The History Behind ‘Chastity Belts’

Were these belts for real?

A painting that shows a man trying to lock a woman into a chastity belt to protect her ‘virtue’ | Image source: Picryl

If you heard about the ‘chastity belts’, you’d know that they are often attributed to the Medieval period. These metal belts had a lock to be fixed around a woman’s hips to ‘protect’ her chastity. Not only did they appear highly misogynistic, but they were also very primitive and unsanitary. But did these belts actually exist, and were they used for their…