Chastity Belt - Myth or Reality? - Historical Curiosities - See U in History
Author Name:See U in History / Mythology
Youtube Channel Url:https://www.youtube.com/@SeeUinHistory
Youtube Video URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jgY_325eW0
Transcript:
(00:00) according to legend medieval knights would leave for the crusades and stay away from home for years to prevent their wives from indulging their natural needs with the caretaker or the local minstrel they had to resort to an ingenious device made with iron and padlocked this was a sort of intimate armor that protected the private parts it only had two openings so that the ladies could relieve their other more urgent needs this way women would preserve their fidelity the first sketch of a chastity belt appeared in bella fortes a 1405 military
(00:34) handbook by conrad kaiser featuring instruments of war such as catapults armor and torture devices but even the author himself did not take the book seriously who included jokes about farts an immortal and favorite theme in medieval humor no actual proof of the bell designed by kaiser has ever been found however the narrative field men's imagination historians question whether the chastity belt ever existed rather it seems to have been a metaphor or a joke so what is a chastity belt [Music] the definition of a chastity belt is
(01:14) fairly straightforward it is basically a belt designed to protect a woman's chastity it appears in medieval drawings as a metal gadget with a padlock on the front woman who wore the belt were not allowed to have sex without their husband's permission the key of course was kept with him the belt could vary in design some had thorns aimed at deterring potential suitors others used leather straps instead of metal a chastity belt on display at the science museum in london features a beautiful flower design which was intended to allow defecation
(01:50) several other museums also exhibit chastity belts at the musee de clooney in paris one of them is said to have belonged to catherine de medici the belt is a single velvet hoop with a small iron plate in front yet another belt purportedly belonging to anne of austria the mother of louis xiv is a couple of hinged plates held together by a metal waistband but there is one problem with all these museum exhibits as authentic as they seem the so-called medieval artifacts are much more modern than medieval for example the medal on catherine de
(02:24) medici's belt was tested revealing that it came from the early 19th century hundreds of years after her death in 1589 so where does the chastity belt myth come from the object had started to pop up in ever more and more engravings of the time most images featured couples in which the ever older husband would go out to work and his wife bare chested and wearing the chastity belt would wait for the lover who would enter the scene with a second strategic key older husbands worry that their wives would cheat on them with young men the
(02:58) first such mention of chastity belts comes from ancient rome they were not even metal devices but made of simple knots ancient roman brides wore white rose with a herculean knot known as a love knot or a symbol of eternal love to symbolize their love and chastity on their wedding night her husband would undo the first knot so that they could go at it probably the first ideas about these devices and catchphrase tying the knot came into being for centuries to follow ideas about women's chastity continue to remain
(03:31) firmly rooted in european culture nevertheless bells did not assume a physical form until the 15th century that's when the german military engineer conrad kaiser published a work on military engineering called bella fortus between his drawings of catapults armor and torture devices the chastity belt appeared for the first time but bella fortus also featured fart jokes and an idea for making people invisible and kaiser's memo certainly hints that he wasn't seriously thinking about strapping women into a device to prevent
(04:04) them from having sex padlocks for the four-legged creatures shorts for florence women a joke binds these lovely series together i recommend to noble and obedient young men kaiser joked with that being said there was something about the definition of a chastity belt that seemed to enthrall medieval europeans sketches of the device continued to appear throughout the 16th century but only drawings not physical specimens then again even these illustrations address the belt as a kind of joke in one engraving a woman coily hands her
(04:41) husband the key to her belt as he prepares to leave behind the bed two men await clutching a duplicate key all this to say that chastity belts probably did not exist except as a joke the belts were highly implausible for one thing there was very little evidence to suggest that they actually existed secondly their use would certainly have been fatal to women a woman might not even survive the ensuing hygiene and health issues after several days in other words the sheer definition of a chastity belt an iron underwear would
(05:16) make it painful dangerous and potentially fatal the british museum notes that the vast majority of surviving examples of chastity belts are likely to have been made in the 18th and 19th centuries as trivia for the lewd or as gags the modern interest in the devices is very real however even if chastity belts never existed in history accordingly the myth involving chastity belts became popular during the 18th and 19th centuries once it became trendy to talk trash about the middle ages there was an attempt to prove that new
(05:51) insights provided enlightenment against the ignorant superstitious brutal and derisive past these ancient objects incidentally may have been used but for another purpose that did not concern a partner's fidelity these days the chastity belt is an erotic fantasy in sex shops you can find more comfy versions of it unlike the old myths men can now also use them during the same time when progressive citizens of the age of enlightenment mocked the middle ages there was something similar to the chastity belt in real life
(06:26) they were anti-masturbation devices used in psychiatric facilities the scientific consensus of the time was that solitary addiction was harmful in all sorts of ways you
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