by: Mégane Bellerose

According to Hogarth and Ingham's 2009 study, many young women report feeling guilty and ashamed about their masturbation practices. This reveals that masturbation, particularly female masturbation, remains a despised and taboo practice today (Kaestle and Allen, 2011).

This is problematic because viewing masturbation as negative potentially undermines sexual health.

*Masturbation is defined as manual excitation of the external genital organs with the aim of provoking sexual pleasure (Larousse, 2017).

A religious discourse, a beginning

Since the 16th century, religious writings have been found condemning masturbation and anyone who dared to practice it. The only sexuality that was "natural" was that reduced to the generation of the species. All other practices were considered "abnormal" and "deviant." However, several theologians recognized that masturbation was a common and habitual sin, of which people were not afraid.

A medical discourse that poisons this prescription

However, the fear of masturbation emerged from the second half of the 18th century, when physical harms were associated with masturbation for the first time in a pamphlet entitled Onania . For example, the pamphlet speaks of ulcers, convulsions, pale skin, impotence, or even giving birth to sick children. Doctors of the time unanimously agreed that masturbation is responsible for several diseases and can even be fatal (Stengers and Van Neck, 1998/2001).

However, until this point in history, no one had questioned the veracity of the statements reported in the pamphlet Onania , even though no empirical medical observations existed.

A feminist discourse on optimal sexuality

Thanks to the most important feminist qualitative study on masturbation of

women conducted by Shere Hite in 1976, many feminists remain very critical of the obligation of coitus in heteronormativity. According to Hite, since only 30% of women manage to achieve orgasm regularly during coitus without clitoral stimulation, wanting women to have orgasms during lovemaking at all costs, by virtue of the penis alone, is forcing them to adapt their bodies to inadequate stimulation.

A sexual double standard

Most participants in Kaeslte and Allen's 2011 study cited the perception that men's masturbation is more acceptable than women's. Directly named in the participants' narratives, the sexual double standard refers to the phenomenon where typically "masculine" behavior by a man is acceptable, while when a woman engages in that same so-called "masculine" behavior, she is reprimanded, either explicitly or implicitly.

Kaeslte and Allen (2011) note that 63% of men maintain a discourse that proposes masturbation as good for sexual health, while only 16% of women have the same discourse.

A family context that reinforces the taboo

The contexts in which the first masturbation experiences take place, as well as the family's discourse on masturbation, influence the perception that an individual develops. Indeed, the difficulty in talking about sexuality to their family seems to go hand in hand with the negative perceptions that women develop about their masturbatory practices (Hogarth and Ingham, 2009; Kaestle and Allen, 2011).

Negative social judgments

Most participants in Kaestle and Allen's 2011 study recalled their first attempts at masturbation with shame and discomfort. They witnessed derisive humor, stereotypes, and humiliation, which taught them that masturbation was taboo. Other participants even forbade themselves from enjoying masturbation because they didn't want to face potential social judgments.

Positive

Despite numerous studies revealing that there is still a taboo regarding female masturbation practices, statistics concerning the prevalence of women who masturbate regularly or who have masturbated at least once in their lives are on the rise (Kraus, 2017).

These studies are positive, because masturbation would be beneficial in several aspects: self-examination of the genitals, promoting relaxation and/or stress management, promoting sleep, compensating for the lack of general sexual satisfaction and allowing positive learning about one's body (Bowman, 2014).

Masturbation also improves feelings of sexual competence and sexual self-esteem. Notably, Hite (1976) states that "the most fulfilled women are those who have been able to adapt their masturbatory techniques, without embarrassment or shame, to their sexual relations with others."

The Invisibility of Female Masturbation

The invisibility of masturbation appears to be an advantage because there appear to be no specific standards regarding how often women should masturbate or the methods by which they should do so. This is an advantage in that women are freer to explore their own pleasure without specific standards regarding the scripts used during their masturbation practices.

References:

• Bowman, C.P. (2014). Women's masturbation: Experiences of sexual empowerment in a primarily sex-positive sample. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 38(3), 363-378 .
• Hite, S. (1976). The Hite Report on Female Sexuality. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, Inc.
• Hogarth, H. and Ingham, R. (2009). Masturbation among young women and associations with sexual health: An exploratory study. Journal of Sex Research, 46(6), 558-567.
• Kaestle, C.E., and Allen, K. (2011). The role of masturbation in healthy sexual development: Perceptions of young adults. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40(5), 983-994.
• Kraus, F. (2017). The practice of masturbation among women: the end of a taboo? Sexologies, 26, 191-198.
• Morin, V. (June 2018). Female Masturbatory Practices and Sexual Health: A Qualitative Exploration of Women's Perspectives and Experiences. Université du Québec à Montréal. https://archipel.uqam.ca/11742/1/M15705.pdf 
• Stengers, J. and Van Neck, A. (1998/2001). Masturbation: the history of a great terror, New York: Palgrave Publishers.