Popular myths about masturbating

Since the earliest days of mankind on this plant, every little thing that people failed to understand or whose origins they could not comprehend was surrounded by a mass of myths and rumors. It’s pretty clear that people who don’t understand something won’t stop talking about it and speculating on its purpose. The more mysterious something is, the more people like to state their opinions, which take the form of myths. Naturally, sex has not been spared the overwhelming curiosity of uninformed people. The layer of myths, rumors and jokes surrounding sex is absolutely huge.

Just like any other sexual practice, masturbation has been the choice target of many myths which have survived even in an age when people should know better. It’s surprising to see that even some people who acknowledge masturbationand accept it as an inevitable part of the development of any human being claim that this practice is only for kids. This is plain wrong. Masturbation is performed by many people of all ages and for various reasons. Men and women who have been married for years still masturbate when they feel like it.

Another widespread myth is the idea that masturbation is something performed only by lonely, desperate people who can’t find a partner or by perverted individuals. Not true! More than 90 percent of all males and at least half of all women masturbate. About 98 percent of all people polled by studies admitted to having masturbated at least once in their lives. Masturbation is a perfectly natural thing and people should not be ashamed to admit to it. Reality disproves the idea that masturbation is a practice suited only for the losers of the big “Find a Partner” contest.

Other people think that only men masturbate. Once again we’re dealing with a myth! Women like sex just as much as men and have no moral or physical reasons to refrain from masturbation. While it’s true that women who are engaged in long term relations tend to masturbate less frequent, most of them still do that on occasion.

The myth that women don’t do it is right next door to “only homosexuals masturbate”. This is absolutely ridiculous. Since almost every boy and most girls discover sex through masturbation between the ages of 10 and 13, this would mean that nearly everyone is a homosexual.

Another silly idea designed to frighten young people is the myth that masturbating causes the penis to stop growing. There’s absolutely no relation between penis size and masturbation and millions of men can testify to this. And, no, masturbation does not shrink the testicles either. This is yet another “bright” idea some people spread around. Who comes up with these things anyway?

Then we have the strange variety of myths according to which masturbation can bring about physical changes to the body. We all know that these myths are mostly used to scare teen-agers, but people have believed in them and some might still do. For instance some people believe that masturbation can cause hair to grow on a person’s hands. No doubt, this is a story designed to scare people and enforce abstinence.

It’s pretty useless to point out that there hasn’t been a single case of abnormal hair growth caused by masturbation. And there are more such fantastic claims. Masturbation is said to cause bad eyesight, hair loss, fatigue and nervous illnesses. Who would have thought?

Or and even brighter idea: frequent masturbation makes men run out of semen. There’s no such thing as running out of semen. Even at the age of 90 a man’s testicles are still producing semen and viable spermatozoids. It’s true that at such an age men are no longer able to use that semen, but the point is that it’s still being produced despite a lifetime of intercourse andmasturbation. And have you ever heard some people claiming that masturbation causes sexually transmitted diseases. This one is really strange. How can you give yourself a disease?