Pleasure Mechanics

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Why You Masturbate The Way You Do : A History Lesson

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Why do so many people struggle with masturbation? Why do so many of us feel a little bit ashamed of solo sex, treating it like a dirty chore rather than a self-love practice that can bring tremendous pleasure and health benefits?

How you masturbate – how much pleasure you give yourself, how creative you are in your solo sex, what parts of your body you allow yourself to touch, how you feel emotionally about masturbation – has everything to do with the past 3000 years of punitive sex culture. We are just barely emerging out of a culture that punished masturbation and forbade sexual pleasure of any kind. We have to take this history seriously before we can fully embrace the sex-positive idea of May as Masturbation Month!

For more about the history of sex culture and how it has influenced your sex life, check out one of my favorite books:  Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire  by Eric Berkowitz

One of the best selling books in the 1720s: Onania; The Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution, And All its Frightful Consequences, in both Sexes

Hear more about how corn flakes and graham crackers were invented as part of the anti-masturbation crusade

Check out a gallery of anti-masturbation devices here

The “Jugum Penis” anti-masturbation device. Designed to prevent nocturnal erections and masturbation.

Chastity belts for both sexes were marketed as anti-masturbation devices

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