Castidade no BDSM: história & mitos | Ep. 5 (parte 1)

Before it became a fetish, chastity was punishment. It was social control. It was, as unbelievable as it sounds, a diet strategy. In this episode, I go back millennia to show where one of the most visible (and most misunderstood) practices of contemporary BDSM actually comes from.

The origins: control, not pleasure

Historically, controlling someone else's sexuality has roots that have nothing to do with eroticism. In Imperial China, the Byzantine Empire, and some Islamic courts, castration was used to ensure that servants did not become sexually involved with noblewomen, a way to ensure that the "servitude" of these men remained total and without competition. We also find, throughout history, chastity used as a guarantee of loyalty, whether to a religious entity, like the Church, or as a way to protect a family's social status.

And then there is the romantic myth of medieval chastity belts, the idea of knights leaving for the Crusades and "locking up" their loved ones before departing. It is one of the most popular images associated with chastity, even though it is, above all, exactly that: a myth, more folklore than documented historical fact.

The irony between medicine and sexuality

The part of the story I like to tell the most is also the most absurd. In the 19th century, the moral, religious, and "medical" idea gained strength that masturbation and sexual pleasure were the direct cause of diseases: from hypochondria to physical weakness, even extending to delinquency. It was in this context that several medical devices emerged, designed specifically to restrict access to sexual pleasure, solo or as a couple.

The most ironic example? In the United States, around the 1800s, a doctor named John Harvey Kellogg associated everything he considered "impure" in the human body (including masturbation) with a set of evils that needed to be cured. The methods he promoted were, in My more-than-honest opinion, deeply unethical: they included the circumcision of boys without anesthesia, intentionally, so that they would associate pain with the genital area, and the application of acid to girls' clitorises. Kellogg also believed that a diet rich in spices and flavor increased libido, and that is how he created a deliberately bland yet nutritious diet, through processing wheat, as a way to reduce people's sexual desire. Later, his brother had the idea of adding sugar to that same recipe to make it more palatable and sellable. The result? Corn flakes! Yes, the very same cereal on sale in any supermarket today, originally created as an anti-masturbation tool.

I have a theory about this, and I repeat it whenever I can: everything that is repressed in a medical, moral, or religious way ends up, sooner or later, being reappropriated in an erotic way. Eroticism takes root precisely in what is forbidden to us, and the forbidden invariably becomes more fascinating and more desired.

From subculture to mainstream

It was only from the 60s and 70s onward, with the sexual liberation movement and a gradually less moralistic public dissemination, that chastity began to be seen and lived in an openly erotic way, first within specific subcultures, then in an increasingly mainstream way. What was born as a tool of medical and religious repression transformed into an absolutely consensual power play between two people, and today there is a huge variety of devices: penis cages in plastic, metal, aluminum, silicone, in dozens of shapes and materials, designed specifically for this purpose.

This episode deliberately stays within history and myths. In part 2, I take you deeper: the role of the person holding the key (the "keyholder"), the real physical and psychological benefits, the psychology behind this fetish, and of course, Locktober, the entire month dedicated to this practice within the community.

🎧 Listen to the full episode for all the details of this story, including more about the connection between medical repression and modern fetish that does not fit here in the article.

Available on the usual platforms!

🔗 YouTube (with subtitles): https://youtu.be/S7LPHJVLXYc

🔗 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0S6IYAjcvYdGKZWqNJUBp3?si=adbee345fb764a10

🔗 Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/pt/podcast/confiss%C3%B5es-de-uma-dominatrix/id1823069993?l=en-GB&i=1000729593502

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