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A 14th century pin displaying three phalli carrying a crowned vulva?!

Is it for real?

Yes, indeed, these cheap, mass produced badges were called pilgrim pins or sometimes carnival pins and were popular in the Middle Ages. There are many examples of both secular and sexually explicit badges. Scholars theorize that those featuring sex organs and other kinds of sexual humor symbolized a reversal of the “natural order” and reflected the kind of atmosphere prevalent at the carnival — a place that in the Medieval mind constituted a world “turned upside down.”

These badges were likely worn not only to ward off evil causing plague but also, perhaps, to enhance fertility. Some scholars have even speculated that wearing one of these badges was a sign that the wearer might be available for a sexual encounter.

Medieval expert, Malcolm Jones, author of The Secret Middle Ages, suggests that the pin featuring the vulva dressed as a pilgrim might have been a way of making a joke about the real reason why women went on pilgrimages in the first place — to get away from home and have some fun.

Many of these pins have been found near rivers – deposited there, perhaps, in thanksgiving for a safe passage. The erotic ones mostly date from the end of the fourteenth century or the beginning of the fifteenth century. The one featuring the vulva and her three companions was found in Bruges, Belgium.

Many of these types of badges have been found in the Netherlands, the riverbanks of the Seine in France as well as the Thames in London.