# When Was Masturbation First \[Explicitly\] Regarded as Sinful? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940 "2012-10-26T15:28:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/1 "2012-10-26T15:28:03Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/2 "2012-10-26T16:03:02Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > \*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](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2205/what-exactly-was-the-sin-of-onan) on it includes some discussion of evolving Christian attitudes toward masturbation, which is at least tangentially related to what you’re asking here. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/3 "2012-10-26T16:15:14Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > It’s not, originally, but [Cecil’s article](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2205/what-exactly-was-the-sin-of-onan) 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.” ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/4 "2012-10-26T16:27:34Z")
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… ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/5 "2012-10-26T17:02:09Z")
Didn’t Freud have some strange ideas about wanking? His contemporary (health nut Dr. Kellogg) also thought that choking the chicken could be deadly! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/6 "2012-10-26T17:09:52Z")
In modern terms, it appears to date to the [18th century](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masturbation#In_history_and_society). > [@](#): > > The 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. It drew 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.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/7 "2012-10-26T17:10:55Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > 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. ‘If it feels good, _stop it!_’ ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/8 "2012-10-26T17:50:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/9 "2012-10-26T17:58:32Z")
> [@CC](#): > > They all did it. We don’t know that that’s true. Some men have self-control. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/10 "2012-10-26T18:16:49Z")
This is an entertaining view on how the Mormon leadership viewed masturbation. [http://www.moonmac.com/Mormon\_masturbation.html](http://www.moonmac.com/Mormon_masturbation.html) ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/11 "2012-10-26T18:32:20Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > We don’t know that that’s true. Some men have self-control. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/12 "2012-10-26T18:34:43Z")
All of religion is based on the preachings of reformed sinners. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/13 "2012-10-26T18:39:13Z")
Do the Mormons also have advice on avoiding wet dreams? ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/14 "2012-10-26T20:40:12Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/15 "2012-10-26T20:44:04Z")
> [@CC](#): > > This is something that boys/men have probably done since we came down from trees Although coming down from trees is probably not so great, if it’s in public. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/16 "2012-10-26T20:51:34Z")
Worse if you’re standing under the tree. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/17 "2012-10-26T21:11:09Z")
> [@CC](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/18 "2012-10-26T21:22:12Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Do the Mormons also have advice on avoiding wet dreams? Good question. I asked a Mormon missionary how he handled the “no burping the worm rule”. He replied, “I pray for wet dreams”. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/19 "2012-10-26T22:44:13Z")
> [@CC](#): > > . . . This seems to imply that masturbation can lead to wet dreams. . . . . Not quite, see bolding. > [@CC](#): > > . . . 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." . . . . It’s not the masturbation, it’s stopping the masturbation. And stopping only causes an increase in occurrance, and only for awhile. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940/20 "2012-10-26T23:08:25Z")
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](http://www.amazon.com/Solitary-Sex-Cultural-History-Masturbation/dp/1890951331/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351292120&sr=1-11&keywords=masturbation) by Thomas W Laqueur. From what I can glean from the book’s description on Amazon, it agrees with **Exapno** : > [@](#): > > In fact, solitary sex as a serious moral issue can be dated with a precision rare in cultural history; Laqueur identifies it with the publication of the anonymous tract Onania in about 1722. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-masturbation-first-explicitly-regarded-as-sinful/638940.md?page=2)