Friday, Aug 29, 2008
With the vast majority of Americans voting with their hands (or vibrators or shower massagers) in favor of masturbation, you might wonder what opponents of self-love have been doing since they encouraged Elders' resignation.
They've taken to the Web. A Google search on the word "masturbation" turned up 388,000 mentions, many unabashedly celebratory, but quite a few condemning. My favorite don't-do-it site is published by Americans for Purity, a group that does not identify itself with any address, phone number or About Us information. The URL suggests some connection to the U.S. Senate. Could this be true? Americans for Purity admits that 95 percent of Americans masturbate, then parrots the 19th century view that masturbation causes weakness, depression, forgetfulness, nearsightedness and crime. The site is so vituperatively over the top that I can't help thinking it's a joke. If it is, quite a few visitors take it seriously. Americans for Purity proudly publishes all the hate e-mail it has received.
Among organizations willing to identify themselves as opponents of masturbation, fundamentalist Christian groups are prominent. Basically, they view sex as moral only in the context of marriage. Masturbation is not husband-wife sex, so it's immoral, the sin of Onan, who wasted his seed and was struck dead for it.
With close to 400,000 Web sites -- and dozens of sex-education books and thousands of X-rated videos -- depicting or holding forth on masturbation, one might think that Americans would be well informed about one-handing it. But a zillion Web sites do not an open culture make. Questions about masturbation abound. I've seen them all during eight years of answering questions for the Playboy Advisor and Xandria.com, the sex toy company. In honor of National Masturbation Month (and with a tip of the hat to Dr. Elders), I humbly share the answers to the questions most frequently asked about solo sex.
Is masturbation harmful to physical health?
No. According to the Kinsey Institute, it causes no illnesses and does not "wear out" the genitals, change their sexual sensitivity or limit future ability to respond sexually. It does not change the genitals permanently in any way, neither enlarging nor shrinking the penis, nor altering the size, shape or color of the clitoris or vulva.
Both men's and women's genitals look fragile, but they are surprisingly tough and resilient little organs. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes perfect sense. The biological mission of life is to reproduce life. Evolution has endowed our reproductive organs, including the external genitals, with considerable hardiness to keep reproduction chugging along. It takes more than masturbation -- even frequent vigorous masturbation using unusual techniques -- to damage them.
The only time a man might be well advised not to masturbate for medical reasons is if he is subfertile and trying to conceive a child. In such cases, men are advised to forgo ejaculation for a few days before attempts at impregnation to build up the number of sperm in their semen.
The only time a woman might be well advised not to masturbate for medical reasons is if she is pregnant and has reason to be concerned about miscarriage or premature delivery -- orgasm might trigger labor. But for women with medically uncomplicated pregnancies, it's fine to masturbate, just as it's fine to enjoy partner sex.
Is masturbation harmful to mental health?
No, unless you've been indoctrinated that it's a sin, in which case you might experience anxiety. I hasten to mention that an excellent treatment for anxiety is ... guess what? No doubt you already know firsthand, as it were, that masturbation is calming. Many people say they do it as much for release of daily stress and tension as for specifically sexual gratification.
On the other hand, if you were raised in a faith that condemns masturbation, Michael Plaut, past president of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research, suggests that the physical gratification of solo sex might not be worth the anxiety generated by doing something you've been brought up to believe is sinful.
Can one masturbate too much?
There is no frequency that's inherently "too much." Plenty of folks masturbate daily, some even more frequently, while living happy, productive lives. The issue, according to licensed clinical sexologist Sandor Gardos, is not frequency but context. Ask yourself why you're masturbating. If you do it for personal communion, enjoyment and stress management, Gardos explains, there's nothing wrong with it. But if you find that masturbation interferes with things you need to accomplish -- notably work, school or maintaining relationship or family commitments -- then it might become too much of a good thing.
One reason many women enjoy vibrators is that they are timesavers. The intensity of the stimulation gets them off faster than using their hands, allowing them to masturbate frequently but not spend all day doing it. Men have a similar timesaving sex toy option -- vibrating plastic vaginas known as penis sleeves.
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