San Francisco, CA – May is International Masturbation Month, or #MAYsturbation, and Good Vibrations is pleased to welcome a significant milestone in the history of National Masturbation Month: its 25th anniversary!
The woman-founded company created and began celebrating this new holiday a quarter of a century ago in 1995. At that time, then-Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders had recently been fired for saying that discussion of masturbation should be included in sex education.
Of Elders’ firing, Good Vibrations’ Staff Sexologist Carol Queen — who was at the table where National Masturbation Month was brainstormed — said, “We were astounded. That was the most sensible thing we’d ever heard a government official say — and it cost Elders her job! We had to do something, so we started National Masturbation Month so we could highlight the hypocrisy and shame surrounding this most natural of acts.”
Twenty-five years later, Masturbation May has gone global, with people celebrating all over the world, raising awareness and to highlighting the importance of masturbation for nearly everyone. It’s safe, it’s healthy, it’s free, it’s pleasurable and it helps people get to know their bodies and their sexual responses. Of all the kinds of sex people can have, masturbation is the most universal, yet few people talk about it freely. Worse, many people still feel it is “second best” or problematic in some way.
Masturbation May lets us emphasize how great it is: it’s natural, common and fun!
Masturbation May in the Time of COVID-19
If there was ever a sexual activity ideal for social distancing and #QuarantineLife, masturbation is it. You can do it alone, with a partner, over video chat, with or without toys. It’s endlessly variable, pleasurable, soothing and under your control. It may be an unsung coping strategy, but masturbation is going to help us get through this difficult and unprecedented time.
While there will be no public gatherings commemorating Masturbation May this year, Good Vibrations is keeping the spirit buzzing by reviving the most popular feature from the very first year of National Masturbation Month: the Masturbation Euphemism contest! Using the hashtag #MAYsturbation on social media, tell us your favorite euphemisms or phrases for solo pleasure. Not only that, you can take our Pleasure Poll at GoodVibes.com–we want to learn more about what solo sex means to you, and you can win a GoodVibes.com eGift Card!
Still Needed After 25 Years: #MAYsturbation
While giving yourself pleasure may seem as natural as taking a breath, masturbation is still by no means a widely accepted form of sexual activity. In many parts of the world (including the US) children are punished if they are caught masturbating, which can affect their sexuality for the rest of their lives. Adults in cultures across the globe are presented with heterosexual marriage as the only acceptable form of sexual expression. Masturbation is not honored in many quarters as an important form of safer sex, much less as a way a person can love herself, learn about himself, explore their body, or exercise — as one wonderful translation terms it — “self-comfort.”
Masturbation can be a radical act, and the culture that suppresses masturbation may suppress many other personal freedoms as well. While celebrating Masturbation May and doing your part to bring self love out of the closet, keep in mind that sexual and reproductive freedom is essential to true well-being, everywhere.
Why May?
Because “the merry, merry month of May” has long been seen as symbolizing sexual awakening. Also, because “May” and “masturbation” both start with “M” — it’s nice and alliterative — #MAYsturbation
Masturbation is our first sexual activity, a natural source of pleasure that’s available to us throughout our lives, and a unique form of creative self-expression. Each time you masturbate, you’re celebrating your sexuality and your innate capacity for pleasure, so give yourself a hand (wink wink)!
For additional information on Good Vibrations, visit goodvibes.com.
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