Venetian chastity belt on display in the Doge's palace. (Claimed to be 16th–17th century.)

A chastity belt is a locking item of clothing designed to prevent sexual intercourse. They may be used to protect the wearer from rape or temptation. Some devices have been designed with additional features to prevent masturbation. Chastity belts have been created for males and females.

The term "chastity belt" is also used as a metaphor in modern English to imply overprotectiveness. The term carries a derisive connotation and may also imply that the subject is antiquated, or is cumbersome, or provides unnecessary or unwanted protection.

According to modern myth the chastity belt was used as an anti-temptation device during the Crusades. When the knight left for the Holy Lands on the Crusades, his Lady would wear a chastity belt to preserve her faithfulness to him. There is no credible evidence that chastity belts existed before the 15th century, more than one hundred years after the last Crusade.

However, the actual use, if any, of medieval chastity belts would have been very limited, as the metalworking of the times would have made it difficult to fashion a belt safe for long-term wear.^[1]

[edit] Historical usage

The Bellifortis sketch (ca. 1405)

16th century satirical German woodcut

Excerpt from US Patent 995600 by Jonas E. Heyser. The entire patent document: Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The first known mention of what could be interpreted as chastity belts in the West is in Konrad Kyeser von Eichstätt's Bellifortis, a ca. 1400 book describing the military technology of the era. The book includes a drawing that is accompanied by the Latin text: "Est florentinarum hoc bracile dominarum ferreum et durum ab antea sic reseratum." ("These are hard iron breeches of Florentine women which are closed at the front.") The belt in this drawing is described by Dingwall as "both clumsy and heavy", having "little in common with the later models which served the same use".^[2] The Bellifortis account is not supported by any evidence or corroborating documents.

In 1889, a leather-and-iron belt was found by Anton Pachinger—a German collector of antiquities—in Linz, Austria in a grave on a skeleton of a young woman. The woman was reportedly buried sometime in the 16th century. Pachinger, however, could not find any record of the woman's burial in the town archives. The belt itself, along with most of the rest of Pachinger's collection, has been lost.^[2]

Two belts have been exhibited at the Musée de Cluny in Paris. The first, a simple velvet-covered hoop and plate of iron, was supposedly worn by Catherine de' Medici. The other—said to have been worn by Anna of Austria—is a hinged pair of plates held about the waist by metal straps, featuring intricately etched figures of Adam and Eve.^[2] There are other such belts at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg and the British Museum in London. Most have been removed from display to avoid any further embarrassment because the authenticity of these belts as Renaissance devices has since been called into question.^[3]

From the 1700s through the 1930s, masturbation was widely regarded as harmful in Western medicine. Numerous mentions can be found in medical journals of the time of the use of chastity belt-like devices to prevent masturbation in children and adolescents.^[4] Many designs for anti-masturbation devices were filed in the US Patent Office until the debunking of masturbation as a mental health problem in the early 1930s. ^[5]

[edit] Modern use

Today, chastity belts are sometimes used in BDSM play and in consensual relationships. They are a means for the wearer to surrender control over their sexual behavior either for sexual play, or as a long-term method of preventing infidelity or masturbation. They range from simple leather or plastic toys commonly sold by adult stores to expensive high-security stainless steel devices made by a handful of specialist firms.

Most modern chastity belt designs are descended from Hal Higginbottom's designs from 1956.^[6] Sometimes modern Florentine-style belts are described as "Tollyboy-style" or "Tollyboy-type" belts as references to his company's original design.

Human anatomy varies very widely from person to person and steel belts intended for long-term use are bespoke (custom made) items. The manufacture of such belts, being quite a specific niche, is necessarily a cottage industry. Many firms have come and gone over the years. Notable amongst those who have stopped manufacturing chastity belts since the 1980s are:

• Access Denied (Paul Tooker of New York; closed after his death)
• Herbert Rossmann (Austria)
• In Discretione Fortitudo (Nifrik Scylla of the Netherlands)
• Kastley (Germany) (reseller; original manufacturer unknown)
• Pourquoi Pas (Germany)
• Atelier Mode (Cologne, Germany)

Although no reliable statistics are available on the use of chastity belts, anecdotal reports from manufacturers suggest that most belts sold in Europe and the US are for men, and that of the female belts ordered, relatively few are used as rape prevention devices.^[7] The use of chastity belts by husbands to force chastity is a common practice in such countries as India^[8].

[edit] Belt types

Modern chastity belt designs generally follow the basic "Florentine" pattern (named after the Bellifortis reference), with a band around the waist or hips and a "shield" running between the legs to cover the genitals.

On belts intended for long-term wear, this shield must accommodate the wearer's hygienic needs:

• For females, the shield is commonly a flat band with a slot through which the labia can protrude and through which urine can pass. Some manufacturers fit a perforated cover (sometimes called the "secondary shield") over this slot to prevent the wearer from being pinched when sitting. The cover may also prevent direct masturbation by blocking the labia from touch.
• For males, the shield usually covers a tube in which the penis is held facing downward, with perforations at the bottom of the shield to allow urine to escape. Sometimes there are mechanisms that hold the head of the penis inside the tube. The testicles are usually left exposed on both sides of the tube, although some designs have an additional cup that prevents easy access to the entire genital area. Chastity tubes or cages are devices in which this tube is used on its own, without a supporting belt.
• Belts with a "thong" arrangement have a single strap running up between the buttocks to the waistband. On some, this is a plastic-coated cable or a thin, curved metal rod. This strap may or may not be loose enough to pull aside, depending on whether the fit of the belt is to protect against anal penetration. On other designs, the rear strap is solid with an aperture over the anus to allow passage of feces.
• Belts with a "V"-arrangement have a pair of chains attached together at the bottom of the shield and apart towards the back of waistband in a "V" to leave the rear open.
• On both male and female belts, the shield can be designed to work with genital piercings for greater security.

Most modern belts fasten with padlocks. Some high-security designs nest the lock within a shroud to make it more difficult to attack with bolt cutters. A handful of manufacturers, however, do offer higher-priced models with integral locks for a sleeker profile.

[edit] Recent developments

In 1998, racial riots against the ethnic Chinese in West Java prompted the production and sale of "anti-rape corsets". These were Florentine-type belts of imitation leather-covered plastic, fastened with a combination lock. The belts had a solid crotch strap without holes, and were intended only for brief outings.^[9]

In April, 2002, the Uwe Koetter Jewellers company of Cape Town, South Africa completed and delivered a spectacular diamond and pearl-encrusted chastity belt made of gold to a British customer. The belt reportedly cost R160,000 and was a wedding gift from a husband-to-be for his bride to wear at their wedding.^[10]

On February 6, 2004, USA Today reported that at Athens airport in Greece, a woman's steel chastity belt had triggered a security alarm at the metal detector. The woman explained that her husband had forced her to wear the device to prevent an extramarital affair while she was on vacation in Greece. She was allowed to continue her flight to London on the pilot's authority. The incident was said to have happened just before Christmas in 2003.^[11] The incident was also reported by Weekly World News.^[12]

In November 2006, photographs of Lucio Gubbio's hand-wrought iron chastity belts were published in newspapers including the Seoul Times,^[13] and CRI Online.^[14] Although Gubbio's company, MedioEvo, claims that their chastity belts' designs are from the Middle Ages on their website, a company spokesperson acknowledged that there is no proof that devices such as these were actually used.

In 2008, masseuses in Batu, Indonesia were required to wear belts with a lock and key during working hours, to prevent prostitution.^[15]

[edit] See also

• Anti-rape device
• Chastity cage
• Chastity piercing
• Erotic sexual denial
• Purity ring
• Sexual abstinence

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chastity belts

• Altarboy's website Venerable website with lots of chastity device information, stories, and reviews
• LockNKeep A free community portal for Chastity Belt enthusiasts (since 2003)
• The UK's Non-Commercial Chastity Belt Site (history and general information since 2001)
• Chastity belt appearances in movies and TV
• MetalBondage Featuring female chastity belts in video and pictures