Sex is the best medicineIf you were feeling sick in the 19th century then it was quite possible that your doctor may have prescribed you a dose of alone time with a sex toy, ladies. The Museum of Sex explains that vibrator-induced orgasms helped doctors identify “hysteria” and its symptoms.
Love and marriage
In the 12th century a book was written called The Art of Courtly Love. Within it there were 31 rules that told the British upper-class how to love and who they could love. It told the rich that “True love can have no place between husband and wife” and that marriage should be thought of as a business arrangement.
Have you got a receipt for your wife, sir?
In 953 Princess Olga of Russia introduced a law whereby men could ask to, essentially, return their wives if they found out they were not virgins. The husbands could ask for monetary or material compensation if they discovered that their wives were more experienced than they had hoped.
Size mattered
If you thought that men’s issue with the size of their manhood was a 21st century thing then think again guys and girls. In the Middle Ages it was highly fashionable for British men to wear a codpiece. A codpiece was a flap or pouch that men wore over their trousers to exaggerate the size of their crotch.
Playing away from home
We all know the WWII poster that urged men and women to “Keep calm and carry on” but have you heard about the other, naughtier slogan that was printed in government brochures? The slogan went: "Don't forget – Put it on before you put it in." It was no surprise that many men returned from WWII with sexually transmitted diseases.
Burlesque
Burlesque may seem like a modern day phenomena, but the truth is Burlesque, in one form or another, has been around for centuries. The queen of burlesque, Dita Von Tease, points to Aristophanes as being the “founder” of the striptease. Aristophanes wrote a cheeky, titillating play back in the 5th century BC.
The G Spot
The G spot was unidentified until 1950 when Dr. Ernest Gräfenberg underwent a few experiments and found that attention to this area could trigger powerful O moments in women. Dr. Ernest Gräfenberg is in fact the G spot’s namesake and was also the first to claim that this spot could cause female ejaculation.
The first pornography
It turns out that pornography has always been taboo. In 1524 the horny Marcantonio Raimondi published 16 engravings of people throughout history getting it on. Unfortunately for Marcantonio the Pope at the time did not share his open approach to sex and placed poor Raimondi in prison for a year.
The changing shape of boobs
These days it would seem that most women want bigger boobs, but like our clothes boobs have always been subject to changing fashions. In the Middle Ages people preferred small boobs and women wore corsets that flattened their chests. During the Renaissance it was popular in Spain to have cone shaped boobs – it seems Madonna was not the trend setter we once thought.
Contraception
It was only in the mid 1600s that condoms were used as a contraceptive. These early condoms were made from linen. It would seem that women were a little more proactive when it came to contraception than the guys. Women used crocodile dung, honey, mercury, sneezing and jumping backwards as early as 1850 BC.
