History has been both good and bad for sex toys, they’ve had periods of great, wide-spread use and periods when they were shunned or even illegal. Here I will talk about sex toys from the mid 19th century and after.

Although sex toys and any literature that related to sexuality during the Victorian Era was considered extremely taboo, this era showed a great jump forward in sex toy ‘technology’. Butt plugs, rubber dildos and even the first vibrators were introduced to us during the mid nineteenth century. Not only did new toys make it to the public but the sex toys that had been around for so long got a big boost in comfort and sanitation.

In addition to home use, often for medical purposes, there was a variety of spas that would provide ‘medicinal treatments’ in the form of steam-powered vibrators and water jet massagers.

There was an illness that was incredibly popular to diagnose during the 1800′s, but only women were affected by it and it had a treatment that led to a steep increase in sex toy usage, especially vibrators. The illness was called Hysteria, from the Greek word ‘hystera’ meaning Uterus. I won’t go into details on what caused Hysteria but I will state that pelvic massaging by doctors was the standard treatment until the invention of vibrators. This caused a rapid increase in vibrator sales and use as they were prescribed by doctors and used ‘medicinally’. And although Hysteria is no longer a recognized illness its effects on the popularity of vibrators can be easily seen.

Electricity eventually became common in middle class homes and thus vibrators were able to be purchased and used privately, to treat Hysteria of course. In the early 1900′s you could find vibrators in Sears’ catalogs and by the 1930′s advertisements for sex toys were very common place. This saw the beginning of the end of sex toys only being used medicinally.

During the era of ‘free love’, specialized retail stores and magazines started popping up, providing a wide variety of sex toys to the public. These days you can get sex toys in almost every town in America or through one of the many online retail stores.

As people become more open to various sexual explorations sex toys become more widely accepted. Gone are the days of only the single, lonely and sexually extreme using sex toys.

Extremely well-liked sex toys in this day and age consist of the traditional women’s sex toys such as the laya spot, however those make up only a small portion of what’s out there, such as male sex toys like Fleshlights and p-spot massagers. Anal sex toys are also quickly becoming more accepted, among both males and females.

Another form of sex toy use that is constantly becoming more popular is BDSM. Many couples are opening themselves up to light bondage as a way to expand their sex lives throught the use of various items such as sex furniture. Role playing is also gaining in popularity and the sale of costumes for such activities is on the rise.