Chastity belts are one of those objects that just capture people’s imagination. They are often depicted as metal girdles that medieval husbands locked around their wives’ waists to prevent them from having sex while they were away. But how much of this is true, and how much is fiction?
According to historians, chastity belts were not common in the Middle Ages, but rather a product of Renaissance satire and modern fantasy. The first image of a chastity belt appeared in a treatise on siege warfare and torture devices by Konrad Kyeser in 1405. However, this was not meant to be a realistic representation, but a joke or a metaphor.
“The idea of medieval men locking up their women in metal girdles in order to stop marauding men or lustful wives is a myth that ‘modern’ peoples constructed in order to show the lack of civility prior to their own age,” says Albrecht Classen, a professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona.
The few existing specimens of chastity belts in museums are likely fakes or jokes, made in the 18th or 19th centuries. They were either created as curiosities for the prudish Victorian middle class, or as erotic devices for the kinky fetishists. Some of them are so impractical and uncomfortable that they could not have been worn for long periods of time.
Textual references to chastity belts in medieval literature were also allegorical or metaphorical, not literal. They often expressed male fear, female sexuality, or humor. For example, in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the Wife of Bath boasts that she has the power to make her husbands give her the keys to their “chests”, which could be interpreted as a pun on chastity belts.
The myth of the chastity belt reveals more about the cultural and historical context of its creators and consumers than about the actual practices of the Middle Ages. It reflects the stereotypes, prejudices, fantasies, and fears of different times and places.
“The concept of a chastity belt itself is far more recent than most people think. The first mention is in 1405, not by a woman, but by a man. And it was not to protect women’s modesty, but men’s property,” says Victoria Martínez, a historian and writer.
“The myth that medieval women wore chastity belts is a powerful symbol of how we view the Middle Ages: as an ignorant time when people did irrational things,” says Katherine Harvey, a lecturer in medieval history at Birkbeck, University of London.
So next time you see a chastity belt in a movie, a book, or a museum, remember that it is not a historical fact, but a cultural fiction. And maybe ask yourself: what does it say about us?
Relevant articles:
– Medieval Chastity Belts Are a Myth, Smithsonian Magazine, August 20, 2015
– What Is A Chastity Belt? Inside The Bizarre Medieval Myth That Persists Today, All That’s Interesting, July 20, 2021
– Chastity belt – Wikipedia, Wikipedia, accessed August 9, 2021
– The truth about chastity belts: they weren’t used to stop women cheating, The Conversation, August 4, 2021