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Is Masturbation OK?


By: Scarleteen.com

The next time anyone tells you that only losers masturbate, or that they don't, and never would, bear this in mind: according to most studies and surveys, about 95% of adults have masturbated or continue to do so. Were many falsehoods and misconceptions about masturbation true, it would mean that 95 out of every 100 people would be blind, desperate psychopaths with hair on their palms and shrunken genitals.

I have yet, in my life, to even meet one person who meets that criteria.

Masturbation is not bad for you physically, sexually or emotionally -- unless it is something you simply do not WANT to be doing -- and can be, in fact, good for you. It has been almost twenty years since the American Medical Association declared masturbation a normal and healthy sexual activity, and even then, it was long overdue.

Who Masturbates?

Most people will recognize that a lot of men masturbate, but many do not acknowledge that just as many women do. However, that is yet another misconception. According to Susan Quilliam in her study, Women on Sex, 29.1 of women do so at least once weekly, only 1.8% masturbate without clitoral stimulation and 95% ALWAYS orgasm when masturbate (and in comparison, 77.3 can orgasm from oral sex, and 79.2 during intercourse, but cannot always). In her study, 95% of women she surveyed masturbated. For those of you who have asked me how to have an orgasm and have wondered why I said, "Masturbate!" now you know why. It's how most women and men learn how, and it's the best way to do so.

Won't it make me go blind?
  • Masturbation will not, and cannot make you go blind or give you poor eyesight. I cannot find the original source of this blatant untruth, but we can probably assume that it was based in the correlation between puberty and the general age at which those with poor eyesight find out they need glasses.
  • Masturbation will not, and cannot give you acne any more than any OTHER activity or phase of your life in which you have hormonal fluctuations might give you acne. In fact, almost any sexual activity improves your circulation by raising your heart rate, which is good for your skin and the rest of your body.
  • Masturbation will not, and cannot make the genitals shrink or grow, and a doctor cannot tell if someone has masturbated unless they arrive at the office with ejaculate on one hand and a vibrator in the other.
  • Masturbation will not, and cannot make hair grow on your palms. On the Planet of the Apes, it just might, but not here on Earth.
  • Masturbation will not, and cannot make men or women infertile, or decrease sperm or egg count. It also does not make anyone "lose" their virginity, not "spoil" them for intercourse or other sexual acts. People are not cartons of milk. We cannot spoil or be "ruined." We change and grow, and as long as we act like good people in good conscience, no act or person can make us otherwise.
  • Plenty of scholars and religious leaders agree, Judeo-Christian and otherwise, that masturbation is not a sin, for those whose religions include the concept of sin (and many do not). There is really nothing concrete in the Bible to support this idea; it does not say masturbation is a sin in anything but a very vague sense that is highly open to interpretation. In addition, in very few religions and traditions is it considered any sort of problem at all. There are, of course, exceptions. In some Islamic traditions, if fasting, masturbating will break a fast, and in some other cultures, like Indonesia, it is considered criminal. Bear in mind, though, that some of these beliefs are very archaic, and are not based on current scientific and medical knowledge, but became tradition when this practice (and many others) were not understood.