15 'Facts' You're All Wrong About

11. The Chastity Belt Was A Medieval Invention Designed To Prevent Women Having Sex

€œWe€™ve seen pictures of the things! We know what those religious nutjobs were up to €“ locking down their wives while they went and played Crusader in the Holy Land€€
Well, sorry to disappoint €“ but there€™s little evidence that the chastity belt even existed as a real life thing before the nineteenth century. The odd person may have worn one €“ and by odd person, we mean odd €“ but there was no widespread use of a metal-and-leather muzzle to prevent the widespread use of Christian wives and daughters across the Kingdom. No, actually the truth is a little closer to the present day. From the 1700s right up until the 1930s, masturbation was considered deeply unhealthy. That€™s from a medical standpoint, not a parent worried that their kid was spending too long in the shower every day. In the 1800s, these belts became the go-to device for doctors, parents and €“ yes! €“ religious nutjobs to prevent children and teenagers from fiddling with themselves, in case it made them crazy in the brain.
 
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Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.