Sex Toys of the Ages and the Journey to the Modern Dildo

Needless to say, it’s been a wild ride from the often scary looking ancient sex toys to the sleek modern vibrator. So where did it all begin?

The History of Sex Toys

The oldest known sex toy takes us back to around 28,000bc. The paleolithic stone phallus was discovered in southwestern Germany by archeologist Petra Kieselbach and it is speculated that it was either used as a dildo, a sculpture, or possibly a tool.

Around the same time, Neanderthals in the Swabian Jura region of present-day Germany carved stones into dick shapes, and Elk bones and antlers were used in Scandinavia to do the same. By 500bc, Ancient Greeks fashioned faux dongs out of brass, stuffed leather and even breadsticks, also known as olisbokollix. 

In ancient Greece faux dongs were fashioned out of breadsticks, known as olisbokollix. Image: Elena Koycheva.

It is ultimately impossible to know if these items were infact used for pleasure or as tools or ritual items. 

Fast forward to around 1300 and ancient China and things get a little more explicit. Ben Wa balls were filled with animal semen, cock rings were made from goat eyelids, and the first double sided dildo was also found. In the 1600s, French sailors who got a little desperate would bring fake women made of straw on long trips, also called ‘dames de voyage’.

Now to the Machines.

If you were an unhappy or anxious woman in 1800s Victorian England, you would often be diagnosed with hysteria. The treatment required a visit to the doctor’s office where you would lie on a table fashioned with a vibrating sphere in the middle. This vibrating sphere was attached to a drive mechanism that ran into the next room where the boiler was. This meant not only would you have to go to the doctors office to access the vibrator of the day, but your doctor would have to go next door and shovel coal to get it working. Hot. 

The first patented vibrator was disturbingly called Granville’s Hammer in the late 1880’s by Dr Joseph Mortimer Granville. Like many other vibrators throughout the 20th century, they were explicitly marketed as scalp massagers, weight loss tools and pain relievers. In the 1960s, Japanese company Hitachi developed the first famous ‘Magic Wand’, a battery powered massager advertised to treat serious back pain. Soon after, the number of women with serious back pain skyrocketed. Coincidence? The Magic Wand vibrator is now a best seller across the world and comes in many forms. 

Also in the 60s, the first known strap-on dildo was made when a close friend of professional ventriloquist Ted Marshe suffered from impotence and asked him to make a prosthetic penis. 

Where are we now? 

Today, you can get yourself a bluetooth vibrator controlled by a lover on the other side of the world who can essentially feel your touch through the touch you give the machine. Location is no longer a mutual-pleasure-boundary and huge technological advancements are constantly being made in the multi-billion dollar sex toy industry.

We’ve come a long way from coal-powered dildos and breadsticks, and although the normalisation of woman’s pleasure still has a long way to go, with each passing day more women are taking self pleasure seriously, thus paving the way for female empowerment and sexual confidence.

To get a taste of modern toys available - shop our range at www.thequietachiever.co.nz.