Today, the strangely-elongated bell shape of a condom is instantly recognizable. Condoms are the most-used sexual devices in the world, and in studies of sexuality and sex practices the vast majority of people report being familiar with condoms or have used one recently. The standard modern condom is made from latex and is used to prevent pregnancy (with 98% efficacy if used correctly) and to act as a protection against most STDs. Polyurethane and lamb intestine condoms also exist for people allergic to latex or looking for a different experience, though the latter is not an effective barrier against STDs.
Unfortunately, we have not always been blessed with easily-accessible and affordable condoms, and the history of condoms as a barrier device is a history spotted with many strange inventions, failures, and, well, babies. The first attempt to design an effective condom is at least 2200 years ago, as a condom made out of gold and silver was dug up in what is now Turkey.
Additionally, there is some research to suggest that use of oiled paper, leather or tortoiseshell condoms were common in China and Japan. But the real history of condoms kicks off in the late 1400s when the French army invaded what is now Italy and came face to face (or genitals to genitals) with the massive syphilis epidemic that was just beginning to kick off there. The returning troops spread the disease across Europe and it has haunted us since then (but is much more treatable now). Condoms as we know them, really begin their history in the 1500s, when Italian doctor Gabriele Falloppio invented a condom made of linen and tied onto the penis with a piece of string.
You can imagine how unfortunately these would have felt for both the wearer and the person it was being used on. Regardless, Falloppio claimed that he had run experiments on over a thousand men and none of them had caught the disease. While it is unlikely that Falloppio’s experiment holds up to modern science, it did introduce the idea and use of condoms to the common man. Over the course of the next hundred years, they spread across Europe and are found in more and more places. A number of diary writers, calling them “raincoats” “English riding coats” or “French letters,” complained that they were really uncomfortable and they didn’t like using them. Between the 1700s and the 1800s, however, a number of groups, like the Catholic Church, Protestant reformers, and early doctors came out against the use of condoms as contraceptives. Part of this hysteria was a new emphasis on having sex over the perceived dangers of masturbation, but it gave condoms the slightly-shady and bad reputation that they still somewhat carry today.
But, by 1850, it was too late: the cat was out of the bag—or the condom was out of the package—and the invention of rubber and then latex condoms made it affordable for every man to get his hands on a package of condoms. Furthermore, the fear of soldiers in World War 1 catching syphilis or other diseases made governments begin to get in on the prevention game. By 1918 it became legal to buy latex condoms from pharmacies or doctors, and by WWII anyone could get a condom from newly-invented vending machines. By the 1950s and ’60s, condoms were available over the counters in stores, no longer hidden. The last remaining state laws and regulations against condoms collapsed in the face of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, and by the ’90s (only 20 years ago!) you could finally purchase condoms just about anywhere and the stigma against them was beginning to disappear.