Chastity belt



A chastity belt is a locking item of clothing designed to prevent sexual intercourse and possibly masturbation. The purpose may also be to protect the wearer from rape‏‎ or temptation. Devices have been created for males and females.

The term "chastity belt" is also used metaphorically in modern English to imply over protectiveness. 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, that when the knight was away from his young wife, he would force her to wear the belt day and night. However, there is no evidence or any documentation of such use. On the other hand, it has been used as an anti-masturbation device for children in modern times from the 1700s to the 1930s. Nowadays it is sometimes used as BDSM equipment.

History
Chastity belts are surrounded by myths. The most common of these myths is that they were first used by crusading knights on their wives. There is, however, no evidence of the existence of chastity belts until the 15th century during the Renaissance, more than one hundred years after the last Crusade. 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.







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". The Bellifortis account is not supported by any evidence or corroborating documents.

In 1889, a leather-and-iron belt was found by A. M. Pachinger—a German collector of antiquities—in Linz, Austria in a grave on a skeleton of a young woman. The woman was purportedly 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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. 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 items. The manufacture of such belts 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.

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. 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.
 * 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.
 * For males, an alternative to a full chastity belt is a chastity tube or cage. This is a device designed to lock around the genitals, usually encasing the penis inside a tube or cage arrangement which is sized to prevent erection. Various models exist; typical is the CB-2000, introduced in 1999, which was an attempt to make a secure device which did not need to be custom built. In this device the penis and testicles are passed through a plastic ring; a plastic cage is then locked to this, enclosing the penis. The testicles hang through the gap between the ring and cage, which is sized with spacing pieces to be narrow enough to prevent the device being pulled off. Each CB-2000 was sold with several different sizes of rings and spacers, allowing customers to tailor the size to their anatomy. The CB-2000 has since led to several subsequent models, and other devices of different design but approximately similar function also exist.

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.

Recent developments
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.

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. The incident was also reported by Weekly World News.

In November 2006, photographs of Lucio Gubbio's hand-wrought iron chastity belts were published in newspapers including the Seoul Times, and CRI Online. 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.