Everybody lend a hand! It's Masturbation Month!
Would you believe it? For several hundred years, people have actually believed that if they touched themselves in ways that felt really good, they were in danger of warts, blindness, insanity, and growing hair on their palms. Not to mention "a perceptible reduction of strength, of memory, and even of reason; blurred vision, all the nervous disorders, all types of gout and rheumatism, weakening of the organs of generation, blood in the urine, disturbance of the appetite, headaches, and a great number of other disorders." (Samuel-Auguste Tissot, L'Onanisme, 1760.)
That was scholarly medical opinion at the end of the eighteenth century. More than a hundred years later, another doctor wrote "This habit, when long and often indulged in defiance of reason and conscience, seems more than any other to acquire a mastery over its victim, and the nervous exaustion, which by its very nature it produces, makes him less and less able to resist it. Gradually the appearance, manner, and character become altered, and the typical signs of habitual masturbation are developed. The face becomes pale and pasty, and the eye lusterless. The man loses all spontaneity and cheerfulness, all manliness and self-reliance. He cannot look you in the face because he is haunted by the consciousness of a dirty secret which he must always conceal and always dreads that you may discover. He shuns society, and has no intimate friends, does not dare to marry, and becomes a timid, hypersensitive, self-centered hypochondriac." (Daniel Hack Tuke, A Dictionary of Psychological Medicine, 1892) Mmm, that's attractive!
A hundred years after that, in 1994, when the surgeon general of the United States commented, in passing, that maybe school curricula should mention that masturbation is safe and healthy, she was forced to resign. Opponents claimed she wanted schools to teach kids how to masturbate.
Even now, a lot of people believe that, if masturbation doesn't actually kill you, it surely leads to eternal damnation. Or, at the very least, anyone who has to masturbate is either a total loser or a perverted sex addict.
But you know it ain't so—don't you!
Masturbation's healthy, too. The latest research shows that sex is good for you in so many ways, and masturbation has its own special benefits.
Obviously, it relieves tension, sexual and otherwise. Orgasm stimulates the release of endorphins (brain chemicals that dull pain and produce a "runner's high"), and it can improve mood disorders. It can alleviate menstrual cramps and help maintain a healthy pH balance in the vagina, to combat yeast infections. For men, ejaculation has been connected to lower risk of prostate cancer.
If better bladder control, weight loss, and reduced risk of heart disease through orgasm aren't enough to entice you—and after all, a lot of us aren't very conscientious about our own health—consider that masturbation can make you a better lover. in 1995. Eleven years later, people all over the US and around the world will celebrate the ninth annual Masturbate-A-Thon, a unique philanthropic event, to raise funds for worthy community-based organizations that focus on women's health, safer sex, HIV education, and other sex-positive causes. masturbate-a-thon.com.))Simple—and it will feel soo good to know it's for a good cause!
So what are you waiting for? Let's get busy!
It encourages blood flow and strengthens the pubococcygeal (PC) muscle, too, for bigger, better orgasms. It's the best way to get to know your own body's sexual responses. (Some women achieve orgasm for the first time by masturbating.) That's something you can share with a partner to make sex way more satisfying for both of you. For that matter, masturbating with your lover can be a real revelation. ! No chance of unwanted pregnancy! No risk of sexually transmitted diseases! What more can you ask?
Wait! There's more
In honor of this miraculous gift of pleasure, the owners of the sex-toy store Good Vibrations (in San Francisco, California) started National Masturbation Month
The Masturbate-A-Thon is like a walk-a-thon, except you don't need to leave home and you won't get blisters on your feet. All you have to do (before the end of May) is get people to sponsor you for every minute you'll masturbate during the Masturbate-A-Thon on May 27, 2006. (You can get all the details at
In fact, nothing could be more natural. Critters throughout creation, from apes to zebras and all sorts in between, are known to fiddle. Dogs may hump anything that's handy, but other animals are downright creative, using hands, paws, feet, tails, flippers, and tongues (yes, on themselves), as well as any convenient surface within reach. Our own cousins, of course, are truly resourceful: monkeys and apes even make their own sex toys.