Masturbation

The 19th century's disease, and the 20th century's cure, masturbation is a topic that is far less likely to be discussed in comparison to love or sex, yet is the primary sexual activity of mankind. Commonly, within film's masturbation is associated with humour and embarrassment. For example, being walked in on when carrying out this deed is seen as shameful. This is a prime example of how socially masturbation is condemned as bad behaviour.

According to the psychologist Sigmund Freud, he believed as early as infancy accidental stimulation of pleasure can occur and is likely to be repeated later on in life. Personally in this light I find Freud somewhat twisted, although his beliefs do highlight how it is a natural behaviour and therefore instigates the belief that this behaviour should not be condemned badly.

In comparison, the practice of 'self abuse' could be portrayed sinfully due to cultural beliefs. For example, masturbation is seen as sex which does not create children, in turn being seen as wasteful of valuable resources, going against Gods wishes.

As now in time less emphasis is put into religions, further reasons to why masturbation could be depicted badly are plausible. One reason could be due to law. If a person was to masturbate publicly, they would be breaking the law, therefore to some extent this behaviour must be bad. In conclusion to this it could be fair to say, publicly masturbation is bad, however privately masturbation should not be perceived as a bad behaviour.

Even though reasoning to why masturbation is viewed positively or negatively has been highlighted, it does not propose why people wish to do it to begin with. Apart from the obvious pleasurable principle, masturbation could be due to the level of control it gives to a person and the individualism that stems from it. In males, terms for masturbation are characterised in animalistic and aggressive ways, being typically violent against animals. For example ' spanking the monkey' and 'chocking the chicken', offering natural masculinity and power. For women masturbation and associated terms for it are less aggressive, more playful, giving them a sense of nurture. Over hundreds of years, laws have ruled the earth, therefore to masturbate it gives the person control which no one else has. By laws not being able to have control over this, it could lead to the reasoning to why masturbation is frowned upon.

Overall, I personally believe masturbation should not be labelled a bad behaviour as long as it is conducted in the correct environment and does not harm any other being.

When researching into beliefs upon masturbation I came across a website that offered their view upon the given issues. LINK:http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/guide/masturbation-guide