"A dirty book is rarely dusty."
Ancient Times
Throughout time, we've found various ways in which to explore and exhibit our sexual sides. Primal man created cave paintings, and their erotic art can still be found throughout the world to this day. The Romans, millenia ago, created plays and sculptures. Verse, stories, and novels were added along with more modern paintings, as the centuries went on. In today's time, we've added magazines and movies depicting our erotic fantasies and enjoyments. All these advances in our erotic evolution have mirrored our evolution as a species.
Between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago, ancient man, throughout the world, would use red iron oxide and various berry pigments to decorate caves and the various structures they lived in. Many of the drawings they created showed scenes of their daily lives. There were paintings of hunts, animals, and battles. Along with these more mundane scenes, were more erotic and sexual depictions. In most of these paintings, women were shown with large breasts, curvy thighs, and rounded stomachs. The men were often shown with a highly enlarged phallus. The explicit enlargement of sexual organs on both sexes made it quiet clear that the images were created for erotic enjoyment.
Moving ahead in time to just 2,000 years ago, one finds the world full of sculptures and mosaics. Throughout the Roman Empire, India, and ancient Asian areas, erotic art can be commonly found. Artists wanting to explore their sexual natures created more realistic depictions. Men were shown in full nudity, their bodies rigid and well muscled. Women were shown with smaller stomachs and engaged in more blatant acts of sexual intercourse. The famous Kama Sutra was sketched into stone in fine detail, bodies intertwined intimately.
Along with these more intimate and realistic acts being shown, the sexual couplings had changed. Men were beginning to be shown in sexual congress with other men. Women were shown engaging in acts with both sexes. Orgies of various sexes and positions were depicted explicitly. It was perhaps the first time homo-eroticism had been shown so publicly or widely.
Medieval Age Eroticism
From ancient times to the medieval age, eroticism took a bit of downturn. With the spread of Christianity, more rules were instituted, regarding sexuality and its depiction. No longer were men and women shown bare, and homo-erotics were shunned. The rules had changed, but sexuality was still a vital human need. Troubadours and bards still sang of courtly love, and of maidens meeting their lovers behind their husband's backs. Paintings were becoming more popular too, some showing rather full codpieces.
During this time, the repression of women's sexuality progressed with the use of chasity belts, harsh punishments for adultery, and forced marriages. Women's sexuality wouldn't be repressed completely though. By the Renaissance, a little phallic shaped friend we now know as the 'dildo' was becoming popular. These delightful little gadgets were often imported from Italy where the Sistine Chapel's naked frescoes, and Michelangelo's David was being carved into stone. Their popularity was described by one writer of the age:
"You ladies all of merry England
Who have been to kiss the Duchess' hand,
Pray, did you not lately observe in the show
A noble Italian called Signor Dildo? ...
A rabble of pricks who were welcomed before,
Now finding the porter denied them the door,
Maliciously waited his coming below
And inhumanly fell on Signor Dildo ..."
1700's to 1900's
After the Renaissance age, came the art and literature of the Rocco era. The paintings again showed naked forms and rounded bodies behaving in joyful and suggestive poses. Literature also spread more widely in an erotic turn, which could be attributed to the increase in the number of people who could read and write by this time. Shakespeare's sonnets were versed forms of nearly pure eroticism that almost all citizens of the age were familiar with. Marquis de Sade had released his 'Justine,' depicting a different view of fetishes and sexual behavior that is still popular today.
Modern Era Erotics
From the 1900's to today, erotic literature and art has become more bold and widespread. With the introduction of the photograph and film, we've been able to add even more forms of eroticism. We now have mass produced books, and short stories available, and easily attainable. As a species, our ideals of what's sexually acceptable is now less ruled by the ideals of the past especially once more open homo-eroticism was introduced, along with orgies, and multiple partners.
It could be argued that the 1930's brought a fresh wave of freedoms, in allowing women to wear shorter skirts, and have freer courtships. Many young women began posing to support troops in Europe and around the world, during the World Wars. Short films showing interactions of a sexual nature were also being created. In 1979 Ron Jeremy, the iconic porn star, shot Olympic Fever. Today he is perhaps one of the best known names, and phallus owner, the world over.
Magazines, erotic comic books, and anime-type pornography known as Hentai, are also becoming common. In 1953 HMH Publishing Co., was founded and owned by Hugh Hefner, who created Playboy Enterprises in Chicago, Illinois. Today it's one of the most widely known and circulated adult oriented publications throughout the world. Comic books and graphic novels come in all forms and focus on all fetishes and erotic interests. Hentai has several genres specifying various sexual couplings.
Along with photography, film, and various magazine type forms of erotic literature, came romance novels. The most popular of these to date, many would say, is 'Fifty Shades of Grey,' the erotic novel that renewed our interest in fetishism. Most anyone can write or enjoy an erotic-romantic novel, whether short or long. Again they can come in many genres, and even include homo-erotic story-lines.
The popularity and widespread appeal of sexual media has also been expanded through the internet and social forums. You can find nearly any form of erotic art and literature online today. With so many ways to express our sexual interests and erotic fantasies, it's no wonder we've evolved to be so open in our sexual natures. Who knows where this evolution will take us next? We can never be sure, but one thing is for certain; both our interest in sex, and in sharing it with others, will never fully dissipate.