The history of anything is always longer than people believe. For example, the history of flight begins with not the Wright brothers’ airplane at Kitty Hawk but Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings and studies (and perhaps even earlier). The history of the Internet began not in the early 1990s but thirty years earlier with the development of the Arpanet.
We always suspected that the “History of the Condom” was long, but the infographic below shows that it is far longer than we had thought. It mentions a cave painting that was up to 15,000 years old that had a painting. It is possible that it is a misinterpretation–much like the famous face on Mars–but it is nevertheless fascinating.
Extremely fascinating is that the condom and its history seem to correspond with sexual activity. During the two decades of the 1960s and 1970s–a time of sexual freedom, openness and activity–there are several mentions in the infographic. However, during the two decades of the 1980s and 1990s–the time of sexual fear because of the prevalence of AIDS and HIV–there seemed to be fewer and less significant mentions.
One possible oversight was that “rubber” is a synonym for “condom”. This was mentioned in the “Late 1880” post, but not in the “Euphemisms” box at the bottom of the infographic. For the British, however, a “rubber” is the “eraser” at the end of a pencil, or independent of it. Regardless, Americans always find humour when a Brit asks to borrow a person’s “rubber”.
Likes: The “Other Condom Uses” was surprising and fascinating, also very detailed.
Dislikes: Too much text has been used, which makes it a little daunting to read.
Click to enlarge
courtesy: va-va-voom.com
