybe. Okay, great. And I guess Congress was impressed by a Comstock's presentation, you know, because they went along with it. So the Comstock Law made it illegal to mail anything that was found to be filthy or thought to be quote unquote filthy. And they even give this guy a Comstock a badge

and like a special position at the post office just so he can go through people's mail to check for nudes, porn, whatever the hell. Someone was trying to mail that was inappropriate. He also teamed up with local police and judges giving them the ability to search everyone's mail as well. And what happens if you got caught shipping porn, sex toys, or even condoms? Well, you'd be fine anywhere from 100 to $5,000. And one to 10 years of hard labor. your kids hide your wife hide your dildo when they're coming for you What in just one here? Comstock Confenscated over 60,000 pieces of quote unquote

Filthy mail which got me thinking like I wonder what he did with all those dildos You know he had to keep a couple come on, he probably had like a secret dildo closet or something. I bet. A bit, man. Let's say someone did send a dildo in the mail. Now, would it just be the person who sent the mail that would get punished?

Oh, Nene. Let's say if you sent a dildo in the mail, Comstock would come and find you using the ad, because you know, you put your adress on the envelope and you would get in trouble, but not only that, the Comstock team would try to take down the company who manufactured or made the dildo as well. So you and dildo manufacturer are going down.

Comstock wasn't following the money. He was like following the Dildo. And honestly, like, what was his end goal here? Like he was trying to the Superman of Dix and like, save everyone from the Dix. It just doesn't make sense. So much time was wasted on this when he probably could have done something productive.

Thanks to the Comstock law, Dildo's porn and sex toys were very dangerous to purchase. You could still buy Dildo's discreetly, Those porn and sex toys were very dangerous to purchase. You could still buy dildos discreetly, but they were advertised using code words, like order it now, an old maid's friend. That's what they called it, an old maid's friend. But basically it was hard to get your hands on anything sexy, sexual, in the 1800s.

It was like, good luck. Just use your hands, you know what I'm saying? But, back to the story. Now we're going to get into Dildo's and Vibrators. Before I go any further, I'm going to give you the Dictionary's definition for Dildo, which is as follows. Dildo, an object shaped like an erect penis

used for sexual stimulation. And the definition of a vibrator is a device used for massage or sexual stimulation. End quote. Simply put like, dildo, no movement. Vibrator, Rambo. And why am I dropping this hot knowledge? Because not only are we going to be chatting about the dildo, but now we're gonna welcome to the stage Our dear friend who hums the loudest the vibrator

We're in the Victorian era babe. Everyone during this time is uptight. Women are wearing corsets, layers on layers on layers. It was all about being a proper lady. And vibrators are coming, coming onto the scene. They're new. They're hot. Now, you may have heard the story about how vibrators were actually created by male doctors to treat women with hysteria, which is a nice way to say women who people thought were crazy. And this specific story has been told and believed for a really, really long time. I mean, I thought that was true. Nobody questioned it. There are a lot of people recently who have been exposing this theory as wrong.

Early on, one of the first vibrators were actually, it was actually steam powered, which could you even imagine? No, I couldn't. So tugboats and like trains were steam powered, which could you even imagine? No, I couldn't. So tugboats and like trains were steam powered, but in order to get like your vibrator to work, you had to shovel coal into it. Come on, that's funny. But the inventor who really changed the vibrator game was a British doctor named Jay Mortimer Grandville. Mortimer, I love that name, Mortimer. Mortimer. Mortimer. Mortimer. Mortimer. He believed that the body had a natural healthy level of vibration. So let's say like if your vibrations are off for any reason, this could leave your body vulnerable to diseases. diseases and yeah you could get really sick. So his solution was to fix it with another vibration. So this doctor invented his own solution and he called it Grandville's hammer.

Yeah, which sounds intense, bro. This vibrator, a Grantsville hammer could be used to cure stuff like constipation, diabetes, and even deafness. That's what he claimed. Eventually he created another better version, and that looked like a baton with like a long wooden handle and a vibrating motor. It almost looked like a kitchen mixer, which is a bunch of different attachments, very intimidating, very big, very loud, and I'm pretty sure your hand would go numb because of how intense it vibrated. Picture this. He wake up in the middle and now you can't sleep because there's a fucking bird outside your window who won't shut the fuck up. My god, I can't sleep. It's been days. There is this bird outside of my window. It keeps singing. It won't stop. 230. 330 in the morning. This bird. And at first I was like, well, this is so cute. I feel like it's no white.

He won't stop. I cannot go to sleep. Okay, so imagine your me and there's a fucking bird outside your window and you can't sleep. And it's only been a week. And you're like, you know what? I don't believe in killing birds with a BB gun, but in this moment, I wouldn't mind that. You know, you know? Talk about a weak runner. So what do you do?

Well, instead of grabbing the BB gun, Bailey, instead grab Grandville's hammer, which, mind you, looks like a fishing rod but weighs about 50 pounds. So you gotta pick up that bad boy, hold it up to your ailment. For me, since I can't sleep, I would hold it up to like, just somewhere.

It doesn't matter. You just hold it up to an area that hurts and let it vibrate. It makes sense. Thanks, Mortimer. Now I can go to bed. But really, you know, they sold this as something that could help you,

if you got a toothache, you could hold the Grandville's hammer up to your tooth, let it vibrate and it would help with the toothache. But like people, people like it creative. Because honestly, if you set it down and let's say you just happen to sit on it, you know, I'm in all the time. And I think some people accidentally sat on it

is what I'm getting at. Because Morty may have had a little hunch that people were using his invention sexually, especially since he suggested men who struggled getting hard That they should massage their taints with Grandville's hammer Wake him up a little bit. You good buddy. You good. You know, just like let it vibrate rumor hasn't it feels really good That's what one of the writers said there's the only one male writer

But here's a fun twist. I bet you were not expecting. So the stocked your Mortimer. He hates women like everyone else does it seems because he goes to the public and tells people like, hey, this Grantsville hammer is for men. And men only and should be used by only men. Now this would turn out to be great news

for American women because Mortimer's little invention it flies totally under the radar of that like annoying comm stock law. Because if there's one thing Americans are really good at, it's finding new polls. Are we not good at that? I think we are, it's a challenge. Now no one thinks the device is remotely sexual

because according to Mortimer, it was a medical device. It helped treat things. And people start selling this medical device everywhere, even to women. So jokes on humority. They were being advertised as household appliances and newspapers, medical journals, seers, catalogs, Christian magazines.

And of course, doctors were recommending them to their patients. So people were using the massage gun like on their noses to relieve sinus pressure. That actually sounds really nice right now. I have so much sinus pressure. I'm gonna go home, put my dildo on my face, my vibrating dildo, just so it lay there. You know, that might feel good.

So they would do that. They would use it on their feet. For like a nice little fat massage. They could put it up to your ear and they claim that it helped with deafness or cured deafness. And then also it was marketed to women like if you use it in your thighs like vibrate your your thighs

You could lose weight. They were marketed as the perfect Christmas gift for your dad for your grandpa Family friendly every household needs one, but again like It wasn't a vibrator. It was for your sinuses, you know what I'm saying? At the same time that you could get sentenced to 10 years heart labor or even find $5,000 for sending a dildo in the mail To you like your girlfriend or something. You could easily just flip open your seers and robot catalog Look up right under the appliance section and order yourself a vibrator for your sinuses, of course. Which is crazy, right? Now, I'm not sure how, but this definitely went under the radar. Maybe many just didn't care. I don't know. I wasn't there. But many think it was simply like a word of mouth thing.

Like, you know, if you used it, you would probably go up to your friend and be like, Hey, I accidentally sat on my husband's sinus vibrator thing. And like, whoopsie, it was amazing. So they would tell their friends and then their friend would be like, what really? And then they'd run out and get it. It just led to a big wink, wink culture around these vibrating medical devices. And then by the 1920s, plug-in vibrators were self-leaning like hotcakes babe, a movie star at the time. Our name is Mary Anderson,

was a model. She was like, a full on the first model for vibrator ads. Companies finally gave in and they were like, fine, women can use this for beauty and beauty only. You know, they had to lean in.

And they believe like if you convince women, it could be used to make yourself more beautiful. Of course, they're gonna go out and buy it. So just when it sounds like, okay, we're making some progress, we're making some progress. Here comes Uncle Sam, June Rewan, the fun. Leave it up to the government to rain on everyone's parade. Bill. So the food and drug administration, or as we know it, the FDA, they can't

jump to the fact that vibrators are doing nothing to cure deafness or diabetes or really anything promised. So vibrators have to stop marking themselves as a cure-all device because the lie detector test determined that was a lie. But people are really enjoying themselves and by now they probably don't care about the so-called health benefits that the vibrator was marketing. So as you may have guessed, the sales don't, they don't stop just because the FDA comes in. Mm-hmm. So in America, the 1950s and the 60s, culture becomes a little bit more free, free spirit. Sexy, shall we say.

The very first Playboy magazine comes out in 1953 with Miss Marilyn Monroe on the cover, and it sells out everywhere, proving that people are ready to be, or want to be a little bit more open about their sex lives. And that same year in 1953, a guy named Alfred Kinsey, he published research that proved 62%

of American women master be scandal. Now this really opened a cultural dialogue about sex and people started talking about it and Women were including it in their conversations. You know, we're making it's a progress We could say during the mid 1960s a new Dildo was born a famous ventriloquist which So random, I know he went by the name Ted He had a friend who asked him to help with his side hustle, which was like on the down low. He was making silicone dildos. Now at this time, the Comstock

Law is still in effect over 90 years later. So technically, dildos were still illegal to make and sell, but this wasn't just a weird little business Ted had. He actually put a lot of thought into his dildos. Ted wanted his products to be exclusively marketed to women, so he did something unheard of. He actually asked women what they wanted, wild who would have thought that asking might actually provide some answers. So he ended up holding like secret test groups for women, where they could all come together, and he would get to ask questions like, hey, do you like this material or this material?

Do you like a fat dick or a skinny dick? Texture? War milk and sign? I heard that's a thing. And because of listening to what his customers wanted, his creation became a huge hit and would end up selling like crazy. And then he came out with a banger. Next, he created this strap on version of the dildo.

Oh yeah, so women could invite a partner into the mix. And this wasn't just about getting off in secret. Ted actually received countless letters thanking him for saving their marriage. Especially for men who suffered from medical conditions like erectile dysfunction, dildos helped, dildos were important, dildos saved their relationships. Dildos saved America, Goddamn it. So by this point, not only does society have to acknowledge that women are tickling their tuna, sauce on their taco, just as much as men, but in 1966,

another important study cubs out that will ultimately help Dildos become more mainstream once again. Badass researchers, Virginia, Masters, and William Johnson study sex and orgasms and men and women and they can include that women may actually prefer masturbation to sex with a man. Yeah, I mean there's all benefits to it. No negatives. You don't get attached to anybody. You don't have to worry about SCDs, you don't have to worry about getting pregnant, you don't have to call them back, you don't get attached to anybody. You don't have to worry about SCDs. You don't have to worry about being pregnant. You don't have to call them back. You don't have to awkwardly be like, I'm gonna go now. You know, you just boom bam, you're done.

So after this finding, this is when women's sexual liberation and female empowerment enters the picture. Now there is one woman in particular who felt seen by masters and Johnson's research. Her name is Betty Dodson. She was a young artist in New York, and she had always felt guilty about preferring masturbation to sex with her husband.

After her divorce, Betty began her journey of destigmatizing female masturbation. She used props like our good friend, the dildo, or even brought along the vibrator to help women understand and Celebrate their own bodies Betty. She didn't want women to feel any type of shame like she had experienced when it came to having an orgasm So she set out to make a difference. She led orgasm workshops out of her New York apartment She used diagrams, mirrors, she brought in six toys, she gave live demonstrations, you know? And she's like showing women how to have the best orgasms. You might even recognize Betty's name,

maybe you heard of it, maybe you even saw Betty Dawson do her version of the workshop on the Netflix show Goop. They had an episode based on sex. A lot of people have mixed feelings about Goop, but remove yourself from that. And just watch the sex episode because Ms. Betty's on there. Hey, girl, Betty's workshops were revolutionary, especially because by the 60s and 70s, she achieved celebrity status and she was publicly saying things like, quote, if women could learn to pleasure themselves properly, they could end their sexual dependence on men, which would make everybody happy." End quote. I do feel like that's a little debatable.

I don't think the men would be so happy, but like, I think the women would be happy. Betty published a book called Sex for One, which celebrated masturbation and officially gave her the title of sexologist, and also she was given the title Evangelist of self-pulsure. So Betty, she was very pro-sex toy, and her favorite of them all was something that wasn't even designed to be a sex toy at all. Kind of like this whole episode, everything kind of wasn't designed to be a sex toy. That's how a sex toy is made. It wasn't designed to be a sex toy. That's how a sex toy is made It wasn't made to be a sex toy. We just stick it up there and make it a sex toy

Remember that Japanese product I talked about earlier. Oh, if you don't well This is when we're gonna talk about the Hitachi magic Yeah, is that supposed to be oh Hitachi? Joni loho. Jon has a Hitachi Oh, Joni Lohoe! Jon has a Hitachi. Girl, that's why you're so quiet. That's why I hear that humming coming from your room. I wish I had a Hitachi Magic Wand.

I'd show you guys how it works. The Hitachi Magic Wand, just like Dr. Mortimer's hammer, slash vibrator, was originally created to relieve sore muscles. Oh yeah, but thanks to Miss Betty, it became the best-selling vibrator of all time. I like to think that Mortimer would be rolling in his grave knowing that the vibrator he invented specifically for men is now giving women all around the world pleasure. Or maybe he was just a secret purve. I mean this is what he wanted all along. So Betty, she

died just a couple of years ago in 2020 and you know what? She reversed a lot of damage that was done to society, but by those three shit heads Thomas Aquanus or the hell your name was Sauranus and Comstock and she actually encouraged a whole generation of women to take manners into their own hands Quite literally. Yeah, thanks Betty Betty Trellblacer Betty a winner Betty you're amazing and I hope you rest in peace, you little angel, you. Thanks to her, female orgasms, dildos, and sex toys, like the vibrator, are honestly way more mainstream. Sixty million sex toys are sold every single year. And one survey from 2022 even said that about 70% of Americans over the age of 18 have at least one sex toy.

That's a big percentage. Go us. I'm out of breath. I'm just thinking about that hototchi. Now back in 2017, it was said that only 65% of Americans owned a vibrator or a dildo or something. So what do you think happened? owned a vibrator or a dildo or something. So what do you think happened? Oh, I don't know. Maybe something happened where we were locked inside our houses. Yeah, that was a stupid question, Bailey. One store said that the sales of Sex Toys in America, they jumped 75% since 2020. You know, I think during quarantine, when we were alone and stuff, we just really got to know ourselves during that time. At least for me, I got to know Owen Gray real well, a very giving man, that guy.

But anyways, there's actually research out there that suggests that masturbating may help you sleep better, prevent anxiety, and prevent depression, even improve yourself esteem. So remember those Greeks? I think they were onto something here. It wasn't all about self pleasure and having orgasms. It was also like just taking care of yourself. Dildos have been around for,

freaking over 3,000 years. So again, I kind of think everybody was on to something here. Basically, as long as humans have been around, we like to stick stuff up in our holes. And I think honestly, many of us could agree that our Dildos and Slash-or Vibrators truly helped us get through that rough quarantine period. You could say that it helped treat some people's depression. So maybe it really is a medical device, right? So I just want to take this moment to apologize to Jesus Grandma my neighbor. It's not my fault that the walls are so damn thin and you can hear the humming all the time I'm just depressed. Let me masturbate.

Goddamn it. So knowing all this, right? Dildos, vibrations, orgasms are actually kind of good for you. You think we'd all just be riding that Dildo wave into the sunset, just living a happy, healthy, blissful life, but you wanna believe how much still has not changed. Ugh, surprisingly, Dildos are still banned in certain states. Oh yeah.

In Alabama, of course, are we surprised? I'm sorry, Alabama, but you kinda suck. If you get caught selling the sex toys more than once, you could face up to 10 years in jail. And until five years ago, you needed to have like a scientific or medical reason to buy a sex toy in some parts of Georgia. So naturally, I had to google that, but I couldn't even find a clear answer on which medical reasons were approved for vibration use.

They didn't have like an answer. People are just so like, what are you so mad about? You know, like this week of a spending so much time doing something else, more productive, more better, but instead you're worried about vibrators and dildos. But I think my favorite law is that in certain parts of Texas, this one's a little weird. You cannot legally own more than six dildos. Yes, you heard that right. Six dildos. Five, you're good. Seven? No. Jail. So I should say that this was declared unconstitutional, but it's still technically a law in Texas.

So you guys should work on that, Texas. Me and my seven dildos want to come party in Texas, but like we can't. In conclusion, honestly, I just wanted to know what was up with dildos. You know, like how long have they been here? Why are they here? When? How, how?

What? I wanted to know it all and boy, did it not disappoint. But I'm kind of bummed that whenever we think of dildos, we think of porn and sex toys and like just really sexual things when it actually has a lot more to it. I mean, people were using it as a cure back in the day, just like we did during quarantine.

I say we, but what I really mean is I did. But if I did, I know someone else out there did, you know? And I mean, there were so many times where dildos and vibrators have been outlawed or frowned upon and they still somehow made it through. So I think that says something. It's kind of like popcorn. Ah.

Popcorn and dildos, hand in hand. So treat yourself. Go out and buy yourself a new dildo or a vibrator. It's good for you. Or maybe this Christmas by your mom and dad a vibrator and a dildo. And if they get mad, turn on this episode for them. Be like, shut up mom. You're still grumpy all the time. Here's a dildo and if they get mad turn on this episode for them be like shut up mom You're so grumpy all the time here's a dildo your mom's nice all of a sudden you're like oh wow like you just took a dildo

That's all it took you know in my let me know how that goes some curious well everyone Thank you for learning with me today about dildos and vibrators remember Don't be afraid to ask questions and get the whole story because you deserve that. Be curious, stay curious, and I'd love to hear your reactions to today's story. So make sure to use the hashtag darkhistory so I can follow along and also join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs, and while you're there, don't forget to check out my murder mystery and makeup. I hope you have a wonderful day today

and I'm gonna go take my pants off and have a good time. I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye. Dark History is an audio boom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Dunia McNeely from Three Arts, Kevin Grush, and Claire Turner, writers, Joey Scavuzzo, Allison Floboz, Katie Burris, and me, Bailey Sarian.

Shot and edited by Tifazwa, Neymarune Dway, and Lily Young. Research provided by Regina Dolezza, and a big special thank you to our expert, Hallie Lieberman, sex and gender historian and author of, Buzz, the stimulating history of the sex toy. We love our experts. Yay! And I'm your host, Bailey Serian. Hey! Get your hands out of your pants.

Paul!