Early in the eighteenth century, visitors to the Tower of London could gaze upon a painted wooden statue of Henry VIII, the English king who’d died some two hundred years before. Royally robed, sceptre in hand, the likeness befitted Henry’s reputation for extravagance, right down to its lascivious secret mechanism: “If you press a spot on the floor with your feet,” one observer wrote, “you will see something surprising with regard to this figure, but I will not say more.
Good questions, both, but any study of the codpiece begins with simpler ones: Why did it exist at all, and why did men elect to wear it? Theories abound. The historian Grace Vicary has argued that codpieces were, in a sense, the P.P.E. of their day, born as a means of containing a disease—in this case syphilis, which was then sweeping through Europe.
Thus the codpiece, designed for discretion, became instead a rigid contrivance. Historians have compared it to “a permanent erection,” noting that it was “so voluminous it could serve as a pocket.” And indeed it did, offering convenient storage for one’s hankie or a stray orange, in addition to “ballads, bottles, napkins, pistols, hair, and even a looking glass,” as the scholar Will Fisher has written. With great size comes great decorative responsibility, and men of means rose to the occasion.
Too often, though, Glover reaches for that overripe fruit, as when he writes, “It seems you just can’t keep a good codpiece down.” When he exclaims that “only a mere letter” separates the French word for codpiece,—“that faux cod-phallus, crispy and hard on the surface yet so yielding at its center”—he seems guilty of the same “self-puffery” he mocks. “It was as normal to wear a codpiece,” he writes, “as it is to wear, say, a padded bra in our own day. And yet, and yet, we still wonder about it.
It was a Medieval form of false advertising. 🍄
KngHnryVIII
after reading it and where Glover says that this was actually marketed right now in fashion currently I just was curious because I’m thinking that maybe things have changed you know and I know that in the 1400s they change the equipment that they originally use to make them
jim73194352 Teddylegs61 purbrooktony Art71Rachael I know you all love the New Yorker.
'If I had balls, I'd be king,' said the queen.
I’m bummed to realize just now, there’s no gif here for the “he came a lot, didn’t he?” skid.
BotanicalShax
Because a lifted F-250 with a don’t tread on me sticker hadn’t been invented yet?
KngHnryVIII
They tell me the codpiece is making a comeback. (Among GOP campaign staffers tasked with chauffeuring mschlapp.)
pitchblacksteed
Eldridge Cleaver made an effort to bring the codpiece back in the early 70s after he left Algiers and before he surrendered to the FBI at JFK.
wietekevanzeil
Seriously, if you have to ask...
To avoid getting nutpunched, clearly.
dduane 'Elect'... I had to read that twice... The whole 'building them into armour' thing struck me as a terrifically bad idea ('look guys: a target').
Impromptu cricket was a thing back thing.
Duh....to make their package look big n hard.....they wore it to showcase their package...what dude wouldnt
Same reason women wear push up bras I suppose
To store fish?
It was because of this guy
In the Epic Twitter Battle between the 's Codpiece piece: posted 33 times, vs. TheEconomist/1843mag's 'sex lives' spreadsheets piece: posted 72 times, alas The New Yorker has fallen away behind. Come on, New Yorker, can't let the Brits run away with the game here.
Clearly, its purchase facilitated the age old inquiry, “is his bigger than mine?”
The Corvette of the Renaissance?
Answer to both: dick protection.
Auge IdaFunkhouser
Because they thought that Syphilis was transmittable by bumping into people and if they didn’t wear it they’d lose their job?
And why didnt women cinch them up tighter?
코난한테 그랬다고.. 진보와 떼거리짓는 우파.
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