What Constitutes Masturbation, Anyway?

Maybe it's time for us to rethink self-pleasure.

Photo by Carson Masterson on Unsplash

I've been thinking about masturbation. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about what constitutes masturbation.

Is masturbation simply stroking or touching your genitalia to get off? Or is it touching your genitalia with no intention at all?

Is it masturbating when a penis owner idly repositions the family jewels?
Is it masturbation when someone rests their hands atop their breasts?
Is it masturbation when our hands explore between our legs?
Is it masturbation anytime we touch our own skin?

These are things I've been thinking about.

It's a touchy subject, pun intended.

For the next few minutes, I want you to imagine we (you and me) are sitting down with a cup of brown liquor, maybe an old-fashioned or something, chatting about the different ways we humans connect with ourselves… beyond the assumptions and whispers about what it means to touch ourselves.

So first, I want to define the landscape —self-pleasure.

It's arguably an art form.
It's self-expression.
It doesn't have to be in a bedroom.

It could be in the shower. It could be in the car while you're driving down the street.

I think self-pleasure is about finding joy and comfort in our skin, whether that leads to climax or not.

Think about it as the difference between eating because you're starving or savoring because it tastes good. Both are necessary. There's satisfaction in satiating hunger, but there's also satisfaction in just relishing and enjoying the way something tastes or the way it feels in your mouth.

And I'm not saying that sexual pleasure isn't fantastic. It's great, right?

But what if the menu was bigger?

What if it was more expansive?