Most people think sex toys were discovered in the late 20th century. It’s understandable why people may think that — female sexuality has historically been suppressed, and there hasn’t been much focus on devising technologies for female pleasure.
In fact, up until very recently, mainstream culture even refused to believe women could feel pleasure during sex, relegating female sexuality into an object of desire for male pleasure.
In fact, up until very recently, mainstream culture even refused to believe women could feel pleasure during sex, relegating female sexuality into an object of desire for male pleasure. However, regardless of the patriarchal attempts to subjugate female sexuality, vulva-owners across the ages have been finding creative ways of enjoying their bodies, unlocking the power of their sexuality, and… well, getting off!
In recent decades, there has been a massive surge in the mass availability of clitoral sex toys, such as vibrators, dildos, clitoral suckers, clitoral massagers, and more! But, to truly appreciate how far we’ve come, it’s worth looking into the history of clitoral sex toys — and that’s precisely what we’re gonna’ do here!
Sex Toys Date Back To Our Neanderthal Ancestors
The neanderthals, the subspecies of prehistoric humans that existed tens of thousands of years ago, liked playing around as well. They may not have had dishwashers, phones, or strong houses, but they at least had dildos. For reals.
Archaeologists recently found a pointed 8-inch long dildo made of siltstone in some ancient caves in Germany. Upon carbon tracing the dildo, it was found to be over 28,000 years old, officially making it the oldest dildo in existence. Similarly, archaeologists have found dildos made of bone, stones, and various other materials across time and place.
The Ancient Greeks Preferred Edible Dildos
While our neanderthal ancestors may have used bones, stones, wood, and other hard objects for dildos, the ancient Greeks came up with edible dildos and sex toys. One of the most popular sex toys among Greek women was the olisbokollix, i.e., bread dildo. Records of bread dildos can be traced back 2,000 years when they were mentioned in ancient texts, lexicons, and plays. Archaeologists have also found images of penis-shaped baguettes used as pleasure products.
Archaeologists have also found images of penis-shaped baguettes used as pleasure products.
One of the most popular documents of Greek women’s sex toys comes from Lysistrata, a play about women who go on a sex strike. Written in 411 BC by Aristophanes, the comedy was about women who went on a sex strike to end the Peloponnesian War, while using sex toys to fulfill their own sexual desires. The following is a modern English translation of the Greek text: “And so, girls, when f****ing time comes… not the faintest whiff of it anywhere, right? From the time those Milesians betrayed us, we can’t even find our eight-fingered leather dildos.”
In 1992, Brenda Love wrote “Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices,” in which she claimed that Cleopatra, the infamous ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, used a gourd filled with bees for genital stimulation. The idea was that the bees would stimulate her clitoris as they buzzed around the gourd. While this claim is certainly interesting, there’s not a whole lot of archaeological or historiographical evidence to back it up.
Modern-Day Vibrators and Dildos May Have a Pretty Sexist History
The sex toys we’ve mentioned above were mostly informal and homemade. However, the first official documentation of a precursor to modern-day vibrators has a pretty sexist history. Today, we associate vibrators and dildos as objects that empower female sexuality, but that wasn’t always the case. Vibrators were first created by Victorian doctors who believed masturbation was the cure to all women’s problems.
Back in the 1800s, women’s problems, whether it was a bad mood or a migraine or anything else, were attributed to “hysteria.” In Greek, the word “hysteria” means “suffering uterus.” During Victorian times, it was popularly believed that women’s womb often starts wandering around their entire body, wreaking havoc. Whenever women complained about anything, it was chalked down to the wandering womb or “hysteria.” In fact, they even attributed sexual desire or fantasies to “hysteria.”
The prescribed and official “treatment” for hysteria was a pelvic massage. Doctors would basically masturbate women until they had a “hysterical paroxysm,” i.e., until they orgasmed, or at least pretended to orgasm to get rid of the doctors. This was initially done by hand, but that led to severe hand cramps (for reals), so they had to come up with some way to automate the process.
And that’s where modern-day vibrators come in! In 1869, Dr. George Taylor invented a large steam-powered device called “The Manipulator.” This device could automate the hysteria treatment, stimulating women’s clitoris’ until they orgasmed. Initially, it was too large for home usage and only prescribed by doctors as a treatment. However, it eventually trickled down to the modern era as a sex toy or vibrator!
20th Century, The Grand Century of Sexual Liberation
In the earlier half of the 20th century, sex toys and vibrators were sold as regular household items. Vulva-owners could use them as a sex toy in the way you can use a hand shower as a sex toy, but that wasn’t their primary purpose.
As the sexual revolution and the second wave of feminism normalized female sexuality, there was a sudden upsurge in sex toys.
Sex toys, as we know them now, came into the marketplace after the sexual liberation of the 1960s. As the sexual revolution and the second wave of feminism normalized female sexuality, there was a sudden upsurge in sex toys. However, sex toys were still largely restricted to vibrators and dildos… until now.
Enter Clitoral Suckers, The Most Innovative Form of Sex Toy For Vulva-Owners
In the past decades, there has been widespread availability of sex toys for women and vulva-owners. However, most of them are meant for penetration. While men have several options to simulate oral sex, such as realistic sex dolls and fleshlights, vulva-owners haven’t had that same luxury.
Clitoral suction sex toys changed that landscape in the mid-2010s. Clitoral suckers are sex toys with nozzles that use air pressure to generate suction force that accurately simulates oral sex. Some of the most recent and advanced clit suckers also add another component — sonic pulses. These pleasure products deliver sonic pulses that reverberate through your entire clitoral structure, shaking them from the inside to induce some of the most intense orgasms. Most of those clit suction vibes are made of high grade silicone, that allows for a gentler air pressurization.
Several vulva-owners have fervently claimed that these clit suckers make them orgasm instantly and regularly. Most of these go beyond the pleasures of simple vibration, penetration, or oral sex — instead of simply stimulating the clitoral tip, they stimulate the entire clitoral structure. As such, these sex toys have allowed vulva-owners to discover pleasures they didn’t even know existed.
Some of the most recent additions to these clitoral suckers, like Biird’s Namii, have even started combining the suction force with traditional vibrations. You can use the same sex toy for indirect clitoral stimulation (through sonic pulses) or as traditional vibrators.
It may seem like sex toys have reached their zenith. But female sexuality is powerful and full of hidden potentials. In the future, clitoral sex toys and suckers are sure to continue advancing, opening new and unchartered potentials for vulva-owners to enjoy their bodies without shame or stigma.
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