When people think of dildos, many minds rapidly jump to the thought of phallic shaped objects and essentially interchangeable crudely put together sex toys. But the story behind the modern dildo is a more complicated one, full of centuries of curiosity and intrigue, which I am absolutely fascinated by!
To start with, the first dildos date back to the days of the Ancient Egyptians. Although, they weren’t seen as an object of pleasure, but rather strange medical curiosities. Obviously, something like that was a highly controversial topic then, so they were mostly spoken about in whispers and sold by apothecaries for medicinal purposes. Wow how weird is that?!
The Ancient Greeks on the other hand, totally embraced sex toys. And when I say embrace, I mean that quite literally. They had a slew of sensual artefacts and dildos quickly became a staple of their everyday culture – dildos in the Greek culture was seen as a celebration of natural pleasure and not something to be ashamed of! Incredibly progressive in their thinking huh?
The Romans however had a totally different approach to dildos. They often saw them as a way to, let’s say, vent their frustration. Soldiers travelling away from home for long periods and even bachelors looking for something to entertain themselves would acquire an array of dildos to spice up their lives. Hmm, pretty risqué right?
As time went on though, dildos slowly started losing their reputations, being seen as solely ‘dirty’ products and people began to use them for far more gentle and romantic purposes. By the time the 1800s rolled around, the stigma around dildos had completely dissolved and some even went so far as to fashion them out of glass to enhance their visual appeal. Whoa!
Moving on to the modern day, it was only when industrial production came around that dildos became widely available and as a result, people could start experimenting with the pleasure of a toy as opposed to going off the shelf. It’s incredible how, thanks to devoted fans and brave independent designers, this industry has flourished and blossomed to what we know today.
Nowadays, dildos come in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials, ranging from the purest glass toys to the highest quality silicone. As an avid consumer myself, I’m constantly wowed by the creativity and development of the industry, learning more about the materials and safety guidelines the larger companies use. And it just goes to show how long this industry has been around and how determined the early pioneers were to make sure the taboo of the past has dissolved.
Those ancient Egyptians sure had something, huh? Fast forward to now, and the range of dildos today is insane. Dildos are now made out of all the materials imaginable and are even formed into shapes that represent different things, from favourite characters to animals. Heck, they’re even customizable so users have complete freedom in designing their own toy. I mean, how cool is that?!
And not forgetting the advances in technology, as well, which paved the way for all sorts of innovative discretions. We’ve got suction cup dildos, lube shooters, remote-controlled toys and much more. So much potential for so many different types of people!
Of course, there’s still one question that remains: who invented the first dildo? Well, no one truly knows who that was. But if we can believe the stories, it was the brainy and forward-thinking ancient Egyptians who first came up with design more than 3,000 years ago. Pretty neat, no?