Did the Women Chastity Belt Really Exist?

A chastity belt simply put was a barbaric method for enforcing fidelity in ‘unfaithful’ women.

Apparently in the middle ages when the brave knights used to go for war, pilgrimages, or crusades, they wanted some device to ensure that their wives would remain faithful to them in their absence.

And in came the chastity belts made up of metal with small holes left in for urination and excretion. The knight would lock her genitals and take the key with him thus ensuring that his wife does not ‘succumb’ to any temptation in his absence.

In fact, a German painting of the 1500s depicts the same thing; a woman is shown naked wearing nothing but a chastity belt, the husband locking her genitals and another ‘lover’ waiting in the background with a duplicate key, waiting for the husband to leave.

Here is the truth: chastity belts never existed in medieval times.

They were just sickening jokes deep-rooted in misogyny. The very idea behind the invention of these jokes is that it was impossible for women to be faithful and they need to be controlled by a ‘metal underwear’ to keep their ‘carnal lust’ in check.

And more than the joke, the dark intention behind it is disgusting as told by a 17th-century book on witchcraft.

“Women’s carnal lust was insatiable – “for the sake of fulfilling their lusts they consort even with devils.”

And while most people would dismiss it as simple, harmless fun, the fact that the joke has continued for hundreds of years and even now being used in BDSM as fetish objects only mean, something is still not right in terms of equality and respect.

The myth of the chastity belt

The first drawing of the belt was displayed in a book called Bellifortis, written in 1405 by a German military engineer named Konrad Kyeser.

Konrad was a military engineer and mostly wrote about war devices, weapons, and interrogation devices. But he had also the reputation of a joker having a wicked sense of humour. The chastity belt might seem out of place in a military handbook but that was how Konrad used to operate as he sent a message to the ‘noblemen’ of Florence advertising his chastity belt.

“Padlock these iron devices to the onto the breeches of the women of Florence. I highly recommend them to the noble and obedient youth of Florence.”

We don’t know how the joke was received but it soon spread like wildfire with the idea building on the male fear of cuckoldry that their women would be unfaithful to them and make a mockery of their reputation.

Starting around the 16th century, the chastity belt started showing up regularly in various illustrations, engravings, and paintings. The design of the belt varied by region but the basic design was the same; a pair of metal underwear with designated holes for urination and excretion.

Some belts also showed the holes lined with sharp points that jutted out away from the woman’s body to further ‘eliminate’ any attempts of intercourse through these holes.

Some belts also showed pads supposedly to help women avoid cutting and scratching the genitals. But since the pads had to be changed often as they would get soiled and that cannot be done without unlocking, the pads were meaningless.

In any case, a woman was not meant to feel ‘comfortable’ when her knight in shining armor is away fighting a brutal battle. She is supposed to lead a chaste, sorrowful existence waiting for him. And having sex in his absence was considered a betrayal of the highest order.

Later on, the authors even improvised the usage of these belts for teenage girls to prevent masturbation. It was believed that by masturbating, the girls would lose their connection to God and indulge in impure thoughts. So some later drawings also started showing specially created belts for teenage girls who just reached puberty.

The jokes continued well into the 20th century as the myth continued to be accepted as a disgusting medieval reality. It was only later when Albrecht Classen, author of the book "The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making Process", researched extensively on these belts and found them to be a joke on women perpetuated over centuries. As he says.

"No author of sermon literature, of penitentiary texts, or didactic and legal writers has ever mentioned the chastity belt probably because already the basic idea behind it defies the basic needs of the human (female) body. Not only is there scarce historical evidence that chastity belts were an actual undergarment in the Middle Ages, but there is no logic to support their existence, either.”

And while chastity and fidelity have been prized virtues expected in a woman across history, women’s bodies were never kept in lock and key even during the dark ages of the medieval period.

If they were jokes, why are they existing?

If the belts didn’t exist, then why do we see them displayed in museums across the world? The answer is simple: superiority complex.

The people in the late eighteenth or nineteenth century were quite proud of their achievements in science, technology, and arts and they had the tendency to consider the medieval ages as backward, dark ages with foolish people who kept their women under bondage. And since a sexual angle was involved, it didn’t take long for the myth to be accepted as reality. As Classen says.

“People delight in delving into sex. They can say they only have a historical interest, but in reality, they have a prurient interest. It’s a fantasy.”

And this is the very fantasy about uncontrollable female sexual appetites that helped to sell the idea of chastity belts. It was all about a male fantasy to control women and feed in their inner anxiety that their ‘beautiful’ wife would someday betray them.

That was the reason that all the chastity belts displayed in museums are just clever reproductions of the later centuries rather than the middle ages. These devices were jokes, never meant to be used.

I guess even in the dark ages, the men knew that the only way to make a woman truly love them was to ‘command’ respect and not enforce or demand it as that would never work in the long term.