Sexual Beginning – Masturbation

masturbation

The entire sexual development of women in present-day society, from childhood to motherhood, is better educated and informed. But sex education for young children remains a dilemma for parents. We know the appearance of menstrual is a sign of puberty but, at the same time, it is also the beginning of sexual contact. All parents being protective towards their child, the word sex or subjects related to sex have been deliberately kept in ignorance, the small girl is hardly informed of the primary facts of sex.

At this stage, the child naturally and unconsciously perform masturbation or infantile masturbation which is part of a biologically natural character during this transition phase, they are curious about their new development. Occasionally, erotic dreams and daydreams lead to girls’ orgastic sensations.

Thus, safely say that masturbation constitutes an almost inevitable transition phase in the sexual development of the young girl or even boy in the present day. The practice is relatively harmless so long as it remains confined to this transition phase and it is a temporary character, and as long as it is not considered later on preferable to normal sexual intercourse.

It becomes harmful if involves permanent neurotic complications, is induced by warnings, scares, and threats of punishment, or disease resulting from masturbation. Once, the late Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, pioneer of sexology reported the experience of a young girl who, despite threats and warnings, could not but continue to obey the irresistible impulse:

“… I did it when I was at home, and lying in bed. I do not remember whether I thought anything of it when I did it. I only know that it was quite dark and quiet. I was doubled up under the bed-clothes. When it was over I often cried to myself. I went to bed frightened and could not go to sleep without praying. My spiritual condition went from bad to worse, and I kept on promising myself never to do it again until I finally comforted myself and went to sleep. I never kept my promise. It happened again, I do not know how long after, and I think not more frequently than once a month. A year ago, I gave it up as my mother caught me at it and gave me a lecture. So out of love for my mother, I gave it up until a little while before menstruation.”

Then I felt such a tickling and itching that I did it again with great passion. The next morning I found that I was bleeding and had pains in the knees and the thighs and could not get up. I told my mother that I had done it again and that I was bleeding, for I thought this was a consequence of it and cried bitterly. Mother comforted me and gave me a second talk. I was then thirteen years old.”

The child inevitably reacts to this with a mixture of curiosity and horror. The curiosity springs from the natural impulse, the horror grows out of the automatic reflection that these forbidden and “indecent” practices were and are carried on by her own parents and that in fact, she owes her very existence to this baseness of which the parents also speak with stern distaste.

Sexual Curiosity

In the earlier years of sexual studies, some scientists without exception acknowledge that nearly 100 percent of all men and women masturbated during this transition phase. This view is supported by statistical investigation we are quoting below statistics on the frequency of masturbation, as compiled by various senior sexologists (see Encyclopedia of Sexual Knowledge):

  • Dr. Marcuse (Munich) 93.9%
  • Dr. Deutsch (Budapest) 96.7%
  • Prof. Duck 90.8 %
  • Dr. Rohleder (Enquiry among students) 90.1%
  • Dr. Dukes (Enquiry among English students) 90-95%
  • Dr. Searley (Enquiry among American students) 85.3%
  • Dr. Hirschfeld (Berlin) 96%
  • Dr. Desider Hahn (Enquiry among workmen) 96%
  • Dr. Brockman (America) (Enquiry among theological students) 99.3 %
  • Dr. Young (America): 100%

It is also no exaggeration to say that the first arrived period also inevitably constitutes a minor emotional hurt to the little girl who is kept in unnatural ignorance. A feeling of being unclean, self-disgust, is nearly always connected up with the bad conscience which sees bleeding as punishment for actual masturbation, and “dirty thoughts.” Even at present, the young girl has sufficient knowledge to know that such a direct causal connection does not exist, there is still some vague conviction that bodily uncleanness is caused by spiritual impurity that is generally maintained in the subconscious. The widespread frequency of this attitude and its effects contribute a great deal to sexual misery, especially in conservative or religious cultures. The subject of sex is often to abstain in strict traditional families.

When a young girl questioned her mother about the origin of babies, she was told ‘You don’t need to know. Those are dirty things with which you must not stain the purity of your little soul,’ etc. Anna had no idea that she herself, her mother, and her little brothers owed their existence to those ‘dirty things’ the nature of which remained a mystery for her.

Always closely chaperoned by her governess she never even had an opportunity to discuss the subject with her friends. One day, in the course of a gymnastic lesson, she noticed that climbing up a pole gave her ‘a pleasant sensation’; then she found that she could induce the same sensation by pressing her legs tightly together. She would have mentioned it to her mother, but she vaguely suspected that her discovery was not unconnected with the ‘dirty things.’

One day little Anna woke up and saw bloodstains on her sheets and nightgown. She immediately concluded that she had defiled herself with those dirty things, and fallen ill. God had punished her, and her mother would learn Anna was an abject being. She decided to die, and going to the kitchen, turned on the gas. She was rescued at the last moment after she had already become unconscious.”

“The terror of the uninitiated girl at the sight of this inexplicable hemorrhage is such that she frequently regards it as a punishment for having masturbated and harbored impure thoughts. She often sees no other solution than suicide. Dr. Stekel cites the case of little Anna.

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