Playtimes pleasures
Pleasuring women has moved from the intimidating sex toys to electric vibrators and dildos in every shape, size and colour Picture: REUTERS
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Sex toys have come a long way since our Neanderthal ancestors were pleasuring themselves with phallic rocks and soft sheep intestines. Step into any sex shop, euphemistically renamed "sensuality boutique" or "bedroom boudoir" for women, and drawer upon sexy drawer of daring devices and contortionist contraptions will open up a whole new world of sexual and sensual play for you.
You'll find dildos, vibrators, rings and things of every size, colour, texture and flavour. Lube, crotchless panties, BDSM outfits in leather, latex and PVC, whips, chains and Tantric sex chairs, a modern chaise designed to enhance the advanced sexual positions of the Kama Sutra.
"The evolution of sex toys is very exciting for us," says Tara McGovern, marketing manager of Matilda's, an online sex shop.
''People are becoming more secure in their sexuality and the taboo around sex toys is disappearing, giving way to new and stimulating possibilities."
''I even feel comfortable talking about sex toys with my daughters as if they're everyday objects," says Marina Bargehr, who co-owns The Bedroom, an exclusive sensual boutique for women, in Parkhurst. Most of her clients are women over 40 looking to spice up their sex lives.
Our sexual attitudes are certainly changing, but sex toys have been around since Eden. The oldest example of a dildo - the word is derived from the Italian word diletto, ''to delight" - is a stone 20cm phallus found in Hohle Fels cave near Ulm, Germany, from the Upper Palaeolithic period. It is 30000 years old.
According to the blog theirtoys.com: ''Penis extenders made of wood, leather, buffalo horn, copper, silver, ivory and gold were commonly used in 300 AD in India and the East to assist in pleasuring sexual partners when the man was not able to keep it hard."
The vibrator also has an interesting history.
''In the 1800s, if a woman displayed signs of sexual excitement, her husband would take her to a doctor to treat what was then diagnosed as 'hysterical tension' or 'female hysteria'," says Marina Green, owner of Whet Sensuality Emporium in Cape Town.
''Symptoms included anxiety, a temperature, a swollen pudenda and vaginal lubrication - basically sexual arousal," says Green.
''However, during the Victorian era women were not considered to be sexual beings so it was viewed as an illness. The prescribed treatment was masturbation - not to be performed by the woman herself, as this was 'unhealthy and would rot the brain', but administered by a midwife or doctor. Today we would regard genital massage from your doctor as indecent assault," Green says.
In 1869, with the advent of steam, physician George Taylor developed a steam-driven vibrator that he touted as a device for ''speeding the treatment and reducing physician fatigue" .
''The doctor, with the help of this invention, would massage the patient's vulva until she experienced dramatic relief through 'paroxysm' (orgasm)," says Green.
Incidentally, scientists well into the 20th century claimed women were incapable of orgasm.
Green says when electricity became readily available in the US during the early 20th century, plug-in vibrators were one of the first electrified home appliances. Since then vibrators have evolved from being lurid skin-tone devices designed for penetration and used clandestinely by men to being largely designed for clitoral use by - and for a women.
''Sex toys are no longer a dirty secret you hide in your underwear drawer. There is demand for high quality, better functioning toys made from body-safe materials," says McGovern.
''The main thing women want from their vibrators and dildos today is that they're not penis-shaped. The elegant lines of our top- of- the-range vibrators mean you could almost display them as ornaments,'' says Bargehr.
The creepiness factor has been almost completely removed from a lot of modern sex toys. However, if your sex isn't at least a little creepy, you're probably doing it wrong.
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timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2011/06/29/
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