Masturbation, Planned-Parenthood and Pornography

One youth complained about his masturbation problem:

• I want to stop masterbating as it is hampering my studies. after masterbating i am feeling that an explosion occurs in my head, due to this i cant get myself in study. i feel like my brain like its a hollow thing. i am masterbating from at least from 2003 or 2004, presently i am 19 year old and will appear for my high school graduation exam in upcoming may-june.

However, healthcaremagic.com assured him that masturbation was perfectly normal and even healthful. This is generally the judgment of themedical community:

• There is nothing about masturbation that is physically bad for you. There are some religions or parts of some religions which look down upon it, but most thinking individuals realize that is just a scare tactic to gain control over others.

I guess that those of us who have some hesitation about masturbation are not “thinking individuals.” How dismissive and condescending! In fact some of the claims for masturbation seem unbelievably exaggerated. The Medicalgeek claims that, “Masturbation can increase self-knowledge”:

• Sex educators don’t call masturbation the cornerstone of sexual health for nothing. Masturbation is the first, safest, and best way to get to know how your sexual body works. You can learn what turns you on and what doesn’t. You can learn how to give yourself sexual pleasure in a hurry, or when you’ve got nothing but time. As an educational tool, masturbation is better than any textbook, video or website you’ll ever read. 

Of course, Planned Parenthood, the leading sex purveyor, isecstatic about masturbation:

• A Florida Planned Parenthood affiliate has taken the opportunity of “National Masturbation Month” to highlight the national organization’s promotion of masturbation as part of a “a common and safe kind of sex play” with “many health benefits.” On Friday, Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida tweeted, “Happy Masturbation Month! We’ve got lots of info on masturbation here,” providing a link to Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s page on masturbation.

However, let me do a little nay-saying. I don’t think that there are any surveys regarding the relationship between masturbation and subsequent sexual satisfaction/dysfunction. This is a very critical element in this discussion. It is also relevant in the question of pornography consumption. Pornography might not cause the viewer disease, but its negative affects on real-life marital sexuality are well-documented.

Perhaps less well-known is the fact that early sexual experience exercises a powerful imprinting. Remember the ducklings who bond – that’s imprinting - to the first person they see after birth? They become bonded to that person as “mom,” and follow him around wherever.

Our early sexual experiences perform the same function. If we are introduced to ejaculation through masturbation, that becomes our central, defining moment and focus. Masturbation seems to psychologically fixate us on ourselves. (Don’t ask me for any studies!) Many have reported that because of this fixation, they were never able to enjoy their wives as they had wanted. Masturbation remained the main attraction.

Similarly, one woman had been introduced to intercourse through her older brother. Even after he was married, brother and sister remained inseparable, even sexually, thereby destroying the marriage.

Perhaps the warnings against masturbation are more than “just a scare tactic to gain control over others,” as wikianswers.com smugly alleges?