Masturbation Month Turns 17

In 1994 when President Bill Clinton fired Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders for answering yes to a question about whether masturbation was an appropriate topic to be addressed in sexual health education, many of us shook our heads. Not that we couldn't believe he fired her for it. Most of us were dismayed (or depressed) by the level of hypocrisy that would make it a forgone conclusion that she'd lose her job for suggesting that the most common sexual behavior on the planet be at least mentioned when we teach about sexuality.

The following year in a collaborative move that is hard to imagine today, three feminist sex shops got together to simultaneously celebrate Dr. Elders forthrightness, raise the topic of masturbation in public, and raise their own profiles. And so National Masturbation Month and the Masturbate-a-Thon were born.

It's been 17 years, and the longest running Masturbate-a-Thon (brought to you by the Center for Sex and Culture) is scheduled for May 27th, while a Canadian contingent (from the worker co-operative Come As You Are) will be raising funds all month.

If you haven't heard of it before, a masturbate-a-thon is a fundraiser where people commit to heroic sessions of self-pleasure, and ask others to pledge them. Sometimes it's by the minute, other times it's by the orgasm. But however you do it, it's a whole lot of fun, and always for a good cause.

I'll be highlighting my own odes to solo sex all this month, and after reading an article about a college student who is pledging to abstain from masturbation for a month (because she feels she's doing it too much), I thought I'd start with a question that I get whenever I'm on a college campus: how much masturbation is too much masturbation. Read on, and if you aren't sure how to celebrate the month, later in the week I'll be offering tips in that direction.

Read More: How Much Masturbation Is Too Much?