: Minnesota Discussion : By definition masturbation

Portia Eden See my TER Reviews 1052 reads

posted 11 years ago

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You may be surprised to find out that May is National Masturbation Month!

The concept was started in May 1995 by Good Vibrations, the first sex-positive and women-friendly sex-toy shop in California. The focus was to raise awareness and promote masturbation as a healthy, safe and natural way to express one's sexuality, thereby removing the shame and stigma. The move was in response to the president at the time, Bill Clinton, firing the then surgeon-general Jocelyn Elders following a speech she gave at the 1994 United Nations World AIDS Day.

Elders was asked by an audience member about masturbation as a way of discouraging risky sexual activity among young people. She responded "I think it is something that is part of human sexuality and a part of something that perhaps should be taught". As a result she was forced to resign from government. The people at Good Vibrations were astounded - it was one of the most sensible things they ever heard a government official say and she lost her job and also her reputation!

Since then, the Good Vibrations group has used the event as a public health education device and strategy for safer sex and alternative safe methods of sexual expression. In 1999 the Masturbate-a-thon was launched, an event where participants masturbated to raise money for charity and to increase public awareness and dispel the shame and taboos that still existed about self-pleasuring. It spread to other cities and has become a worldwide event now.

Masturbation is the foundation for human sexuality, for both men and women, but only a few of us admit doing it or even discuss it because it's considered a taboo subject. This is a real pity because it's not generally known how healthy masturbation is and the many benefits it may provide, as explained in this blog I wrote a while ago.

Almost everyone self-pleasures, but for men it's easier because their genitals are visible from an early age. Young men can use masturbation as a way to learn how to control their ejaculations.

Today there are still girls and women who have never seen their genitals and are not always aware the clitoris needs direct stimulation to achieve an orgasm. (portia's note..... WHAT???? REALLY????) I keep telling my clients that masturbation is a great way to explore and learn about their bodies. When you know your likes and sexual responses, you can show your partner how to give you an orgasm.

There are also some interesting misunderstandings. Some people believe that when you are in a relationship you don't need to masturbate anymore – others see it as cheating, but nothing is further from the truth.

Given the negative messages children often receive about touching themselves while growing up; it's understandable they may retain elements of shame and embarrassment which can affect their sexuality for the rest of their lives.

Since the sexual revolution in the mid-1970s attitudes to masturbation have changed, but the stigma is still persistent. Just Google the word and one of the first results it returns is "masturbation is a sin".

In 1992 Seinfeld aired the controversial episode The Contest. George had been caught "in the act" by his mother, and his friends Jerry, Elaine and Kramer discuss the incident over lunch. They decide to have a contest about who can last the longest without - as George puts it - "you know"! The word masturbation was not mentioned at all, as you can see in this YouTube video, but the episode was one of the most popular ever.

Things have changed slowly, but there was still more concern about showing a female masturbation scene than a violent rape scene in Reign, a teen TV drama series about Mary Queen of Scots. These days society is very comfortable with women's bodies being sexualised, but not with women being shown to be sexual.

This is a lovely video shot by Indian YouTube channel Nisheeth TV, which interviewed young women in Delhi about their attitudes to masturbation. Finding the women wasn't easy as many were too shy and considered it taboo. But the women who did were very open-minded and spoke freely about the topic.

The concept behind this video was to persuade the public to change their attitudes about masturbation, which is not considered a sin in Indian culture and therefore nothing to be ashamed of. In any case, India is the country where the Kama Sutra originated, the most ancient book on the pleasures of sensual living