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History of masturbation

Masturbation in prehistory

There are depictions of male masturbation in prehistoric rock paintings around the world. Most early people seem to have connected human sexuality with abundance in nature. A clay figurine of the 4th millennium BC from a temple site on the island of Malta, depicts a woman masturbating. However, in the ancient world depictions of male masturbation are far more common.

The practise of males stimulating themselves in the urethra by means of long thin obejects, seems to have been widespread in prehistoy. Straws seemed to have been prefered objets for this kind of stimulation. Presumably the straws were lubricated by some medium before use.


Masturbation in Antiquity

Male masturbation became an even more important depicted action in ancient Egypt. When performed by a god it could be considered a creative or magical act. The god Atum was believed to have created the universe by masturbating to ejaculation, and the ebb and flow of the Nile was attributed to the frequency of his ejaculations.

The ancient Greeks had a more relaxed attitude toward masturbation than the Egyptians did, regarding the act as a normal and healthy substitute for other forms of sexual pleasure. They considered it a safety valve against destructive sexual frustration. The Greeks also dealt with female masturbation in both their art and writings. One common term used for it was anaphlan, which roughly translates as "up-fire."

Diogenes, speaking in jest, credited the god Hermes with its invention. He allegedly took pity on his son Pan, who was pining for Echo but unable to seduce her, and taught him the trick of masturbation in order to relieve his suffering. Pan in his turn taught the habit to young shepherds.


The general stance of authorities regarding masturbation since antiquity

Since antiquity authorities of all kind have generally taken a stance against masturbation and regarded it as something sinful, something harmful to the health, harmful against society or even define it as a punishable crime. This stance can easily be explained.

Authorities generally gain power, hold powerful positions and gain proffit if the population is generally unsatisfied with life and feel that their situation is meaningless. With the majority of the population in such a situation, they can more easily gain support by promising fake solution for a better life and even sell solutions for money.

Also authorities do not like people engaging in activities that take their time and attention away from their propaganda and the mobilisation they want in the population for their own program of power and proffit.

Thirdly, authorities want individuals to believe that strong habits or tendencies they have are abnormal and sinful and must be treated. Thus thay can sell or impose their own solutions that increase their power and proffit.

Maturbation is a cheap way of gaining pleasure and satisfaction in the daily life. Also masturbation prevents medical problems of various kind. Thus a habit of masturbnation makes people feel less need for the programs and solutions of the authorities and takes away the attention of people from the solutions that the authorities try to sell or impose.

Since the drive to masturbate is so common and strong in all individuals, authorities get a greater chance to gain power and proffit if they can lure people into believeing that their lust for masturbation and their habit of masturbation is somethingh very sinful, or harmful, and lure them to abide to or buy the solutions that the authorities offer. In doing so authorities often propagate false claims about the harms of masturbation.

But there is always a twist in the attitude of authorities against masturbation. Authorities themself usually want to be free to do themselves all those things that they want to prohibit ordinary people to do, which also includes masturbation. Therefore authorities tend to associate themselves in networks with a high degree of freedom, while at the same time make rules for ordinary people with very little freedom, and especially very little sexual fredom.


Medical attitudes

Historically, the medical community has regarded masturbation with the same negative attitude as ortodox religion, that is as a sinful practice leading to any type of bodily weakness as a consequence.

The modern medical community tend to regard masturbation as a healthy or at least not harmful habit, since the old belief of the harmful effects of masturbatuion has got no support in scientific findings.

Nevertheless, much of the old attitudes still persists in parts of the medical communitiy. The reason behind this conservatism or repeatedly return to old abandoned attitudes is the medical community's tendency to make financial profit by problematizing every aspect of life and then offer remedies. An example of this type of thinking is the definition of masturbation by children and teens as "sexual exploitation of oneself" and then treating the young person both as an insane sexual abuser and as the victim of sexual abuse.

Parts of the psychiatric and psuchological commonity also has a tendency to regard masturbation as a practize dangerous against the society. These attitudes are usually propagated by psychitrists or psychologists, often under disguizes of various kind.

They are an aspect of a more general tendency to regard the integrety of the community as the ultimate goal and the nature and well-being of individulas as less important and that indiviudals have to set aside a lot of their own pleasure ann well-being in order to build and care for the society.

According tho these thoughts mastrurbationn tend to chanalize the thoughts and actions of a person away from the responsibilities of that person to the community. There is also a thought that lack of fulfillment of own dezire for pleasure makes a person strong and create a vicariant dezire for actions that develop and protect the society.

Thia attitude is partly of Freudian origine. Even though Freud disguized hidden sexual feelings and made sex a legal subject to talk about in the society, he was himself deeply bound by the Jewish, catholic and protetant morlism pervading the society where he grew up. Freud never in relity abandoned common thought of sex outside the most banal variant inside marriage as something sinful. He only gave the morlism a schintific mask.

The attitudes towards masturbation has of cource been exploited by charlatans of various kinds with or without formal medical education. In this area the difference between uneducated charlatanism and stupid formally educated medical practice is very blurred.

An example of the historical attitude of the medical community towards masturbation is the United states patent number 745264, filed on May 29, 1903 by Albert V. Todd. It describes a device designed to prevent masturbation by inflicting electric shocks upon the perpetrator, by ringing an alarm bell, and through spikes at the inner edge of the tube into which the penis is inserted. The entire patent document: Page 1, 2, 3, 4. Excerpt from United States patent number U.S. Patent 995,600 , filed on January 19, 1910 by Jonas E. Heyser. The entire patent document: Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6The first use of the word "onanism" to consistently and specifically refer to masturbation appears to be Onania, an anonymous pamphlet first distributed in London in 1716. In it was a bombastic tirade, drawing on familiar themes of sin and vice, this time in particular against the "heinous sin" of "self-pollution". After dire warnings that those who so indulged would suffer impotence, gonorrhea, epilepsy and a wasting of the faculties (included were letters and testimonials supposedly from young men ill and dying from the effects of compulsive masturbation) the pamphlet then goes on to recommend as an effective remedy a "Strengthening Tincture" at 10 shillings a bottle and a "Prolific Powder" at 12 shillings a bag, available from a local shop.

One of the many horrified by the descriptions of malady in Onania was the notable Swiss physician Samuel-Auguste Tissot. In 1760, he published L'Onanisme, his own comprehensive medical treatise on the purported ill-effects of masturbation. Citing case studies of young male masturbators amongst his patients in Lausanne, Switzerland as basis for his reasoning, Tissot argued that semen was an "essential oil" and "stimulus" that, when lost from the body in great amounts, would cause "a perceptible reduction of strength, of memory and even of reason; blurred vision, all the nervous disorders, all types of gout and rheumatism, weakening of the organs of generation, blood in the urine, disturbance of the appetite, headaches and a great number of other disorders."

Though Tissot's ideas are now considered conjectural at best, his treatise was presented as a scholarly, scientific work in a time when experimental physiology was practically nonexistent. The authority with which the work was subsequently treated - Tissot's arguments were even acknowledged and echoed by luminaries such as Kant and Voltaire - arguably turned the perception of masturbation in Western medicine over the next two centuries into that of a debilitating illness.

This continued well into the Victorian Era, where such medical censure of masturbation was in line with the widespread social conservatism and opposition to open sexual behavior common at the time. There were recommendations to have boys' pants constructed so that the genitals could not be touched through the pockets, for schoolchildren to be seated at special desks to prevent their crossing their legs in class and for girls to be forbidden from riding horses and bicycles because the sensations these activities produce were considered too similar to masturbation. Boys and young men who nevertheless continued to indulge in the practice were branded as "weak-minded." Many "remedies" were devised, including eating a bland, meatless diet. This approach was promoted by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (inventor of corn flakes) and Rev. Sylvester Graham (inventor of Graham crackers). The medical literature of the times describes procedures for electric shock treatment, infibulation, restraining devices like chastity belts and straitjackets, cauterization or - as a last resort - wholesale surgical excision of the genitals. Routine neonatal circumcision was widely adopted in the United States and the UK at least partly because of its believed preventive effect against masturbation (see also History of male circumcision). In later decades, the more drastic of these measures were increasingly replaced with psychological techniques, such as warnings that masturbation led to blindness, hairy hands or stunted growth. Some of these persist as myths even today.

At the same time, the supposed medical condition of hysteria—from the Greek hystera or uterus—was being treated by what would now be described as medically administered or medically prescribed masturbation for women. Techniques included use of the earliest vibrators and rubbing the genitals with placebo creams.

Medical attitudes toward masturbation began to change at the beginning of the 20th century when H. Havelock Ellis, in his seminal 1897 work Studies in the Psychology of Sex, questioned Tissot's premises, cheerfully named famous men of the era who masturbated and then set out to disprove (with the work of more recent physicians) each of the claimed diseases of which masturbation was purportedly the cause. "We reach the conclusion," he wrote, "that in the case of moderate masturbation in healthy, well-born individuals, no seriously pernicious results necessarily follow."

The works of Sexologist Alfred Kinsey during the 1940s and 1950s insisted that masturbation was an instinctive behavior for both males and females, citing the results of gallup poll surveys indicating how common it was in the United States. Some critics of this theory held that his research was biased and that the gallup poll method was redundant for defining "natural behavior".

In 1994, when the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, mentioned as an aside that it should be mentioned in school curricula that masturbation was safe and healthy, she was forced to resign, with opponents asserting that she was promoting the teaching of how to masturbate. Many believe this was the result of her long history of promoting controversial viewpoints and not due solely to her public mention of masturbation. Her case led to the coining of a new and humorous slang term for masturbation: "firing the surgeon general."

The medical attitude against masturbation had clearl power and commercial objectives, appart from being in line with the general attitude against masturbation in the communities. Greed for comercial winning still induces many doctors to express negative attitude towards masturbation and selling treatmets against the habit, or against conditions of which they depict masturbation as a symptom.

Few doctors, nowadays speak about masturbations as such as unhealthy, but very many speak about exaggerated masturbation or masturbation as symptom of social problems or health problems, such as sexual abuce or incest, and these doctors allways find something about a child's or persons masturbation that is exaggerated or symptoms of something awfull. Many of these doctors also have a fundamentalisic religious or political attitude, and take that attitude over to their medical practice. Unfortunately the number of these doctors is growing, and they gain profit by spreading their propaganda, by producing general hysteria and by soliciting unneccesary treatment aginst fictive problems of which masturbation is said to be a symptom.


The boy scout movement

Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of The Scout Association, incorporated a passage in the 1914 edition of Scouting for Boys warning against the dangers of masturbation. This passage stated that the individual should run away from the temptation by performing physical activity which was supposed to tire the individual so that masturbation could not be performed. By 1930, however, Dr. F. W. W. Griffin, editor of The Scouter, had written in a book for Rover Scouts that the temptation to masturbate was "a quite natural stage of development" and, citing Ellis's work, held that "the effort to achieve complete abstinence was a very serious error."


Law

The legal status of masturbation throughout history have varied from virtually unlimited acceptance to complete illegality. In fact in a 1640s law code for the Puritan colony of New Haven, Connecticut in the 17th century "blasphemers, homosexuals and masturbators" were eligible for the death penalty.


Modern masturbation by means of erotic toys and tools

In the last 50 years, masturbation with toys have got into fashion, especially by women, but partially also by men. By means of sexual toys of several kinds, it is possible to reach inner sensual body areas that are not easily reached only by the fingers. By dildos with or withour vibrator, a women can reach deep into her vagina. Here she can do good things with the inner vaginal walls or inner points near to the vaginal wall.

Both women and men can use the same kind of tools to stimulate themselves deep inside the rectal area, and stimulate special points near to that area.

A contineous trend is that steadily more people discover the possibilities of stimulating a lot of inner areas during masturbation, and are using toys for that purpose.


Religious views Religions vary broadly in their views of masturbation, from completely impermissible to encouraged as a way to achieve greater spirituality.


Orthodox Judaism

Masturbation is not explicitly prohibited in the Hebrew Bible. The Talmud, however, forbids male masturbation, as it leads to unnecessary spilling of semen, or the impure thoughts of women other than the man's lawful wife. This prohibition is derived from the Biblical narrative of Onan (Talmud Niddah 13a). The Talmud (ibid) likens the act to murder and idolatry. The wrath displayed by God toward Onan was invoked not through the act of spilling semen, but through disobedience to God's command for Onan to impregnate his brother's widow. Others consider the death sentence excessive for failure to properly follow the laws of Levirate marriage - the Biblical punishment for refusing a Levirate marriage was to be spit on, in public, by the woman who was refused. (It may be noted that Onan did not actually refuse the marriage, he refused to impregnate his new wife) Because Onan's punishment was so much more severe, they argue that the spilling of semen was the relevant offense.

According to the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, "It is forbidden to discharge semen in vain. This is a graver sin than any other in the Torah". However, Beis Shmuel expounds that this is not literal, but rather serves to frighten man into avoiding the sin.

There is disagreement among the poskim, decisors of Jewish law, whether masturbation is an acceptable way of procuring semen for artificial insemination or in vitro fertilisation, as well as prevention of adultery.[citation needed]

Judaism in general neither prohibits nor discourages female masturbation, although some Orthodox Jews consider female masturbation as "impure thoughts".

Other judaic sects - Rabbis from less orthodox sects of Judaism such as Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist, have come to the conclusion that masturbation is a natural, healthy act. According to Rabbi Alexis Roberts masturbation is "harmless, natural and healthy. It may provide release and pleasure, as well as self-knowledge that is useful for pleasurable sex with a partner. It may make it easier for young people to have sexual release in the years when they are too young for a mature, committed, loving relationship."


Taoism

Some teachers and practitioners of Traditional Chinese medicine, Taoist meditative and martial arts say that masturbation can cause a lowered energy level in men. They say that ejaculation in this way reduces "origin qi" from dantian, the energy center located in the lower abdomen. Some maintain that sex with a partner does not do this because the partners replenish each other's qi. Some practitioners therefore say that males should not practice martial arts for at least 48 hours after masturbation while others prescribe up to six months, because the loss of Origin Qi does not allow new qi to be created for this kind of time.

Taoists strongly discouraged female masturbation. Women were encouraged to practice massaging techniques upon themselves, but were also instructed to avoid thinking sexual thoughts if experiencing a feeling of pleasure. Otherwise, the woman's "labia will open wide and the sexual secretions will flow." If this happened, the woman would lose part of her life force, and this could bring illness and shortened life.[6]


Islam

Istimna is the Arabic term for masturbation. In general, masturbation may only be done in fear of committing adultery, nor is it preferred (either getting married or fasting are preferred alternatives suggested in hadith).

Scholars of Islam do not generally approve of masturbation, except in extenuating circumstances. There is a statement in Quran "And those who guard their chastity, Except from their wives (or the slaves that their right hands possess),- for then, they are free from blame; But whoever seeks beyond that, then those are transgressors."

In Islam, sexual engagement outside of marriage (and outside of slaves the right-hand possesses) is a major sin, which cause the doer to be punished in this life and the Qiyama. Yet if one's desire is so overwhelming one might perform a greater wrong by having sex outside marriage, masturbation becomes permissible as a necessity but in that case it will be like eating the flesh of pig when no other food is available. So Quran says "And those who are not married should try to live in chastity, until God enriches them with His Grace" .

Masturbation, like any form of sex in which seminal or vaginal fluids have been released, breaks one's fast if performed during the daylight hours and requires a major ablution if any seminal or vaginal fluids were released.

According to Sheikh Hamed Al-Ali: "Masturbation during the daytime of Ramadan breaks the fast, based on the Hadith that a fasting Muslim gives up eating, drinking, and sexual desire for the sake of Allah. Since masturbation is a kind of sexual desire, a fasting Muslim must avoid it. Therefore, masturbation invalidates the fast as does food and as it is one of the sins that if someone does it he or she would be violating the sanctity of this month."

Sunni view - The four Sunni schools of jurisprudence (known as Madhaahib - the Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki and Hambali schools of Fiqh) have differing stances on the issue. Some consider it forbidden in all cases. Some see it forbidden in certain cases but obligatory in others. Another view is that it is Makruh but not expressly forbidden.


Shi'a view - Masturbation is totally forbidden in the Shi'a sect.


Christianity - Roman Catholicism

The Church does not have a specific moral law regarding masturbation but its teaching on the matter is a consequence of its overall understanding of human sexuality. It says that the deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose.

The Church views sexual expression between a man and a woman in the context of marriage to be a sacred, even sacramental act. Consequently, all other sexual activity including masturbation, homosexual acts, acts of sodomy and sex outside of marriage and the use of artificial contraception as morally disordered as they frustrate the intention of God "written" in the design of the human body. Pope John Paul II in his book, Theology of the Body, coined the expression, "the nuptial meaning of the body" to describe this divine intention physically expressed in the body.[7] His elucidation of human sexuality is that to fulfill its sacred character, sexual expression must be a complete act of mutual self-giving only possible between a married couple open to the conception of a new child.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church lists masturbation as one of the Offenses Against Chastity.

By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action. "The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose." For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved.

To form an equitable judgment about the subjects' moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that can lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.[8]

This traditional Catholic doctrine that masturbation constitutes a grave moral disorder is often called into doubt or expressly denied today. It is said that psychology and sociology show that it is a normal phenomenon of sexual development, especially among the young. It is stated that there is real and serious fault only in the measure that the subject deliberately indulges in solitary pleasure closed in on self, because in this case the act would indeed be radically opposed to the loving communion between persons of different sex which some hold is what is principally sought in the use of the sexual faculty.[9]


Protestantism

Protestantism has no uniform position on the issue of masturbation. Theologians toward the middle of the 20th century began revising previous teachings, and some today even take pro-masturbation viewpoints. By conservative denominations, it is often viewed as an act of self-indulgence and a sin of the flesh. Protestants however often view it as within the range of normal sexual behavior. Some who encourage the practice do so as a guard against adultery, pre-marital sex, or other forms of non-allowable sexual behavior.

James Dobson, chairman of the board of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit Christian organization, considers it part of normal adolescent exploration and strongly urges parents not to shame their children over the act lest they have marital difficulties later because of shame over their sexuality. At the same time, he believes that it becomes an addiction and an escape from intimacy for some and argues against it in that case. Richard Dobbins Teaching Your Children the Truth About Sex takes a similar approach. His overall approach is one of "neither condemn nor condone" the act. He looks at it multifactorally to determine its ethics. He gives a lot of advice to parents in the matter. Herbert J. Miles in Sexual Understanding Before Marriage also takes a similar approach. He views the act as a controlled tool of sexual self-control for single males and advises them in that way, while also pointing males to nocturnal emissions. His view toward single females in the matter is different per their biology and lack of semen buildup, and he urges young women to wait to experience their first orgasm with their husband, while not making it a sin if they masturbate. Both Dobbins and Miles go so far as to discuss what they feel is Biblically permissible for people to imagine while masturbating. Dobbins says fathers should urge their sons, if they masturbate, to imagine their future wife, and never some girl they may know. Miles suggests single males pray before masturbating, thanking God for the gift of their sexuality and keeping Him in mind while achieving self-release.

Evangelical based therapeutic approaches to masturbation addiction suggest counselors place counselees on a schedule, e.g., they may masturbate 3 times per week at set times in private but not to go beyond that. Over and above a prohibitionist position, this is viewed as part of a Biblical, realistic, and effective approach to facilitating counselees to overcome a masturbatory addiction.[10]

In general, most evangelicals assert that the Bible could have but did not specifically condemn that act, and so make it a Romans 14 issue, i.e., a matter of conscience for individual believers: that the believer should not violate his or her conscience, but also realizing the conscience is fallible and may be either rightly or wrongly trained. All condemn the act if done in lust, to pornography, or if it becomes an addiction or an escape from intimacy. [3] Most view it as at least having the potential to be a tool of sexual self-control, not only for singles but married persons when they may be separated from their spouse. The Marriage Bed concludes "that a loving God designed masturbation as a 'stop gap' measure for those who do not have a spouse".


Seventh day advenism

Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, in the mid-1800's claimed to have spirtual visions from God that gave her guidance on the Christian life. She warned against overly-stimulating foods, sex, and masturbation, which she referred to as "solitary vice." She warned her followers of her visions of disfigured humans and the consequences of masturbation not only destroying one's life, but preventing access to Heaven in the afterlife. She made claims that masturbation was the cause of many sicknesses in adults from cancer to lung disease. White even stated that masturbation claimed many sinners' lives pre-maturely. She believed that one's diet had a direct correlation with one's urge to masturbate. She claimed that a bland diet consisting of vegetables, wheat breads, and water would lead to a diminished urge to masturbate and thus would lead to a healthier and more fulfilling life. To ultimately produce a guide for future generations she claimed solitary vice was the cause of hereditary insanity, cancer, and other deadly diseases; clearly appealing to parents to protect their children by not engaging in solitary vice.


Mormonism

Mormonism teaches that "masturbation is a sinful habit that robs one of the Spirit and creates guilt and emotional stress."[12] Spencer W. Kimball, the twelfth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints urged Mormons to abandon the habit before going on a mission, receiving the holy priesthood, or going into the temple for blessings. He taught that masturbation indicated "slavery to the flesh, not that mastery of it and the growth toward godhood which is the object of our mortal life".[13]

Mormons mostly discuss masturbation in the context of male masturbation, while female masturbation is considered by context of "impure thoughts". Some Mormons disagree with the prevailing opinion against masturbation in Mormonism. They teach that masturbation is normal, healthy, developmentally appropriate and leads primarily to healthy marriage bonds.


Buddhism

Like all religions, Buddhism takes a strong ethical stand in human affairs and sexual behavior in particular. The most common formulation of Buddhist ethics are the Five Precepts and the Eightfold Path, one should neither be attached to nor crave sensual pleasure. These precepts take the form of voluntary, personal undertakings, not divine mandate or instruction. The third of the Five Precepts is "To refrain from committing sexual misconduct". For Buddhist laypeople, masturbation is not "sexual misconduct".

However, the craving for sensual pleasure is described in the Second Noble Truth as the cause of suffering, as they are attachments. Masturbation can be a distraction or means of avoidance of spiritual practice or development. To provide a complete focus onto spiritual practice, fully ordained Buddhist monks may, depending on their tradition, be bound by hundreds of further detailed rules or vows that may include a ban on sexual relations, including masturbation. Most laypeople may consider excessive focus on sexual pleasure to be an attachment, and not following the middle path.

Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism, on the other hand, teaches that masturbation can actively be used to approach higher spiritual development.

There is an aspect of sex in Highest Yoga Tantra practice that is both symbolic as well as descriptive of the practice of using sexual intercourse to transform one's sexual energy into a blissful consciousness directed towards achieving enlightenment. This controlling and directing of one's sexual energies towards the greater goal of enlightenment is one of the central features of Vajrayana.


Hinduism

Masturbation is not specifically mentioned in any of the religious scriptures. However, many conservative Hindus see it as impure and addictive, while seeing it as a distraction from prayer and the pursuit of their vocations. Brahmacharya, and grihastya being two of four successive phases of man's developmental pattern.

Alternative liberal schools of thought, such as the Tantric branches of Hinduism, are markedly less reserved, teaching that enlightenment can be approached through divine sex. Divine sex is one path whereby one can approach Moksha (Nirvana), a oneness with a higher spiritual level. As such, the Tantric practices, through writings such as the Kama Sutra seek not to repress sexuality, but to perfect it.

Both the ascetic branches, and tantric branches of Hinduism concur that the practices are about the ego (Ahamkara) controlling sex, rather than sex controlling the ego. The tantric branches go into great depths on methodology of that control, teaching detail of how to control sex when engaged, as well as practices for when abstaining, the focus of the ascetics. The Hindu Tantric practices crossed geographical boundaries, and merged with the practices of Buddhism, and gave rise to Tantric Buddhism, Vajrayana, which has a similar approach to sexuality, in general, viewing it as normal, natural and essential for obtaining enlightenment.


Wicca

Wicca like other religious philosophies has a spectrum of adherents including those with conservative views to liberal views. However nothing in Wiccan philosophy prohibits masturbation. On the contrary, the Wiccan Rede "An it harm none, do as thou wilt" is interpreted by many to allow and endorse responsible sexual relationships of all varieties. The Charge of the Goddess, says in the words of the Goddess, "all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals" , which is a key piece of Wiccan literature.


Secular humanism

A portion of the Secular humanism's Manifesto II states: We reject all religious, ideological, or moral codes that denigrate the individual, suppress freedom, dull intellect, dehumanize personality. We believe in maximum individual autonomy consonant with social responsibility. Short of harming others or compelling them to do likewise, individuals should be permitted to express their sexual proclivities and pursue their lifestyles as they desire.

Most secular humanists believe that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, masturbation does no harm in this world. Secular humanism therefore considers masturbation, when done in private or in the company of consenting adults, morally irrelevant and up to the individual.


Philosophical arguments

Immanuel Kant regarded masturbation as a violation of the moral law. In the Metaphysics of Morals (1797) he made the a posteriori argument that 'such an unnatural use of one's sexual attributes' strikes 'everyone upon his thinking of it' as 'a violation of one's duty to himself', and suggested that it was regarded as immoral even to give it its proper name (unlike the case of the similarly undutiful act of suicide). He went on, however, to acknowledge that 'it is not so easy to produce a rational demonstration of the inadmissibility of that unnatural use', but ultimately concluded that its immorality lay in the fact that 'a man gives up his personality... when he uses himself merely as a means for the gratification of an animal drive'.

Subsequent critics of masturbation tended to argue against it on more physiological grounds, however (see medical attitudes).