Many people assume sex toys were invented by the Asians. While it's true that Asians have used sexual aids for more than a 1000 years, dildos and vibrators have surprisingly western roots.
No one is certain who invented the dildo, however its popularity is owed to an ancient Greek port city, Miletus, on the west coast of the present day Turkey. Miletus traders sold what the Greeks called Olibos around the Mediterranean. In ancient Greece they were used as sexual refuges for lonely ladies.
In Italy the word Olibos became the word dildo, probably from the Italian word diletto, meaning to delight. However, compared with todays toys you could hardly describe them as delightful as they were made from wood, leather and stone.
Dildos have always had a sexual purpose from the moment they were invented, vibrators on the other hand have not. Vibrators were invented 130 years ago to treat a medical illness known as "female hysteria". Hysteria, meaning suffering uterus in Greek, involved anxiety, irritability, sexual fantasies, pelvic heaviness and excessive vaginal lubrication - sexual arousal during the Victorian era, when women were not considered sexual beings. Doctors would treat female hysteria by massasing their patients' genitals until they experienced relief by paroxysm (orgasm).
In the late 19th century the first electric vibrators surfaced. They were still camouflaged as therapy for female hysteria and were sold only to doctors. Gradually magazines started to advertise such devices to women for self treament of hysteria at home. In 1918, Sears Roebuck, and american chain of department stores touted one vibrator as being a very satisfactory aid every woman appreciates. Then an advertisement in a 1921 issue of "Heart's" magazine urged men to buy the devices for their wives to keep them young and pretty and free from the illness of hysteria.
But during the 1920s, early "blue" movies showed women using the devices for sexual stimulation. Early pornography stripped vibrators of their social camouflage of being massagers, and by 1930, they were no longer openly advertised. Today, Adult Toys are popular sexual aids and are sold for sexual purposes.
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