Female sexuality was once celebrated in the ancient world as sacred femininity. Yoni is an ancient word and symbol meaning: “sacred space”. Many women (and men) are reclaiming this ancient symbol and the teachings of Yoni to evoke their feminine principle so they may celebrate their bodies and sensuality. In her book “A Woman’s Dictionary of Signs and Symbols” Barbara Gordon Walker writes:
“The sign of the yoni was meant to convey the shape of the external female genitalia, which the ancients clearly recognised as the seat of female sexual power. Tantrics viewed that power as the source of all creative action. Far from describing female sexuality as “passive” in the Western manner, Tantric Hindus regarded female orgasm as the energizing principle of the universe.”
A Neolithic clay figurine from the forth millennium BC found in the Tarxien Temples on Malta shows a woman with one hand on her exaggerated vulva, very suggestive of masturbation. These statues, like others found in Malta are thought by some to be ancient fertility goddesses that practiced the ancient art of masturbation.
The ancient Greeks used masturbation as a means to avoid sexual frustration which was widely practiced and worshiped by cults. There are numerous artefacts that depict Greek women masturbating with dildos of wood, ivory and leather.
The ancient text of sexual pleasure, The Kama Sutra, contains passages describing women pleasured themselves to relieve sexual energy.
“[Women of the harem] use objects with the shape of the virile member: carrots, turnips, and fruit such as bananas, aubergines; roots like that of the sweet potato or others, as well as wall pepper roots; fruits such as marrows, cucumbers, etc. Having cleaned the fruit, they grasp it and insert it in the organ, so as to cause a pleasurable feeling.” -from The Complete Kama Sutra
The ancient Romans created the term “masturbari” meaning to “rub with the hand.” Native Americans call masturbation by their young people “warming the heart.” It seems for the most part, that masturbation was celebrated outright in ancient times and seen as a natural part of sexuality.
The Self-Abuse: The Origin of Negativity
“The art of life lies in taking pleasures as they pass, and the keenest pleasures are not intellectual, nor are they always moral.”
-Aristippus
Masturbation is the most common and widely practiced form of sexual play, and yet, it has been one of the most closeted, taboo and ostracized throughout history. Conservative studies today by the Kinsey Institute, show that between 70-80 percent of women and 94 percent of men masturbate regularly. At least 98 percent of people have admitted to masturbating at one time in their life. It makes you wonder what the other 2 percent are doing.
So, why all the guilt? Where did the negative ideas of masturbation come from?
Condemnation of masturbation is mostly based upon the assumption that the “spilling of seed” (since the belief that men only had a limited amount) was a wasteful act that endangered the survival of the species. The ancient Taoists of China believed that sperm held the life force or “chi” and that spilling it would cause them to loose their virility and even produce death. Today, it is known that men produce 50,000 sperm per minute, so our ancient stigmas about masturbation are no longer relevant in our society.
The ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates believed that loss of semen would result in spinal problems. “Self-abuse” or the “wasting of seed” further gained negative associations with the advent of Christianity. It was the body that dragged a soul down into sin, said the apostle Paul, in its quest for sexual pleasure.
“It is significant that the Church’s most ferocious wrath was reserved not for fornication but for masturbation. It is through masturbation that a human being first discovers the sensual potential of his or her own body; moreover, it is an entirely “selfish” act, in that it is performed solely for the benefit of the person involved. It is the act through which many an individual first encounters the possibility of an ecstasy entirely different from the ecstasy promised by religion.”
—Nathaniel Branden, The Psychology of Romantic Love
The term Onanism comes from Genesis 38:9. In it Onan refuses to procreate with his brother’s widow and “spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring”. The origin of the masturbation taboo in Christianity comes from Onan, but the term is inaccurately associated with masturbation, when it was “coitus interruptus” or premature withdrawal which was the actual sin committed. Many Christian leaders today support the practice of masturbation as an act of self-love.
In 1712, an anonymous physician published a text called “Onania” or, “The Heinous Sin of Self Pollution, and all its Frightful Consequences” which warned about the dangers of defiling your own body. Thomas Laqueur traces the negative attitudes about masturbation to this text in his Cultural History of Masturbation: Solitary Sex.
During the 18th, 19th and even 20th century, physicians throughout Europe and North America considered masturbation the worst form of the “wasting” and “the vilest, the basest and the most degrading act that a human being can commit.1? These corrupted ideas became the basis for an obsession to exorcize society of these selfish demons, and “self?pollution” was blamed for everything from acne, gout and backache to blindness, weakness, madness, epilepsy, nymphomania, growing hair on palms, and even death. Sadistic cures for this “shameful and criminal act that is the most fatal, of all vices2” included shock therapy, chastity belts, male and female circumcision, physical restraints in straitjackets or hands tied to bedposts, and penile rings lined with spikes to dissuade erections.
Later, psychoanalysts like Freud blamed masturbation for causing psychological “perversions” such as narcissism and homosexuality.
“Much of the current misunderstanding of homosexuality is a result of its having been labelled a disease in the 19th century. The German neuropsychologist Richard von Krafft?Ebing considered it a ‘hereditary neuropathic degeneration’ aggravated by excessive masturbation.”
—from “Homosexuality,” Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright © 1994.
Hysteria—a disorder suffered by women that was advocated by Freud—was actually cured by masturbation.
Hysteria: Repressed Victorian Views
“Women are denied masturbation even more severely than men and that’s another method of control-they’re not taught to please themselves.”-Lydia Lunch
Not so long ago, women were said to suffer from “hysteria” history’s most frequently diagnosed female disorder. Symptoms included anxiety, sexual fantasies, irritability, lower pelvic edema, shortness of breath and “excessive vaginal lubrication”.
Thought to be caused by sexual tension, passionate women were naturally the most at risk. Hysteria, from the Greek term meaning “wandering womb” became an epidemic during the 1890s and was believed to be the result of sexual deprivation.
Rachel P. Maines, author of The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction, suggests that hysteria was simply the result of female sexual frustration. The medical treatment of hysteria was “hysterical paroxysm” or orgasm which could be obtained through genital massage administered by physicians or midwives who would “massage the genitalia with one finger inside, using oil of lilies, musk root, crocus… [until] the afflicted woman can be aroused by a paroxysm.”
By the early 1900’s however, the treatment of hysteria became too time consuming for doctors to use hands-on treatment, so a new technological miracle was invented: the vibrator. Soon, women were able to purchase self-massagers from women’s magazines and mail order catalogues such as Sears and Roebuck, enabling women to find many practical uses for them “around the home”. Retailers marketed vibrators covertly as sexual devices with ads praising them for providing “30,000 thrilling, invigorating, penetrating, revitalizing penetrations per minute” so all “the pleasures of youth will throb within you.”
Joani Blank, founder of Good Vibrations‘ has collected antique vibrators for over 20 years. Many of these are displayed in her Antique Vibrator Museum online which feature vibrators of all shapes and sizes dating from the late 1800s until the 1970s.
Maines notes that “hysteria” was the result of both pathologized female sexuality in which women were to receive sexual pleasure through heterosexual intercourse alone and society’s taboo against masturbation. It was not until 1952 that “hysteria” was officially removed as a disease by the American Psychiatric Association.
Corn Flakes and Masturbation
These negative attitudes were further supported in the early 1900s by Sylvester Graham who invented the Graham cracker and cereal developer John Harvey Kellogg who described masturbation as “the vilest, the basest and the most degrading act that a human being can commit.” Both of these men lead a health food crusade against sexual excess, including masturbation. But, food wasn’t their only weapon. They invented numerous “anti-masturbation” torture devices including spiked chastity belts and electrifying apparatus’ to control masturbation in young boys.
Current Attitudes About Masturbation
“Masturbation is an ongoing love affair that each of us has with ourselves throughout our lifetime… Cultural denial of masturbation is the basis of sexual repression…”
-Dr. Betty Dodson, PH.D
Fortunately for us, humanity has emerged from the frigid “ice age” of Puritan sensibilities which believed sexual self-pleasure to be a crime. Today, masturbation is not only recognized as a pleasurable pastime, but is also celebrated as a normal, natural act that promotes vitality and health. Research shows that it improves prostate health in men, reduces pre-menstrual cramping in women, increases blood flow to the genitals to improve genital health, provides a healthy release for sexual tension and aids sleep, teaches one the art and skill of sexual pleasure, is the ultimate in safe sex, improves self-esteem, helps improve orgasm pleasure (intensity and arousal) and encourages a healthy philosophy towards sex in general. Psychotherapists and sexologists today agree “that a lack of masturbatory experience may be related to psychopathology, rather than the practice of autoeroticism”, which contrasts greatly with past views.
In 1948, the Kinsey Institute, an organization founded to research human sexual habits, did a study on human sexuality which helped to demystify masturbation. The report showed that sex was an activity that was as important for pleasure as it was for procreation and that two out of three women and seven out of ten men reported that they masturbated “to relieve sexual tension.” Furthermore, it found that “masturbation was the most important sexual outlet for single females and the second most important sexual outlet for married females, providing 7-10% of orgasms for those 16-40 years.”
Masters & Johnson found in 1966 that masturbation was a widespread practice among North Americans regardless of social class, sex, age or race, and in 1971, Goldstein, Haeberle & McBride deemed masturbation to be the most frequent form of sexual activity among humans. According to Dr. Daphne Miller, “by the age of five, most children deliberately play with their genitals to experience pleasure.” According to The Sex Atlas by Erwin J. Haeberle, “babies are born with… [the] physical equipment which enables them to respond to sexual stimulation…” Boys experience frequent erections and girls experience vaginal wetness. Unfortunately, we learn to “control” these natural reactions and may later need to relearn the sexual responses we “were once taught to suppress.” Remarkably, some experts believe that masturbation begins in the womb. The following is an excerpt from the book The Clitoral Truth by Rebecca Chalker, detailing the observation of a female foetus in the process of what is believed to be
masturbation.
“We recently observed a female fetus at 32 weeks’ gestation touching the vulva with fingers of [her] right hand. The caressing movement was centered primarily on the region of the clitoris. Movements stopped after 30 to 40 seconds, and started again after a few moments. Further, these light touches were repeated and were associated with short, rigid movements of the pelvis and legs…the fetus contracted the muscles of the trunk and limbs, and the climax, clonicotonic movements [rapid muscle contractions] of the body, followed. Finally she relaxed and rested. We [several doctors and the mother] observed this behaviour for about 20 minutes.”-Rebecca Chalker, The Clitoral Truth.
