SEX HISTORY: When Did Women Start to Masturbate

23.08.2011 | By: A. B.

Masturbation used to be such a big taboo for women that they wouldn't even think about it. Do you know how and why that changed?

We can thank the sexual revolution for making masturbation something perfectly acceptable today. (PhotoXpress)

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Thank you, sexual revolution!

The fact that more and more women masturbate is the result of the sexual revolution, which relaxed the female view of sex. Female sexuality and the view on women in general changed, so it is no wonder that it was masturbation, which became a very common and accessible way of reaching orgasm and relaxing after a long day. The Sexologist Shere Hite wrote in the seventies that the female orgasm still is not accepted by the public, because it is still allowed and supported only in a relationship with a man, but by today that has definitely changed, since in most modern societies, female masturbation is recommended and supported. Hite's wish that masturbation should be celebrated as the easiest way for a woman to reach orgasm has thus come true. The movie 9 ½ weeks, with Kim Basinger happily masturbating and of course the series Sex and the City, broke the last taboos and brought sex into the homes of common housewives, for example with the episode, where one of the main protagonists buys a vibrator. Or, as written by the journalist Marion Made on masturbation, when quoting a very brave and provocative woman: "What good would a man do me? I'm better at this than most men I know. When masturbating, a woman is definitely in bed with a person she loves."

Freud about female masturbation

Female masturbation is no different than its male version, except women added depth and female connotations to it. Primarily it is still the satisfying of the need for sex, a completely normal act, most common with teenage girls and which is perfectly fine. Sigmund Freud disagrees. He described it as an infantile behavior, acceptable only for teenage girls. Shere Hite would probably crucify him, since she fought for the standpoint that adult women have to masturbate as well. In Alfred Kinsey's day, female masturbation was still some kind of a taboo, since women never even thought of doing it, even though they knew men were doing it. Later, as we already mentioned, the perception of masturbation completely changed and therefore Kinsey's findings, that women start masturbating only after they reach the age of 20, sound a bit ridiculous today.

A difference between men and women is supposedly also in the fact, that women masturbate only a certain part of their lives, then stop for a while and come back to it later. Still interesting is Kinsey's theory on the connection between women's education levels and masturbation. He found out that among women with lower education, only about 50 per cent masturbate, while masturbation is almost universal among highly educated women. This means that women, who are not adequately educated about sex, perceive masturbation as something dirty and harmful. Maybe this is the origin of the feminist battle for the right to orgasm and the fact that highly educated women were the first to fight for masturbation.

Masturbation is good practice

Kinsey already realized, that women developed very original techniques for masturbation. Men usually imagine that women usually masturbate by stimulating the opening of their vagina. This is a fallacy, which resulted from the mindset that women only enjoy sex with a man. Masturbation is much more than just a substitute for sex, says Shere Hite. It is good practice for further sex life. How can you love and satisfy another, if you cannot love and satisfy yourself.