There are few strangers and more uncomfortable topics of conversation around the dinner table than masturbation. In the 1960s, intercourse became a valid and open subject of discourse. Soon after, and probably as a consequence, Westerners came to regard sex as an altogether healthy activity, as beneficial to the constitution as tennis or jogging.
The same cannot be said of masturbation. To this day, social attitudes toward sexual self-help remain umbilically linked to the theology and prejudices of the thirteenth century.
Chest-thumping males will praise the lothario who beds multiple women, but the compulsive ‘wanker’ is never someone you admire.
More toxic than locker room derision, however, is the Catholic Church’s attitude toward wanking, which borders on eternal damnation.
The Magisterium of the Church proclaims masturbation as serious a sin as gay sex in accordance with divine will and natural law.
Masturbation and Good Health
Yet there is nothing at all unnatural about pleasuring oneself. In fact, most adolescents quite naturally discover that their hands are by far the most stimulating toys at their disposal.
Perhaps even more interesting are the health benefits that the simple pleasure of masturbation might bring to the casual self-pleasurer.
1. Masturbation is good for your body.
From a sexual health point of view, masturbation is probably the safest of all sexual activities. There is no risk of pregnancy or transmission of sexually transmitted infections. There is no risk of disappointing a partner, so there is no performance anxiety.
With your heart beating fast and your imagination soaring, your brain releases dopamine and other chemicals and neurotransmitters to fuel you toward an orgasm. In both men and women, the muscle tensioning involved as sexual arousal increases acts to strengthen the cardiovascular system and the entire pelvic region.
The same burst of physical effort causes the brain to issue endorphins, which function as painkillers. Consequently, the natural analgesics help to ease any pain or discomfort associated with migraines, morning sickness in pregnant women, sciatica, and lower back pain.
In optimum amounts, cortisol – yet another steroid hormone the brain releases during masturbation – helps to improve the function of your immune system, too.
2. Masturbation prevents cancer.
Recently, scientists determined that, at least in a man’s older years, masturbation seems to have some preventative properties in relation to prostate cancer. The researchers found that men who ejaculate at least 21 times a month effectively lowered their chance of falling into the disease.
Women enjoy a similar benefit from pleasuring themselves. When a woman masturbates, her cervical opening flexes, allowing harmful bacteria to flow through. The Women’s Health Network has concluded that this cleansing process protects the body from cervical cancer and urinary tract infections.
3. Masturbation is good for your mind.
Within a couple of minutes of masturbation, the intricate choreography between imagination and vigorous physical activity causes the medulla to release adrenaline into the bloodstream. Researchers have associated higher levels of this hormone with increased levels of personal growth and a positive self-image.
The dopamine that propels you toward an orgasm also helps you to reconnect with yourself, leading to a better understanding of your own desires.
Oxytocin issuing from the hypothalamus meanwhile reduces anxiety even as it promotes relaxation, a better mood – and, later on, a more restful night’s sleep.
4. Masturbation is good for your relationship.
While we might view masturbation as an essentially solitary endeavor, it can also improve our ability to love another person. The act of pleasuring yourself is an act of discovering what you find sexually enjoyable, which in itself helps you become a better lover.
While exploring themselves through masturbation, women might discover new ways to achieve multiple orgasms. Men might learn to control their ejaculations and slow their timing.
Because mutual masturbation is only an arm’s length away, what each learns in the privacy of their respective minds is just as easily shared between them. From there, masturbation can function as a catalyst for building trust and even more mutual education between two lovers.
For instance, the sex toy industry produces all manner of devices specifically for people who have no partners. But who is to say that a couple can’t use these same toys to explore a whole new realm of sexual pleasure together?
Polishing the Banisters after Dinner
Still, no amount of new information about the happy benefits of masturbation has been able to shake our almost universal contempt for it.
To further compound our errors, the apparently negligible benefits of a healthy mind and body are often struck down with arguments against the evils of addiction.
Men might experience edema, which is the swelling of the penis if they masturbate too frequently. Women might lose some sensitivity in their clitoral region after excessive vibrator use.
You’ll find a great many more perfectly rational reasons not to masturbate if you go out of your way to find them. But can’t we say the same just about anything that is worth doing in life?
Nature is a flexible, unavoidable, and unscrupulous certainty – and it is precisely that quality that often confounds and confuses our rigorously ethical minds. Hence the hilarity that ensues when we try to apply our willfully narrow moral principles to something as natural as pleasuring oneself.
In the good humor and polite conversation of a dinner party, we might quickly feign a mocking – if not condescending – tone towards any discussion of masturbation.
But we will just as quickly play with ourselves the moment we get home.
