The appearance of sex toys tells us a lot about how people felt about lust and gratification at a particular time. About the taboos that might still attach to them. And about the future of sex and the ideals of designers.
Mechanical and cold
It was about 150 years ago that the British physician Joseph Mortimer Granville invented and developed the first electric vibrator. The gadget was used for all sorts of ailments, from muscular pain and constipation to backache and diabetes. Vibrators looked more or less the same way until the 1960s: mechanical, functional and cold. They say a great deal about the gender-normative view of sexuality and also show that designers were mostly cisgender men. The sexual revolution changed all that and focused greater attention on female pleasure and the clitoris.
Me Tarzan
And then there was Tarzan. A vibrator developed by the Japanese company Vibratex, which was on pretty much everyone’s wish list in the 1970s. Its success had everything to do with its triple stimulation. The design – a little man with a monkey between his legs – looked like a toy. Which was important, because sex toys were banned in Japan. Despite this, Tarzan competed with the Hitachi Magic Wand – a vibrator initially introduced in 1968 as a massager. The toy became so popular – due in part to Betty Dodson’s legendary masturbation workshops in the early 1970s – that the hit American TV series Sex and the City devoted an entire episode to the toy in 2002.
Something for everyone
Much has changed since the beginning of this century, due not least to technological advances, the rise of the Internet and free access to information. Heteronormative standards are shifting and sex toys are now being designed for and by individuals with diverse sexual preferences and gender identities.
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Passion – The kiss
Your first kiss. You never forget it. No matter how sweet, sloppy or bad it was. After that, there’s no stopping you: on average you’ll spend 20,000 minutes of your life kissing.
Passion – Perfectible body
Not happy with your body? Then do something about it. That seems to be the credo of our age, with its obsession with perfect bodies. But is the body really so perfectible?
Passion – The body
The contents of Bouquet romantic novels might still leave something to the imagination, but not so their covers: this is the image of the ‘ideal man’. What does it say about our perceptions?
Passion – Romantic fiction
Seven Nights with the Sheikh, A Kiss in the Moonlight, An Heir for the King: the titles of romantic fiction in the world-famous Bouquet series have always appealed to the imagination. Guilty pleasures full of desire, temptation and happy endings are still extremely popular.
Falling in Love – Making it happen
Butterflies in your stomach, unable to eat a thing, constantly daydreaming and checking your phone every five minutes to see if you’ve received a new message: falling in love is magical.
Bonding – Parenthood
For centuries being a mum or dad was not a choice at all, simply how things were ‘supposed to be’. The way parenthood itself is viewed has also changed over the years.
Bonding – Marriage
Only three things are truly important in a marriage: you, your beloved and your love for each other. All the same, there are a lot more factors at play in the background.
Bonding – Family of choice
In addition to their biological family, many people have one they’ve chosen for themselves: people you’re not related to, people who understand, help and love you.
Bonding – The Couple Look
See them whizzing across the city on their fast bikes: his a men’s model, hers a woman’s. Both wrapped in a puffer jacket and with matching trainers. The dreary ‘ANWB couple’ in trendy jackets.
Love, designed
We’ve all grown up with stories and clichés that have unconsciously influenced our image of love. Love, designed explores these stereotypes and shows how design guides the way we both seek and ‘consume’ love.
