The etymology of the word masturbate means to defile with the hand or to commit self abuse.

Therefore, it is much more sex-positive to refer to masturbation these days as solo play, self pleasure or playing with oneself.

Even though many of us in the Western world live in a progressively sex-positive culture, masturbation still has a deeply rooted history as being shameful—especially for women.

In the 19th century when women were suffering from hysteria (aka sexual frustration) the prescription was to have the doctor stimulate them to orgasm. Which of course wasn’t even termed orgasm because women were supposedly unable to climax like their male counterparts.

Given how unsuccessful and primitive Western medical treatments were in the 19th century, this masturbatory treatment for hysterical women was quite the success with the ladies. Sadly, their male physicians hands really took a beating causing those poor medical men to suffer greatly (eye roll) from hand fatigue.

Thankfully the vibrator came along with the invention of electricity curing the medical doctors’ carpal tunnel syndrome and the women’s need for unnecessary visits to their doctors. They could now stay home with their “personal massager.” (That is until nudies came along, using these massagers in porn and publicly outing the personal massager, making it socially unacceptable. Sigh)

Today, solo play for women is still less socially acceptable, promoted and talked about despite the numerous health benefits for both men and women. It’s especially important for developing young girls to feel just as comfortable with self exploration as their male adolescent counter parts.

When considering the commonly used phrase, “Men give love for sex and women give sex for love,” adolescent girls should be more encouraged to have an outlet in their sexual self exploration, so they are less likely to make that trade.

Socially acceptable solo play will also give adolescent girls sexual confidence and education about their developing bodies as well as lowering their risk of teenage pregnancy and STDs.

With a few strokes of the pearl, or jerks of the gherkin we have the power to bring education, achieve sexual ecstasy, relieve depression, ward off certain types of genital cancer, relieve period cramps and prevent UTIs, prevent erectile dysfunction, increase our libidos, increase fertility and helps us to get great night’s sleep! Not exactly self abuse, now is it?

Say yes! yes! yes! to masturbation…er…I mean solo play for both women and men.

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Relephant read:

How I Found Self-Love through Masturbation and Orgasmic Meditation. {Adult}

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Author: Heather Dawn

Editor: Khara-Jade Warren

Image: AnEternalGoldenBraid/ Flickr

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