Masturbation and learning about your body is a very normal part of human sexuality. People seem to have the attitude that it’s gross for women but normal for men. It is as though a woman can only get pleasure from being with a man, which is not true. I feel that masturbation itself shouldn’t be seen as an all-male thing.
Asides from the obvious intense pleasure that masturbation brings, I think that women’s sexuality can be more nuanced and because of that, the more we get to know our bodies, the better position it puts us in to communicate our desires and our needs to our partners.
Which isn’t always the easiest thing to do. No matter how permissive society may appear to be, it’s still really awkward around women’s sexuality. You only have to look at conventional pornography to see that. Its dull and unimaginative and it doesn’t celebrate female sexuality. How is anyone to learn anything to take back to the real world from that? As women become content creators in the world of pornography, things will change of course…
On a related note, things have moved on since I was a teenager in the 80’s when talking about masturbation almost certainly involved shame and ridicule but I also think that people will always struggle a bit with these subjects. Its human nature. It makes us vulnerable and vulnerability is frightening. I’ve interviewed hundreds of people about their sex lives and they pretty much all share the same questions and anxieties around their intimate lives, no matter how confident they appear to be on the surface....