Belts, Cages, and Spiked Rings: A Brief History of Chastity Devices

We're now wrapping up the first full week of Locktober 2025, and if you're participating, some of you might feel a little.... itchy. We thought this might be a good time to take a look at the history of chastity, and in particular, the devices and gizmos that human beings come up with to help resist those moments of weakness.

Usually when chastity turns up in the history books, it's in the context of religious edicts, philosophy, or health. Until very recently, you'll find very little discussion about chastity as a kink — at least, not acknowledged as such. Historically, chastity has been linked with "purity"; sexual desires have typically been thought of as leading to corruption of the soul, mind, or body — or a distraction from the intellect being used for greater things.

The most extreme expression of this quest for purity is just getting rid of the troublesome bits — that is, castration, voluntary or otherwise. In the third century AD, the Christian scholar Origen of Alexandria is said to have had himself castrated so that lusts for women didn't distract him from his holy ruminations.

That may be extending your Locktober a little bit too far. Stick with methods that can be reversed.

The Myth of the Chastity Belt

When you start talking about chastity devices, you inevitably have to discuss the chastity belt. Most of us probably started learning about chastity belts in high school, if not before. They're the things that the noblemen of Medieval Europe would put onto their wives when they were going off on a trip, ensuring that the Lady of the house didn't get up to any extracurricular fun.

And here is the part where we have to break some hearts: Chastity belts are now considered to be a myth. You can probably find more chastity belts in the Stockroom's warehouse than in all of Europe between 1400 and 1700.

The first recorded mention of a chastity belt appeared in 1405, in an illustrated manual of military equipment called Bellifortis. Written by military engineer Konrad Kyeser during a period of exile, the book takes a fanciful and expansive approach to martial techniques. Not only does he talk about the applications of sorcery and astrology in war, but he had a raunchy sense of humor; one of his proposed siege engines was meant to be powered by human farts.

His illustration of the chastity belt likely comes from the same place, and for the next few centuries, the most common place to find them was in dirty jokes and bawdy plays. They were usually depicted as something used by an older husband afraid of being cuckolded by his younger wife while he travelled on business. Too bad for him, the wife's lover typically had a spare key to spring the lock as soon as the husband was out of sight — that is, if the wife hadn't palmed the original herself.

Our very own Deluxe Leather Chastity Belt. 

Even supposedly authentic chastity belts displayed in museums deserve a little skepticism. Many have turned out to have been made as stage props or outright forgeries. For decades, the prestigious Musée de Cluny in Paris exhibited a chastity belt that was supposed to have been worn by Catherine de Medici, who died in 1589. When the museum did an analysis of the metal in the 1990s, it turned out to be no older than the early 19th century.

Male Chastity Devices

Most of our chastity collection is made for locking down penises, and surprisingly enough, this is consistent with historical record. Women's sexualities were tightly controlled by social, legal, and economic pressures. But as medicine developed, a lot of health experts (or those who imagined themselves to be) started to get obsessive about the threat of boys masturbating.

The Christian churches in Europe had long condemned masturbation as a sin, but around 1712 or so, an anonymous author published an anti-masturbation pamphlet called Onania, or the Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution. According to Onania, masturbation was responsible for everything from physical weakness to mental illness and even epilepsy.

Onania was a hit, remaining in print at least until 1730 and being translated into Dutch and German. Swiss physician Samuel-Auguste Tissot was inspired to write his own L'Onanisme, which claimed that loss of semen in large quantities would cause "a perceptible reduction of strength, of memory and even of reason; blurred vision, all the nervous disorders, all types of gout and rheumatism, weakening of the organs of generation, blood in the urine, disturbance of the appetite, headaches and a great number of other disorders."

Thus began over a century of looking for ways to cure teenage boys of their desire to jack off. Among the most benign products of this obsession were graham crackers and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. These were inspired by the beliefs of Sylvester Graham and John Harvey Kellogg that a simple, bland diet would reduce sexual desire and the urge to masturbate.

But of course, there were more mechanical ways to stop masturbation, especially since the Industrial Revolution was just getting under way. Near the end of the 18th century, the "Jugum Penis" started to appear. ("Jugum" is Latin for a yoke or collar.) It was a simple and brutal solution: a metal ring lined with teeth on the inside, so that as soon as the wearer started to get a hard-on, the teeth would dig in and discourage it.

If you've done some CBT play, you may recognize the Jugum Penis as an early form of what's now called "Kali's Teeth," or the Stockroom's more adjustable version, "Mike's Spikes."

The modern heir to the jugum penis: Mike's Spikes, from Stockroom

The basic mechanic behind the Jugum Penis recurred in dozens of devices throughout the 19th century. One version had only four spikes, intended to hurt more than the original model because the force was concentrated in a smaller area.

A variety of anti-masturbation devices on display at the Sex Machine Museum in Prague
(Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

As industry advanced, some of the devices showed positive ingenuity, even if a warped kind: The chastity belt actually became a real thing for some boys and men, with full metal briefs meant to cover the penis and scrotum so that no untoward contact would happen within the pants. When electricity came along, some devices would administer a shock at the first sign of an erection. At least one device, kept in the Sex Machine Museum in Prague, would use electrical leads to detect arousal and ring a bell so that concerned parents could come running.

The above-mentioned device, intended to notify parents or other caretakers in case the boy was having a nighttime erection. (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) 

Chastity in the Modern Day

It takes only a few glances at the devices that came out in the 18th and 19th centuries to appreciate what we have now. For one thing, Locktober and all other BDSM chastity practices are entirely consensual, rather than being forced on you by your parents or the staff of an asylum.

But also, the equipment that we have now is healthier to use. Wearing a cock cage for extended periods of time requires some care and cleaning, but they are a lot easier to clean than any of the metal monstrosities that came out in the wake of Onania.

If you're wearing a cage this month, be sure to keep yourself clean and neat as possible while being loyal to your keyholder. Happy Locktober!