I remember a few years back attending a meeting and hearing sex therapist and media figure, Sue Johanson give a talk on sexuality. At one point, she had us in stitches by saying, “Surveys show that 97% of men reported that they have masturbated at some time in their life and the other three per cent are LIARS” (O.K., not an original joke but her delivery was superb). On the list of topics that are guaranteed to make an audience squirm, masturbation must be close to the top. The very word makes people uncomfortable and has led to a long list of often-bizarre euphemisms ranging from “abusing the usual suspect“to “zipper surfing” (I’ve always been partial to “choking the chicken” myself).
The history of masturbation is long and colourful with artistic portrayals dating back to Ancient Egypt and Sumeria. I won't even try to get into the different religious views on masturbation over time (along with homosexuality, contraception, adultery and other forms of non-procreative sex, masturbation was routinely denounced as a mortal sin), although Judeo-Christian teachings have strongly influenced philosophical and medical opinions on the subject.
The earliest medical treatises on masturbation referred to it as "onanism" after the Biblical story of Onan who incurred God's wrath by "spilling his seed". The fact that the practice described in Genesis was closer to coitus interruptus than masturbation failed to prevent the term's widespread use (then again, the people of Sodom probably didn't actually practice sodomy either).
It was in 1716 when a pamphlet titled Onania was anonymously published in England. Denouncing the heinous sin of "self-pollution", the pamphlet provided a long list of medical complaints that would afflict abusers including epilepsy, venereal disease, and impotence. Swiss physician Samuel-August Tissot followed up with his own work, L' Onanisme, in 1760 in which he maintained that abnormal loss of semen would lead to a host of problems such as rheumatism, nervous disorders, headaches, and blurred vision (yes, this is where "Stop it or you'll go blind" originated).
Despite the absence of anything resembling empirical evidence, Tissot's pronouncements were echoed by numerous other medical authorities and the perception of masturbation as a debilitating illness continued well into the twentieth century. Philosophers,theologians, social thinkers and physicians alike weighed in on the evils of "self-abuse" and an estimated 60 per cent of all illnesses were linked to masturbation.
Various remedies were proposed
including mechanical restraints (chastity belts), physical discipline,
and circumcision.
Between 1856 and 1932 alone, the U.S. Patent
Office gave out 33 patents for "anti-masturbation devices". Some of
the more incredible inventions included a "spermatorrhea bandage" to
restrain the penis at night and avoid erections, spike-lined penis
rings, and "the Cage", a metal cage to be placed around a boy's
genitala.
While Havelock Ellis and other early researchers into sexology attempted to reverse the negative stigma associated with masturbation, the entrenched attitudes persisted. A popular text on sexology by William Walling published in 1904 railed against masturbation as a "shameful and criminal act" that was "the most frequent, as well as the most fatal, of all vices". Second only to "libertinism" (whatever that is), "it is from the age of fourteen to twenty that its ravages are most frequent and most deplorable."
Signs identifying the frequent masturbator include: "downcast, averted glance, and the disposition to solitude. Prominent characteristics are loss of memory, aversion, indifference to legitimate pleasure and sports, mental abstractions, and morose disposition". The consequences of persistent masturbation are given to be severe. "Those who persist will surely die the most horrible of all deaths." He also describes "youths who stood high in their classes who suddenly, without obvious cause, became stupid as dunces, or losing their vivacity, seemed to fail rapidly in intelligence and to disappoint the high hopes which had been entertained of them" due to masturbation.
If anything, Walling was even more negative regarding female masturbation (after first reassuring his readers that such a thing did indeed exist). Signs of such "degradation" occurring include: madness or melancholy, solitude or indifference, an aversion to legitimate pleasures, vaginal inflammation, and "nymphomania". Parents and health professionals were warned to stay vigilant and to instruct girls in the destructive nature of masturbation and its "horrible consequences".
Later sexologists including Alfred Kinsey,William Masters and Virginia Johnson have managed to remove much of the medical stigma surrounding masturbation but the taboo remains. It was as recently as 1994 when Jocelyn Elders, then Surgeon-General of the United States, was fired from that position for, among other things, daring to suggest that masturbation was a normal aspect of sexuality. Unfortunately, the shame and guilt that many adolescents are made to feel over being caught "playing with themselves" is likely to continue.
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