Masturbation

In this lecture, people in the group seemed a little apprehensive about discussing masturbation. I think this showed that the topic is still not (even in the 21st century) one that is mentioned often and openly talked about. This is interesting because generally, people feel far less inhibted when talking about sex. I wondered why that is, when masturbation is such a natural and widely practised activity.

For a task in pairs, we had to decide out of a set of statements, which were made by men and which were made by women. They were quite direct and open statements, and all but one were made by women. I was surprised at how wrong our guesses were. The activity highlighted the narrow-mindedness of our generation's attitude towards masturbation. We believe men to be more open and direct about such matters.

The history of masturbation and the way people (doctors etc) tried to stop their patients masturbating are quite disturbing, even barbaric. Most methods of stopping masturbation were extremely cruel and in my opinion, unecessary.

Masturbation is down to personal choice. It does not harm anyone and is not illegal and so should not have been/ should not be condemned. Masturbation is an entirely natural act that begins in early infancy. Why is sex a topic that is so easily discussed and culturally portrayed in our society, yet masturbation is considered a taboo subject people are scared to talk about?
For an interesting look into the history of masturbation, go to http://www.afraidtoask.com/masturbate/History.htm