While masturbation can involve another person, most of us think of it as a very private act. According to some health care providers masturbation allows a healthy way to express & explore your sexuality and to release sexual tension without all the associated risks of sexual intercourse. Health professionals generally agree that this private touching is a natural, normal mode of self-exploration and sexual expression. Unfortunately, after the excitement of the moment has passed, many people find themselves filled with guilty and or shame.

Why all this guilt and shame? Actually, from American History.

A little bit of American History:

Our attitudes about masturbation have deep roots for sure. Around the turn-of-the-century, some adults were so against masturbation that they forced their daughters to wear gloves made of a steel-wool-like material (like Brillo pads) at night and to put a powder on their genitals that made them painful to touch. They made their sons wear metal chastity belts at night that made it painful to have an erection. During the 1820s male masturbation was prevented by piecing the foreskin with a wire and soldering the ends together. Boys and girls were discouraged from masturbation by the threat of blindness, madness and illness. Of course, all of these are not true.

The subject of masturbation was taboo years before the United States was created. All kinds of chastity belts and other devices were used to prevent masturbation, probably as far back in history as you can go. This will vary from culture to culture.

The Truth?

Most surveys suggest that approximately 94% of teenage males "admitted" that they masturbated and about 70% of teen females "admitted" to this also. It’s always hard to establish absolute truth in any survey on sexuality and sexual behavior, since they are influenced so much by what people think is "normal". It is important to note the word "admitted" in the results of these surveys. Doesn't that word imply something shameful about the act of masturbating? We think so. This leads us to believe that we are still suffering from the residual Victorian morals when boys and girls were discouraged from masturbating.

Teaching Masturbation -- you asked?
Yes, Believe it or Not!

In the 1970's and 1980's, a woman named Betty Dodson,Ph.D., achieved much fame from her approach to masturbation. She actually held classes for women to teach them how to masturbate. She thought that in order for women to overcome certain degrees of repression that she believed were instilled by the church, women needed to learn how to "celebrate" their bodies. She made the point that masturbation needed to be celebrated, and not allowed to create guilt. She admitted that overcoming guilt was very difficult -- for men & women, especially when the guilt was instilled by the voice of their mothers at an early age. Mother's told children not to touch themselves "down there" and wow, what an embarrassment if the child did that in public!

For many people the consequence of our mothers' or fathers' difficulty with our innocent sexuality when we were toddlers and infants may be the reason that the experience and enjoyment of our own bodies is taken away from us, or we are still allowed (made) to feel ashamed in some way when we feel pleasure from exploring our own bodies.

Even More Taboo...

In 1994 Dr. Jocelyn Elders - the first woman appointed to the position of U.S. Surgeon General lost her job as Surgeon General because she dared to say that masturbation should actually be taught in schools. We think her mistake was when she said, "It's practicing for sex" . She never implied that a method of masturbation be taught... or did she?

Masturbation Myths -- There Are Lots More of Course.