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FEATURE
Hands-On Taboo
Myths, misconceptions and a bit of the history of masturbation
By Kyle Gray editor@kansan.com
The more I delved into the topic, the fewer people I could find who would talk to me about it. Professionals as well as students reacted in one of two ways: blush, giggle and decline, or sneer, scoff and reprimand me for asking such personal questions.
Still, I felt the benefits of getting the facts out about this supposedly dirty deed greatly outweighed the embarrassment of talking about it. There are so many myths, misconceptions and medical marvels related to masturbation that it felt sillier not to talk about it.
The negative views toward those who masturbate also seem to have existed just as long as the act itself. While
Egyptians attributed the forming of their lands to their gods masturbating, the Egyptian Book of the Dead included masturbation on a list of acts man should avoid in order to live a longer life. Other acts that made the list included stealing food, having sex with a married woman, fornication and eavesdropping.
Ancient Greeks and Romans were more accepting of the act, but also saw it as the inferior form of fornication and made a joke of it in their literature and in everyday society. The fourth-century cynic Diogenes would masturbate in public, claiming that it was simply the natural consequence of an erection.
Early Judeo-Christian belief held that the act of masturbation made man unclean, but masturbation was excusable if you cleaned yourself afterward. The centuries surrounding the birth of Jesus, however, wrought many schools of thought that would begin the negative view of any sexual act for any purpose other than procreation.
On top of this, the Greek Hippocrates and Roman Galen began to associate excessive sexual activity with medical problems. They marked masturbation as an activity that led to aging, venereal disease and insanity. They also believed that the testosterone that changed boy to man was the semen itself, and they therefore discouraged boys from masturbating by saying it would bar them from becoming men.
Myth #2:Will I Go Blind?
Most masturbation myths center on the hazards of masturbation. If I masturbate too much I'll go blind, get hairy palms, become depressed, sterile, mess something up or begin to lose my sex drive.
Chronic masturbators, rest easy: None of these is true.
The only biological problems caused by masturbation are chafing, irritation and physiological strain.
When looking at the hazards of masturbation, the question should be "How?" rather than "How much?" The problem that has sent most people to the hospital is what they insert inside them, or what men insert their penises into.
I spoke to one doctor who told me the story of a woman who had reported problems of odor and discoloration. After an examination, a large chunk of summer sausage was found in the upper area of her vagina, lodged a whole two weeks after she had used
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September 4,2008