Masturbation is one of the delights of being a human. Unfortunately, in today's modern society, masturbation is not always thought of or spoken of in good ways, and sometimes it's difficult for people to get good information about masturbation and how to get the most out of it. Masturbation is not something that is a sin, but something that should be celebrated as a way to please ourselves, and also as one of the safest ways to have sex. Be responsible, use your head, use your hand, use protection.

Sheesh, can't anyone other than old fuddy-duddy Webster 1913 node up anything negative about "onanism"?

I read in a Catholic catechism somewhere that masturbation is a sin because it is a "misuse of the sexual power". I wish I had sexual powers.

Masturbation has been attributed with causing insanity, hairy palms, and the wrath of God. Most of these claims have been disproven. Actually, in Sex for Dummies (belongs to a friend, honest) Dr. Ruth pretty much debunks everything nasty anyone ever said about it and invites you to do it all you like so long as you don't totally ruin your social life.

masturbation: sexuoerotic genital self-stimulation by pressure or touch, self-stimulation, usually though not necessarily climaxing in orgasm [from Latin, manus, hand + st[u]parare, to deflower, ravish, fornicate, or to engage in adultery, incest, or rape]. From its Latin derivation, the literal meaning of masturbation is to use the genitalia to ravish or rape the hand. etymologically, hand-rape, the manual practice of erotic self-stimulation, formerly stigmatized as a crime against nature. Today it is considered normal and healthy and is not limited to either the hands or the self. It includes digital stimulation of the genitalia of a partner as well as of oneself. See also secret vice; autoeroticism.

Dictionary of Sexology Project: Main Index

A friend of mine once told me during his freshman year at umass (6 years ago), that there was a masturbation club. The supposed advertisement was:

"Join the masturbation club. C'mon, you know you are already a member"

If that is not advertising genius, i don't know what is.

Some interesting figures I'm going to rehash from a site I read:

There are about 6 billion people in the world. About half are female. Five out of seven are of an age where they are likely to masturbate. Kinsey says 60% of women masturbate. Surveys indicate that, of the women who do masturbate, they average one or more times a week and an average masturbatory session lasts about 4 minutes.*

So, in any average 4 minute period,

6 x 10^9 x 0.5 x 5/7 x 0.60 x 1/(7x24x60) (per minute) x 4

Equals ... roughly half a million (500,000).

So, at any one time, about 500,000 women are masturbating at the same time with you!

This also means that, when you orgasm from masturbation, you are doing it in synchrony (during the same second) with about 20,000 women ...

Which means, if you are male, that there's a lot of lonely women out there, and, if you're female, that you are not alone ... not by a long shot.


* - One big assumption is that the population of the world is distributed evenly (which it isn't). The biggest assumptions would be in the frequency of masturbation and the average length of one session. However, the assumptions don't sound like they would be too far off reality anyway - and if so, not by more than an order of magnitude or two, which still means you are never alone ...

I guess a similar calculation could be done for males, but the surveys (Cosmopolitan, Kinsey, The Hite Report, etc.) have been more thorough on females...

The reason it was believed that masturbation causes insanity is because during the dark ages, the theory was that a human being had 4 different humours (fluids) within them: blood, yellow bile, phlegm (which was believed to be the same as brain fluid), and black bile.

These had to have the right mix and temperature for a person to function correctly (this is also why temperament is etymologically derived from temperature. Many names for different moods are derived from temperatures/humours).

Hence, if you masturbated, you messed up the mix and could therefore go insane. This is also why sneezing was bad, as you lost some of your brain-fluid.

See also: The Four Humours.

Audited October 6, 2001

Why wanking is not a sin.


1. Everybody wanks (Not a very good motivation, I know)

2. Wanking feels good and you can´t hurt anyone while wanking (ecxept maybe your Catholic grandmothers feelings if she catches you in action)

3. When you wank you disarm dangerous (and sinful) urges to rape someone or urges to preform other sexual crimes, easily going under the category of sin.

4. Wanking disarms lust and sexual fantasies which are not very destructive (still considered as sin by Jesus) but gives you a hard time to concentrate on something more important than sliding your dick into somebody. Also saving you from time consuming fantasies that could make you loose contact with reality and in the longer run make you mad.

5. Believing that wanking is a sin will make you feel guilty quite often and trying to force yourself into a self-celibacy will drive you mad. And when you have become mad you will probably preform a lot of selfish destructive sins.

Some people claim that good old Jesus taught that wanking is wrong. He didn´t. Jesus taught that it´s wrong to fuck around and that self-righteous people who gladly send others into damnation while they themselves nurture sexual fantasies (and wank) should think twice before judging someone and to let go of their hypocrisy, their image based on superficial religous works, see John 8:6-8 and Matthew 5:27-32. Another argument that´s used to explain why wanking is a sin is that Onan in the old testament let his semen water the ground instead of letting it save his dead brothers wife from shame and bad reputation plus denying his (dead) brother the joy of having children, see Genesis 38:8-10. Actually he was selfish and disobeyed an order from God (the same God who by definition is Love).

Some advices, that might be good to reflect on.

So my point is wank when you feel the urge to - it´s much holier than fantasizing all the time. I have found out that a good rate of wanking is once/twice a week. Seven to nine times a day is definately too much (such a rate would probably lead to burn damage on your knob). My recommendation is that you don´t fantasize about a real person as this could lead to psychologically wierd emotions. Another recommendation is to not wank in public places as that´s a crime in most countries and it´s not very nice to slip in the street because someone tried to inseminate it. Especially if you are a minister I would recommend you to make sure that you don´t wank anywhere else than in your own bathroom/bedroom. Try to use your brains to understand where and when it´s not appropriate to wank. Here are some exampels of places and ocations when it´s not very bright to start rubbing oneself: at funerals, praying, at work, on the bus, while taking a crap, while broadcasted on television etc..

Why wanking is a sin.

The bible clearly describes sexual activity as something God meant to take place in the relationship between a man and a woman, in marriage. Even the taught of practicing some kind of sexual activity with someone elses wife is described as sin by Jesus. And if the girl you fantasize about is not your wife she is always potentially someones bride-to-be and a potential sister in Christ. So when you let something else than your spouse trigger your sexual desires and don´t put them away right away, it´s always sinful. By this rationality sex with anyone else ecxept your own wife, can be regarded as sinful. This includes the fairies in your mind that you fantasize about while wanking (trough porn, fantasies etc.). This also suggests that solo sex (masturbation) is not a very godly activity in any sense.

At the end of the day you´r on your own anyway and have to choose what to believe is the truth. If you think you have the Holy Spirit power enough to gain sexual purity in this life, I bid you good luck! Remember tough that the imputed righteousness of Christ is the only righteousness sufficent in the eyes of God, and that is not attainable trough any techniques, it´ll be yours only trough surrender .

Mas`tur*ba"tion (?), n. [L. masturbatus, p. p. of masturbari to practice onanism: cf. F. masturbation.]

Onanism; self-pollution.

 

© Webster 1913.

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