 Why are sex toys also called "Marital Aids"?
"I've heard the term marital aid used to describe sex toys and it sounds odd...any ideas about where that term came from?"
This is a good question and one that we really had to think about.
There could be a few reasons why sex toys are also referred to as marital aids. I suspect the biggest influence is probably societal norms and values. Our society, whether we choose to believe it or not, is sexually repressed compared to other countries. I'm not speaking of third world countries where the mere mention of sex is taboo, I'm speaking of modern industrial societies similar to our, like Great Britain, Germany, France and other European Nations.
The history of sex toys in America
We tried tracing the term "marital aid" back as far as we could and we found reference to it in the 1930's through 1950's. It appears that the term was coined around the 1930's and was considered a main stream synonym for sex toys for about the next 20 years.
This is a period of time in American history when sex outside of marriage was considered a sin, when the mere mention of homosexuality was taboo, and when many sexual acts that we take for granted today were illegal. Every state in the union had an anti-sodomy law on the books until 1960. In fact, it wasn't until November, 2003 that the United States Supreme Court reversed in a 6-3 decision a ruling from 1986 that states could punish homosexuals for what was termed "deviant sex".
"The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court's majority. "The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime." Now this is all well and good, but this was not always the prevailing view in the United States.
So in a climate of sexual repression people came up with the term marital aid as a reference to sex toys. It makes sense because the term legitimizes sex toys by connecting them to marriage. The term aid also implies that they are to be used as a way to help the husband or wife with sexual dysfunction. I can almost see a Doctor writing a prescription for a marital aid to help a man with his erection problem, or to help a woman with her inability to achieve an orgasm.
I don't know if this is actually the case, but the term marital aid certainly does not evoke thoughts of wild sex among lovers while using a vibrator, a young man experimenting with a masturbation sleeve, or a fun time with your boyfriend or girlfriend. The term is very clinical and dry, and evokes no emotional response at all. The term marital aid takes all the fun out of sex toys. Yuck!
I'm not sure why the term still survives. It could be a combination of things. Perhaps there are still segments of our society who feel comfortable talking about marital aids and not sex toys. Or it could be that old habits die hard. I don't hear the term used often, and I suspect it will fall into oblivion within the next 10 to 20 years, along with terms like sodomy, frotter and onanism.
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