MASTURBATION

There’s an old joke about masturbation: “80% of people masturbate, and the other 20% are lying about it.” This isn’t a real statistic, of course (and some people truly don’t ever masturbate). But it does get to the point that most people know masturbation is common and normal — even if they don’t admit to doing it themselves.

Some people are embarrassed about masturbating because there are a lot of myths out there that masturbation is dirty or shameful. It may seem like nobody does it, because masturbating is private and people usually don’t talk about it.

But the honest truth is most people masturbate. Men masturbate. Women masturbate. Trans and genderqueer people masturbate. Straight people, gay people, and bisexual people masturbate. People of all ages masturbate. Some people masturbate a couple times a day, some only do it every once in awhile. And some people never masturbate — that’s totally okay, too. Masturbating is a personal decision; only do it if you want to.

Many people think that masturbation is only for single people or people who aren’t having sex, but that’s not true at all. Lots of people masturbate no matter what their relationship status is, for lots of different reasons. It’s totally normal if your girlfriend or boyfriend masturbates (or wants to masturbate) — it doesn’t mean you’re not good enough, and it doesn’t mean they’re not into you.