The Day of the Girl & Masturbation Myths
Breaking through shame and oppressive regimes
Hi Everyone,
Happy hump day and thanks so much for reading the ADULT SEX ED newsletter! If you’re enjoying it, please share with friends, so they can be hilariously informed!
This is a weekly newsletter from me, Dani Faith Leonard , a comedy writer, film producer, and performer. It’s an extension of the live comedy show ADULT SEX ED that I’ve hosted since 2018. The show is about plugging the holes in our education as adults, so I’ll be doing just that (if you want to know more about this newsletter, here’s a description on substack). Ready to get a little smarter? Okay, let’s go!
A personal note. I wasn’t planning on writing a regular newsletter this week. I’ve been filled with the same profound sadness as most of my family and friends have been. Then, I spoke with an inspiring woman who grew up in a really repressive regime, but escaped to the United States where she is an activist. She stressed to me the importance of talking about sex ed. Sex ed means freedom to a lot of people around the world. CNN posted this piece today about sex ed in India and Asia.
Today is the International Day of the Girl. I’m not completely sure when we got all of these extra holidays, but I didn’t want to let this one pass. So, here’s a regular weekly newsletter about a topic that brings a lot of people shame. Enjoy, hopefully in good health.
Dani
Ancient Egyptians believed in my favorite world creation story. Before everything, there was Atum, their God of creation. Atum ejaculated the world into existence. He even nutted out other gods. What an amazing superpower—one that deserves at least a few Marvel movies. Deadsplooge? Jean Spray?
In Ancient Egyptian culture, sex and masturbation were magical, capable of creation. The Kama Sutra, which dates back to the 4th century, also contains descriptions and depictions of masturbation. Some eastern traditional medical practitioners believed that masturbation could help balance the body’s energy. Still, most cultures attached shame to masturbation, from all the way back in biblical times.
Back in July, I wrote about the history of euphemisms for masturbation (you can read that here). In that post, I explained that Early Jewish and Christian theologians linked masturbation to the end of the human race. Onan, second son of Judah, is a character that has a brief but tragic cameo early on in Old Testament. God asks Onan to have sex with his dead brother’s wife, but he’s not into it. He pulled out and came on the ground, so he was smote to death.
Onanism didn’t just apply to men, of course. It was believed at different points through history that women also had a seed that was ejaculated during sex. There has been so much shame about female masturbation throughout history that there are barely any euphemisms for it in the history of the English language! Before doctors thought that jilling off was the cure for hysteria, they believed that female masturbation might mean the end of civilization itself (and also cause psychosis, tuberculosis, and much more).
Historically, anti-masturbation and p*rnogrpahy movements are as American as they come. I wrote about that in this piece about the online anti p*rn communities. That piece contained a bunch of myths and conspiracies, but here are a few that I haven’t discussed:
Myth #1: You’ll go blind. No one really knows the origin of this well-known myth, but it could have originated during Aristotle’s time. He hypothesized about the role of semen, but his observations contain clear mistakes like that it originates in the brain, which I guess is near the eyes. But as I wrote above, sexual arousal was blamed with causing all kinds of medical ailments and out-of-control behavior.
So…can you go blind? Not really, except in this one rare case when a dude was so vigorous that he popped a vessel. Also, I guess you could orgasm so violently that you punch your own eyeball.
Myth #2: Masturbation causes sexual dysfunction. Masturbation doesn’t lead to ED and using sex toys too much, like vibrators, can’t ruin your ability to orgasm without it permanently. The body does get used to certain sensations, but masturbation will not damage your genitals.
Myth #3: Bland food will stop the urge to masturbate. Ok, this one isn’t a universal myth, but two famous men who hated jerking off believed this to be true. It is rumored that John Harvey Kellogg invented corn flakes to stop people from cracking one off in the morning. Corn flakes were sugar free then and whether or not this rumor is 100% accurate, he did have a hatred for chronic masturbators. In 1877, he wrote that masturbation could cause defective development, mood swings, fickleness, bashfulness, boldness, bad posture, stiff joints, acne, palpitations, epilepsy AND fondness for spicy foods!
Another man who had a similar theory was Reverend Sylvester Graham, who traveled up and down the east coast on anti-masturbation tours in the 1830s. He also invented the Graham cracker. Different man, same theory.
There’s no shame in exploring ones body, finding out how you orgasm, and receiving pleasure. You might squirt out a whole new world.
Don’t miss a newsletter!
Subscribers can all issues here. Here are some recent popular posts:
As always, please share the newsletter with friends!
🤣 this is hysterical: Also, I guess you could orgasm so violently that you punch your own eyeball.