Worse than sex? M is for May, and Masturbation Month

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1 May 2014, 3.21am BST

Workers of the world can have their International Labour Day, or Workers Day or whatever. But the month of May belongs to an equally fundamental dignity: masturbation.

The fact that a whole month is devoted to self-pleasure raises two important questions: who decides these things? And what are people meant to do over the 11 months from June to April?

On the latter, it seems that anyone can declare a day, a month or even a year be dedicated to a particular cause. The UN endorses some of these. Last year, 2013, for example was both the International Year of Water Cooperation and the International Year of Quinoa. Oh yes it was!

Perhaps I neednâ??t say it, but International Masturbation Month has not been recognised by the UN. Yet.

Like many ideas surrounding sex, Masturbation Month is American. Formerly â??National Masturbation Monthâ?, it did not require Republicans and Democrats working â??across the aisleâ? to enact a special law. It only took a unilateral declaration of self-service by Good Vibrations sex shop in response to the firing of US Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders.

Elders' dismissal followed comments at the UN World AIDS Day in 1994. Asked whether promoting masturbation might discourage school-age children from riskier sexual activity, Elders agreed, noting that children should be taught that masturbation is a natural part of human sexuality.

Conservatives, already outraged by her progressive views on abortion and drugs, construed her as saying masturbation should be taught in schools. An embattled President Clinton, whose own seed-spilling later sucked the life out of his own presidency, saw this as a step too far.

So, in Elders' honour, Good Vibrations says:

[INDENT][I]We started National Masturbation Month â?? now International Masturbation Month with people celebrating across the globe! â?? to raise awareness and to highlight the importance of masturbation for nearly everyone: itâ??s safe, itâ??s healthy, itâ??s free, itâ??s pleasurable and it helps people get to know their bodies and their sexual responses. Of all the kinds of sex people can have, masturbation is the most universal and important, yet few people talk about it freely â?? worse, many people still feel it is â??second bestâ? or problematic in some way. Masturbation Month lets us emphasise how great it is: itâ??s natural, common and fun![/I][/INDENT]

[B]Politics of the pull[/B]

The US political battle over masturbation that led to Elders' firing nearly two decades ago represents one minor shift in a centuries-old ideological tug-of-war over self pleasure.

The history of attitudes to masturbation makes fascinating reading, from the Egyptian god Atum who masturbated the universe into being and then, generously, continued to control the Nileâ??s flooding by his ejaculations, to the rather athletic how-to instructions provided in the Kama Sutra.

The Judeo-Christian tradition has usually not embraced, and occasionally condemned, the solitary vice. But things got seriously weird in the 18th century, when masturbation attracted the blame for all manner of evils and ailments. One early pamphlet, published anonymously, really says it all in the wonderfully descriptive title: Onania, or the Heinous Sin of self-Pollution, And All Its Frightful Consequences, In Both Sexes, Considered: With Spiritual and Physical Advice To Those Who Have Already Injured Themselves By This Abominable Practice.

Nineteenth century quacks such as Reverend Sylvester Graham lectured against the dire health consequences of â??venereal excessâ? and the corrupting evils of self pollution. His health advice looks, today, like common sense: exercise, bathing, brushing teeth, drinking clean water and a diet of mostly vegetables and whole grains.

Visionary as he was, he is remembered because the bland diet he promoted, and the whole-wheat Graham cracker he invented, were designed to dampen libido. Likewise, the equally odd Dr John Harvey Kellogg proclaimed: â??if illicit commerce of the sexes is a heinous sin, self-pollution is a crime doubly abominable.â? Masturbation is worse than sex? Not as good, maybe, but worse? Kelloggâ??s lasting contribution to suppressing libido was the insipid corn flake.

And it wasnâ??t only the self-abuser who was in line to suffer. In â??What a Young Woman Ought to Knowâ?, Mary Wood Allen councilled young ladies to consider the fate of their as-yet unborn offspring. Does this sound familiar?

[INDENT][I]The results of self-abuse are most disastrous. It destroys mental power and memory, it blotches the complexion, dulls the eye, takes away the strength, and may even cause insanity. It is a habit most difficult to overcome, and may not only last for years, but in its tendency be transmitted to oneâ??s children.[/I][/INDENT]

[B]Touching the enemy[/B]

All of this excitement proved baseless. Masturbation now seems, at least to the educated, to be the quintessential victimless crime. At least when practised alone or among consenting adults. And as long as the method of fantasy doesnâ??t impinge on anybody elseâ??s rights. Yet the subject still cleaves opinion in contemporary educated societies.

Consider the recent cringe-worthy campaign by Brigham Young University â?? Idaho that considered modern masturbation and porn use patterns alarming enough to erect a turgid war metaphor. The masturbators are personified by spent soldiers, left dying (and, it seems, tugging) on the battlefield by their fellows. Which of course invites the question of what the soldiers are masturbating against in this so-called â??Great Warâ??

Last May, Hugo Schwyzer made a very interesting proposal in The Atlantic of the controversy that still inheres to self-pleasure.

[INDENT][I]Tell me how you really feel about masturbation, and I can more or less predict how youâ??ll feel about the more frequently debated â??sex warâ? issues.[/I][/INDENT]

His point was that all the issues at stake in the â??sex warsâ?, by which I would include the ideological tussles over abortion, contraception, promiscuity, sexual autonomy, sex education, mens' and womens' work and roles, homosexuality, gay marriage and even the importance of gender, are polarised on the question of what sex is for. If you believe sex is exclusively about connecting intimately with one other person and, thereby, producing children, then you will tend to take the conservative positions on these issues. You will also tend to view masturbation as wrong, wasteful or even sinful.

On the other hand, â??delighting in something that, first and foremost, belongs to us as individualsâ? tends to be associated with more progressive attitudes about all of these issues. And what purer expression of sex belonging to individuals can be found than the art of self-pleasure?


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If you want to read the rest of the article follow this link:
[URL="http://theconversation.com/worse-than-sex-m-is-for-may-and-masturbation-month-26083"]http://theconversation.com/worse-than-sex-m-is-for-may-and-masturbation-month-26083[/URL]