Masturbation Month: Busting the Myths
By – Saumya
‘Pleasure’ has always forced humankind to venture into the unknown. When combined with curiosity, it has made us develop various technologies, step into new lands and experiment with our food habits, meet new people and learn new languages. All the inventions and discoveries were possible because some of us were seeking pleasure, sometimes it was the ‘product’ and sometimes it was the driving force behind it. Nonetheless, we have taken an awful lot of time to learn about our bodies and the way it can provide us pleasure. We learnt late, we learnt from wrong sources and we let taboos and stereotypes determine how we should treat our bodies. Now seems the perfect time to unlearn, relearn and experiment with masturbation since we all are forced to stay indoors with our bodies and minimal amount of leisurely activities to do.
1. MASTURBATION IS A SIGN OF SEX ADDICTION
There is this generally held belief amongst people, especially those who haven’t received sex education adequately that masturbation means addiction to sexual activities. It is seen as an attribute of abnormal sexual drive which is entirely false. Masturbation is a totally normal sexual practice that one can indulge in to satisfy their sexual needs, however, proper hygiene and boundaries should be kept in mind while performing it.
2. MASTURBATION LEADS TO ILL HEALTH AND HAS NO BENEFIT AT ALL.
Another very common myth around masturbation is that it leads to ill-health, causes malnourishment if you overindulge in it and doesn’t have any health benefits which again is inexact. Masturbation doesn’t cause malnourishment, the only way it can harm you is when you treat it as an escaping mechanism or try to avoid other important things for it. If indulged in it in a balanced manner, it can cause health benefits like reduced stress, better sleep, fewer headaches and improved concentration.
3. IT IS NOT ETHICAL TO MASTURBATE WHEN IN A RELATIONSHIP
It is a generally held notion that if you are in a relationship means you have a partner to satisfy your sexual urges with, then it is unethical to masturbate. This myth has no valid ground as different couples have different boundaries with regards to sexual indulgence(s). Masturbation is a healthy sexual practice performed by individuals according to their needs and demands and at no level equals to infidelity.
4. WOMEN DON’T MASTURBATE
Masturbation is not determined or restricted by one’s sexual identity. Although there has been considerable advocacy on women being able to masturbate, it is still not normalised in our society. People still receive this as a shock and avoid discussing female masturbation. One needs to talk about it more often and educate in order to normalise it. It is certainly more complex than male masturbation and different for different bodies.
5. MASTURBATION IS NOT A SIGN OF ANY MENTAL ILLNESS
One of the many myths around masturbation is believing that it is a sign of mental trauma or self abuse. As mentioned earlier, it is a totally healthy sexual activity performed according to needs and desires of one. However, it can cause harm when treated as an escaping mechanism or the physical boundaries of person(s) involved are violated.
6. MASTURBATION DOESN’T LEAD TO BLINDNESS
One might often hear that excessive masturbation leads to loss of eyesight, either partially or completely which is entirely untrue. Masturbation doesn’t cause any kind of physical deformity in any way.
7. MASTURBATION CAN CAUSE PENIS TO SHRINK OR CAUSE INFERTILITY
Like many other circulating rumours around masturbation, this one is also entirely baseless. The size and growth of penis is not determined by your masturbation habits and it doesn’t lead to any sort of infertility. However, one is at risk of hurting the genitals if not learnt about masturbation before indulging in it.
The ever circling rumours and myths around masturbation makes it a complex subject to discuss. One needs to keep in mind that providing sexual pleasure to oneself is not a felony and completely normal behaviour but not without proper learning on it. The stereotypes and barriers around sexual discussion just makes the matter more complex and easier to ignore. There are many drawbacks of such a negative practice, not only it limits sex positivity in the society but also makes the unhealthy practices of sexual conduct easier to indulge in. In a larger context, it leads to grave societal problems such as non-consensual sexual indulgence, physical abuse to a partner, complete ignorance towards boundaries and consent.
These problems can be eradicated only if we as a society make an endeavour to make comprehensive sexual education accessible to all and normalise talking about it. In this way we can encounter rumours, diss them, educate more and more people about healthy sexual practices and combat grave sexual misconduct that are prevalent in our society.
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