Monday Mini: A Brief History of Chastity Belts

Chastity belts may be one of the most successful jokes of all time. Learn about the history of the chastity belt and their modern counterpart, chastity cages.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
I've never told your protection if iHeart radio. So, Samantha,
is there a computer virus that you've ever ever experienced

(00:26):
that comes to mind? Like one that was really annoying
or funny? Oh see, I think way back when, and
I mean way back when, probably my first laptop that
I got, which was in college, which is twenty years ago,
probably when I had all the ad blocks, like all

(00:47):
the pop up ads that would happen that wouldn't never
go away, and I was like, what is happening? Ended
up being porn stuff because it was I think linked
with Napster if I if I remember correctly, and I
just kept getting one right after another. This is my
really religious phase when I wouldn't even watch TV because
I was trying to stay away from all of the

(01:08):
anti Jesus stuff and everything was anti Jesus apparently during
my first year of college. Year of college, and it
just kept popping up and I couldn't get rid of it.
That's all I can think of. Because outside of that,
I don't think I've had many viruses. So I have
two that come to mind, and I will say I've

(01:30):
had I've had my fair share of viruses, and I've
seen my my friends go through some, and they can
be just sprendous and painful, so totally understand. I had
one in high school. I got a message from I'm
assuming a dude, but I don't know what that it was.
But I got a message that said, if you don't
send me all of your like information plus this amount

(01:55):
of money plus some random stuff, I'm going to delete
everything on your computer. And at the time, I was
so busy I forgot about it. And there was this
countdown clock and the like it would count down and
I just kept forgetting and nothing happened. It got to

(02:16):
zero and nothing happened. I've never had that people it
was called. It was called the doomsday virus. I think
I've heard of it, but yeah, no, because you weren't
clicking on the sites, the fan fiction site I was,
I guess not. I wasn't enough for any of that,
because I'm like, if they had a doom's clock, I

(02:39):
think I would have like thrown my computer that it
was going to explode. Not that that would take things,
but I was going to explode. Yeah, I wish. I
wonder if I could find that message. I still have
that email my box. Anyway, my friend Marissa got this
virus where it would count down years, so I know

(03:03):
my inbox uh is sorted by dates like most people's are,
and it kept showing unread messages and I was like,
where are they? And I clicked on it and I
had gotten messages from like eight teen seventy seven from
Marissa because the virus count impact computer. That's amazing. I
think I would want that virus just to mess with

(03:25):
everyone else. It was pretty funny because it was I mean,
it was relatively harmless. It's annoying. It was definitely annoying
for her. But of the viruses you could get, I mean,
that made me laugh that I was getting these emails
from hundreds of years ago from her. But okay, so

(03:46):
I know you might be thinking, how on the world
does this relate, because I am Yes, the topic that
we were discussing, which is chastity belts, which we mentioned
we would be talking about in our episode on Virginity
or episode would excuse me, So it relates to that.
It also relates to our episode on cyber stocking. So okay,

(04:08):
chasty cages have been on my mind since there was
this recent news story, and by recent I mean like
within this past year. This was pretty a couple of
months back at least, about men wearing Internet connected chassis
devices that were hijacked by a hacker who told victims quote,
your cock is mine and demanded a ransom and bitcoin

(04:31):
to unlock them. So, in this case, the chasti cage
is a sex item that can be placed on a
penist to prevent erections and can be unlocked remotely. I
did learn because I was curious. There's a little hole
for peeing. That's what I was worried about. It is
frequently used in the b D s M community. Um

(04:51):
other stories have reported on men that wear them if
they are constantly distracted by sex. Some say that they
find it challenging and empowering. So this was due to
a security flaw in the item. Fortunately, many of the
people contacted weren't wearing the device at the time, so
you had a huge relief. I was honestly worried about
these folks, And also the company and Questions says that

(05:15):
they've updated their security so that this will not happen again.
Other more setting takes of the modern chastis belt have
been advertised away for women to prevent sexual assaults. So
that's also a thing that we could probably come back
and talk about in a future episode, but not this one.

(05:36):
I'm not gonna lie. The fact that they exist today
has shocked me a little bit, so so happy I
could give you a news story about that. You didn't know.
I did not know that this was the thing, and
the fact that it is online and connected to the
internet whole different level. I feel like like I could

(05:59):
believe it a thing and being used in other ways,
but the fact that is online. M hmm. I'm gonna
be thinking about this all weekend, just so you know.
But let's take a step back, okay, And then I mean,
I'm gonna go back to what I knew, okay, when
we're gonna step back in the medieval chastity belts. And

(06:22):
we talked a little bit about this in the Virginity episodes,
as you mentioned earlier, Annie, And it turns out our
more myth than reality, and we didn't say that. So
the first known we're drawings that come from fourteen oh
five and a treatise on Instruments of War and Torture Devices,
an item that was meant to be satirical or a joke. Yes,

(06:42):
we said that, though they are alluded to in European
texts as far back as the first century CE. And
here's a Latin example, meant for women. Quote, hold the
helmet of salvation on your front, the word of truth
in the mouth, true love of God and your neighbor
in the chest, and the girdle of chastity in the body.

(07:04):
Yes it is. It actually exists. And I've heard this
before we even started these episodes. That doesn't shock me.
Just so, these belts were depicted and are in the
fifteen hundreds, woman with a middle belt around her waist,
a man holding the key. They were meant to make
sure women stayed loyal when men went to war or
things like that, because what we know is women like

(07:25):
to have sex, women are at war. Just kidding. However,
there's no proof that these actually existed, So then why
is this smith so prolific male fear? According to Professor
Albert Klassen, who is also the author of the Medieval
Chastity Belt, a myth making process, most of the art

(07:45):
that depicts chastity belt shows another man with a duplicate key,
implying that these devices are useless and women are going
to find ways to be unfaithful. I think it's also
a part of this. It was something to be laughed at.
The few chassis belt on displaying museums were made in
the Middle Ages. Yes, it's sort of like a curiosity
item or a joke. Here's the British Museum's description of theirs.

(08:08):
It is probable that the great majority of examples now
existing were made in the eighteenth and nineteen centuries as
curiosities for the prunient or as jokes for the tasteless.
The advice of keeping on your chastity belt was not
meant to be literal, so it's just kind of a
saying that's hilarious because we also have seen it haridied
in so many films. So yeah. In the actual spoof

(08:33):
of Robin Hood, which was Kevin Costner and Alan Rickman,
Robin Handmann entice carry always, as well as Richard Lewis,
who plays with the character, he's the one trying to
get the chastity belt. I think a made marian who
now goes to like carry always. By the way, this
is a mel Brooks movie, so you should know it's

(08:53):
going to be completely inappropriate, probably very outdated, but that's
where I remember the chastity belt so vividly is because
of that. Yeah, I mean, if this was a joke,
then it was a very successful one. And I think
that's that's telling of Yeah, we believe that women are
unfaithful and always got another man in the wings. But

(09:14):
I think of Scream in the first Scream, ski l
Rich tells Nev Campbell like, oh your chastity built or
something like that in the very beginning of the movie.
And I remember at the time thinking that that was
a real thing and not understanding like a real modern thing. Yeah,
I honestly don't know how many people well I don't

(09:36):
know that I would didn't think it was a modern
but I assumed it truly happened way back when. So
whoever created this joke, kudos, it has lasted hundreds of years.
Kudos and screw you because you play it into this
idea of purity and women being you can't believe them

(09:57):
and they're just property for you to protect. Yes, yes,
Also just to be clear and not kink shaming the
people at the top. No, I was just realized the
whole like wireless bit was like, oh, that's dangerous. That's yeah.
I mean, in general, the Internet of things can be
a little risky, as we talked about in our cyber
stalking episode. Yes, but all right, that's a very brief

(10:20):
history on the Chastity Belts. If you would like to
contact us listeners, you can our emails Stuff Todia mom
Stuff at ihart me dot com. You can find us
on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcasts, or on Instagram. A
stuff I've never told you. Thanks, it's always started. Super
producer Christina, thank you and thanks to you for listening stuff.
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(10:41):
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