How have perceptions of masturbation changed over the centuries? What does research reveal about the commonality of masturbation?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Self-stimulation of the genitals, or masturbation, was damned by theologians in the past as a weakness of the flesh and a sin against nature. But by the 1990s, not only was masturbation accepted, but it became the topic of television shows, such as a popular episode of Seinfeld in which there was a contest among the main characters to see who could refrain from masturbating the longest and remain the "master of [his or her] domain.

In the Janus Report on Sexual Behavior (1993 ), two-thirds of male respondents agreed with the survey statement, "Masturbation is a natural part of life and continues on in marriage." Using data from 18- to 20-year-old college males, another body of research discovered that 67 percent of those study participants had masturbated by age 15 (Leitenberg, Detzer, & Srebnik, 1993 ). Sex researcher Carolyn Halpern and her colleagues (2000 ), in their examination of adolescent males' willingness to report masturbation, similarly found that the majority of the study participants had engaged in solitary sexual practices. Janus and Janus (1993 ) found that 88 percent of married women reported that they masturbated. That women masturbate is not simply a function of today's more liberating practices for female sexuality.