“One man`s folly is
another man`s wife”
(H.Roland)

When we are talking about a chastity belt, what do we imagine? Many people represent the iron pants that the knight in the Middle Ages put on his chosen one when he went on a military campaign. Immediately you figure out how a knight says to his beloved, “My dear, I’m leaving. I’m not sure about you, so put on a chastity belt. Put on it for a year or two, and then I’ll be back and everything will be fine. I love you.” And a handsome knight on a white horse speeds away into the sunset, and his unlucky lady sits and suffers in a gloomy castle.

But let’s go step by step. What is a chastity belt? These are iron pants made of oxidized metal. In museums, we can see various variations of its performance. Some decorated richer, some simpler. A chastity belt was put on a naked body since there was no linen at that time. It was very uncomfortable. And about personal hygiene, I will just keep silent…The first mention of the chastity belt was in 1405. German military engineer Conrad Kaiser publishes his book ‘Bellifortis’. In the book, he describes the design of siege weapons, military vehicles, and, of course, the chastity belt. But you should not trust his words, since in his work he also described an invisibility cloak.

Based on this, the chastity belt can be attributed to things that actually never existed. Why? At that time, religion was the founding institution of society. Vedism has not yet completely receded into the background. Yes, he was not welcomed, but people knew about such gods as Zeus, Aphrodite, etc. There was such a thing as the “belt of Aphrodite.” This meant that during the wedding night if the girl retained her chastity, the goddess Aphrodite untied the chastity belt. It was something conditional. And people in the Middle Ages knew about this.

Arizona University Professor Albrecht Klassen in his book ‘The Medieval Chastity Belt: The Process of Myth (New Middle Ages)’ stated that after a long study of medieval literature and fine art, he did not find traces of the existence of a chastity belt. Do you understand what this means? If this existed in the era of chivalry, then why is there no image?

Now consider the chastity belt in the paintings. If you carefully examine the images, you will notice that people in them are dressed in clothes not of the Middle Ages, but of the era of the Renaissance. This means that people in the Renaissance wanted to show that people in the Middle Ages did not live correctly. Thus, they ridiculed that time, but this has nothing to do with real life.

But what is presented in museums since a chastity belt did not exist? After an examination, museum workers found that chastity belts were not made in the Middle Ages, but in the 18th and 19th centuries. Why did people need chastity belts in the 18th century? Everything is very simple. At that time, people had a sexual revolution. They did such things that even to a modern person it would seem wrong. Perhaps chastity belts were created for role-playing games. Somehow the duchess said to her husband, “My dear, today we will play in the Middle Ages. I will be your Isold. Pack me in a chastity belt. I will hide the key, and you will look for it.”

In the 19th century, it was difficult to determine the actual dating of the exhibit. Therefore, it is not always what they give us for the reality it is. Historians also make mistakes…