The Taboo of Masturbation

Whilst most once tabooed topics have now been exonerated, for example homosexuality, masturbation still remains rarely mentioned and when it is, is often followed by the echo of giggles.

I had never known that masturbation was once considered a mental health issue, nor did I know of society’s battle to prevent such an act. In 1911 The Boy Scouts handbook warned the Scouts about masturbation, that if they were to masturbate they would end up in a mental asylum! Unfortunately I can not find the original document, but here is a web page which is easy to read and quite interesting and sorry about it not being a particularly good reference point, but hey, its interesting:

http://www.cosmogirl.com/lifeadvice/body-and-soul/lifestyle/love-yourself

On this site it also states that Cornflakes were introduced to prevent masturbation, as it was thought that by having a cold breakfast, it would make the individual less likely to be sexually aroused.

Also, in the 18th and 19th century a metal device was invented to prevent males masturbating. Below is a picture of this, I think this illustrates the degree to which people thought masturbation to be wrong.



Freud was a pioneer of psychology and most of his theories were based on or around sex. Freud’s theory of sexual development is that as we develop from babies we focus on what gives us pleasure. The first stage is oral, because a baby will explore things using its mouth, for example a rattle. The child learns that its genitals are a pleasure source and this usually occurs through being bathed. At age four to seven the child enters into the phallic stage and this is where the focus is on the genitals and masturbation is a common act. But just to let you know, at this stage girls get “penis envy”, yep that’s right girls, we are jealous that we do not have a penis, and we think that we have had it chopped off! So, although being a psychology student, I am quite pro-Freud, a lot of people on my course would not give these theories the time of day. There are other more interesting theories than this, although this is the most bizarre!

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/freud.html

I personally don’t get the big deal with this taboo, I really don’t! I must admit that my friends and I often discus this topic quite openly. Perhaps those suffering from society’s squeamishness just need to work on their image of self love!