May is Masturbation Month
Forget Cinco de Mayo! Let’s masturbate all month long!
Good Vibes founded National
Masturbation Month in 1995 in the wake of the controversy surrounding
the firing of former Clinton administration Surgeon General Joycelyn
Elders, who evoked conservative wrath when she opined that discussion of
masturbation might have a place in sex education curricula. Realizing
that one simple, sensible mention of solo pleasuring was enough to lose
this prominent woman, the country’s first African-American surgeon
general, her job convinced Good Vibrations staff that this most basic
and accessible form of sex needed a serious image boost.
Some things have changed since 1995,
but National Masturbation Month is still a necessary reminder that
self-satisfaction is a healthy, accessible form of pleasure engaged in
by almost everyone, of every gender and relationship status, at some
time of (or throughout) their lives: It’s relaxing, allows people to
learn more about their own sexual response, is a basic recommendation of
sex therapists that can help people with many different sexual
concerns, relieves menstrual cramps, and helps keep the genitals fully
functional. On top of that, it’s the safest form of sex a person can
have.
Go for it!