Why am I blogging about masturbation? Because you’re asking that question.
Honestly, why shouldn’t I be blogging about masturbation? What is it about the sexual stimulation of one’s own genitals that makes it such an off-limits topic? Masturbation is a natural human method of obtaining pleasure, and a completely harmless one at that, unlike its STD-spreading, pregnancy-causing cousin sexual intercourse. Why, then, is sex is much more openly embraced by American culture than masturbation?
Many religious philosophies preach that the only point of sexual pleasure is to strengthen marriages and make babies, neither of which can be accomplished by masturbation. I can only hope that most Americans are not falling victim to such a viewpoint. While pleasure can sometimes be used to get something accomplished (wouldn’t it be great if we all loved our jobs?), there is no reason to turn free pleasure down when it doesn’t hurt anyone, which masturbation doesn’t. In fact, many people find that sexual pleasure has a positive impact on their lives—they are more productive, pleasanter, and happier after obtaining sexual pleasure, regardless of whether they obtained this pleasure from a spouse. Most people are unable to have sex with another person whenever they want, which is exactly what masturbation is for.
Perhaps people are ashamed that they masturbate or want to masturbate because they think such behavior indicates that they do not get enough sex, which lowers their self-esteem. In that case, most of America doesn’t get enough sex, because the average teenager masturbates about once a day. That statistic includes females, so don’t think that you shouldn’t masturbate just because you don’t have a penis.
But seriously, what does it matter how often other people masturbate? If you enjoy it, which you probably do, then go ahead and masturbate! Get your sexual energy out when you need to, so you focus on the things that really matter in your life. I’m going to make a bold assertion that a lot of the problems in the world are a result of people not getting enough masturbation. Maybe we wouldn’t kill each other all the time if we just rubbed our genitals instead.
But I’m not really trying to preach masturbation, because most people already do. What I am trying to communicate is that there’s no need to be ashamed of masturbation, because such shame may counteract the uplifting effects of masturbation. Masturbation may generally be a private activity, but so is reading, eating, and exercising. We talk about those things, right? Let’s bring masturbation out into the open and pride ourselves with it.
Leave your comments and questions about anything I’ve said here—I promise I’ll respond. And regardless of whether you agree or disagree, I’d be happy to receive some votes for this rant.