The condom, also called sheath, rubber or French letter (and in France chapeau anglais – English hat), works simply by catching the semen so that it doesn’t get into the vagina.
History of condoms
Condoms have a colourful history. Penile sheaths have been worn since the remote past, thousands of years before the discovery of rubber. These early sheaths were worn to protect the penis against frostbite, injury in battle and insect bites. They also served as magic charms, or were worn as a decoration and to distinguish men (by their colour and splendour of embroidery) according to their rank. In the sixteenth century, linen condoms were recommended in an attempt to prevent the spread of syphilis. Legend has it that Casanova employed 20 women to sew silk condoms for this purpose.
It was not until the eighteenth century that sheaths made from animal intestine were used to prevent pregnancy (Casanova also used these, asking his partners to tie them on with coloured ribbons!). When Dunlop discovered how to vulcanize rubber last century, rubber condoms began to be manufactured. The early rubbers were thick, hard to put on and uncomfortable to wear. Since 1930 thin condoms made from liquid latex have been produced.
In the days when the sale of contraceptives was banned, USA law also forbade them being sent through the mail (this is how the ‘plain brown wrapper’ originated) and required that their labels state that they were for the prevention of disease only. The association with prostitution, promiscuity, venereal disease and breaking the law gave condoms a rather squalid reputation, and made them the butt of sordid jokes and innuendo. They were loudly denounced by those who believed that sex should only be for the purpose of begetting children. These attitudes made people embarrassed about buying condoms. People also didn’t like using them. Both men and women felt that they cut down sensation – ‘like having a shower in your raincoat’ (before latex this was probably true), and putting a condom on an erect penis was too explicitly confronting for many couples. Rumours such as ‘there’s a dud in every packet’ and ‘it’s like playing Russian roulette’ did little to make people feel confident about their contraceptive efficacy.
Public health education to prevent the spread of the AIDS epidemic and other STDs has changed attitudes to condoms. They are now widely promoted as ‘good’ (though as this is mainly for their role in disease prevention, I wonder how it will affect their future as contraceptives) and they have come out from under the pharmacy counter. They can now be advertised (illegal in Australia until the 1970s) and are openly displayed for sale.
Some years ago my colleagues and I used to dream that if condoms were easier to buy, so many unplanned pregnancies and abortions could be prevented. Now you can pick them up at the supermarket with the weekly groceries: there they are at the check-out with the razor blades, matches and Lifesavers. They are discussed openly in print and broadcast media (previously unmentionable), and are promoted freely by vendors and health authorities (for example, the first government-supported ‘State Condom Week’ in South Australia in 1977 was aimed at reducing the spread of STD and requests for abortion. Health workers gave out information and samples in the streets of Adelaide – something that would have been unthinkable five years earlier). The first National Condom Day, featuring distribution of educational kits and free samples, was held in August 1993.
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