Gizmodo, part of the Gawker media blogs, is a blog for tech geeks, generally featuring the latest in cool gadgets, electronics, and science news. If you’re not a regular reader, you might have missed this little item:
Metal Male Chastity Device, Only $15.52 Per Unit
The poor old Gizmodo tips hotline is besieged by spam. But occasionally it pays to read some of it…
They go on to explain that the spam offered up these devices for what amounts to less than $16 US. Considering that these devices — or at least, ones that look pretty similar — sell for about 15 times this amount, it sounds like a pretty good bargain.
Interestingly, this isn’t Gizmodo’s only post on the subject. Just about three years ago, they featured a very hot picture of the Latowski belt, although their description left a bit to be desired:
“We’re not sure what to say about this stainless steel male chastity belt other than the fact that we want zero part of that. There’s a hole in the front for your junk to go, as well as a hole in the back for the stinkier junk to drop out, and the whole thing is locked with a key you (hopefully) never lose. How long can this be worn? “The experiences of my customers are completely different. They range from weekend use to the continuous carrier.” At least it beats getting your muchachos cut off forever.”
It’s ironic that in the rare news items featuring male chastity devices, they are portrayed as anti-sex toys, or sometimes, as in the latter example, as de-masculinising. Indeed, even the comments on the original post range from horror, to amusement, to disgust. It would have been enheartening to see even one comment to the effect of “Hey, that’s pretty cool!”
That said, the shiny device on the red background looks like it was made from castoffs from a plumbing shop. For $16, it’s probably not made from stainless steel, and some of those edges don’t look very finished, so it’s probably a good thing that they did not send the reviewer an actual sample.
But even as a joke, it’s still nice to see these devices make their way — slowly — into the mainstream culture. Who knows, maybe we’ll discover that a character on some evening TV drama is wearing one, and from there, well, who knows?
