Can we point to any ancient Roman, Greek, Sumerian, etc. writings that specifically say that fondling one’s own privates is a bad thing to do? The Bible says nothing about this*, save for vague admonitions about sexual purity.
*Whether or not the Onan story is about masturbation is a matter of debate, so let’s not include it here.
It’s not, originally, but Cecil’s article on it includes some discussion of evolving Christian attitudes toward masturbation, which is at least tangentially related to what you’re asking here.
True. Since that’s the case, if any Christian writers wrote down their attitudes about it, then someone should be able to say “St. Augustine said this about it in 300CE.”
Remember too this would fall under the general category of the puritan - guilt attitude. If it’s fun, and pleasurable, whether singing, dancing, chocolate, or pleasures of the flesh, earthly pleasures take you away from contemplating the goodness of God to be distracted by passing earthly pleasures. If it’s fun, it must be evil.
Usually this attitude evolves as a reaction to a hedonistic society…
Didn’t Freud have some strange ideas about wanking? His contemporary (health nut Dr. Kellogg) also thought that choking the chicken could be deadly!
In modern terms, it appears to date to the 18th century.
‘If it feels good, stop it!’
Something doesn’t make sense about all these reports and writings about the evils of masturbation. This is something that boys/men have probably done since we came down from trees, and maybe even before. Clearly, sexual pleasure is the motivating force behind our procreative success, so any time we can get that rush, we do, paying heed in modern times to social conventions, of course. No doubt, then, that the writers of these pamphlets, chapters, verses, and all other manner of shamers, were men - men who had, under the cover of darkness, bopped their own balonies. They all did it. And they were not retarded, drooling, disease-riven monsters, so their own experience should have told them that wanking it doesn’t make you go crazy. So why did they keep this rap going? Why were their experiences not enough to keep them from promoting this b.s.? What was in it for them? I don’t get it.
We don’t know that that’s true. Some men have self-control.
This is an entertaining view on how the Mormon leadership viewed masturbation.
http://www.moonmac.com/Mormon_masturbation.html
Ok. I guess I’ve read that close to 100% of men/boys do masturbate. But, let’s say that only 90% of men/boys have masturbated or do it on some regular basis. It seems unlikely that these various screeds denouncing the practice as dangerous were all written by the 10% of abstainers, doesn’t it? It’s just curious that someone who has been to New York could write something that claims it’s nice and quiet there and there are no big buildings.
All of religion is based on the preachings of reformed sinners.
Do the Mormons also have advice on avoiding wet dreams?
A couple of quick searches seem to say that wet dreams are natural and not sinful. At a different spot in the above cited list of how-to’s, there’s this:
“It is normal for the vesicles to be emptied occasionally at night during sleep. This is called a wet dream. The impulses that cause the emptying come from the central nervous system. Often an erotic dream is experienced at the same time, and is a part of this normal process. If a young man has consistently masturbated instead of letting nature take its course, the reproductive system is operating at a more rapid pace, trying to keep up with the loss of semen. When he stops the habit, the body will continue to produce at this increased rate, for an indefinite period of time, creating sexual tensions and pressure. These are not harmful and are to be endured until the normal central nervous system pathway of release is once again established.”
This seems to imply that masturbation can lead to wet dreams. I never found that to be so, but I’m not a Mormon. Maybe that’s the only religion in which that happens.
Although coming down from trees is probably not so great, if it’s in public.
Worse if you’re standing under the tree.
The answer is right there in the cite: “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.” Many lies have been employed to sell things through the years.
Good question. I asked a Mormon missionary how he handled the “no burping the worm rule”. He replied, “I pray for wet dreams”.
Not quite, see bolding.
It’s not the masturbation, it’s stopping the masturbation. And stopping only causes an increase in occurrance, and only for awhile.
Surely, I thought, someone somewhere has written a book on the history of masturbation. A search on Amazon quickly turned up Solitary Sex : A Cultural History of Masturbation by Thomas W Laqueur. From what I can glean from the book’s description on Amazon, it agrees with Exapno: