When you hear the word masturbation your mind somehow automatically relates it to men. Is it wrong? For the longest time, we have looked at masturbation as something men regularly do. But, women do it too, right ladies? Yet on a global perspective, it is accepted and an undeniable truth that men do masturbate more than women. Hence, the question, in today's day and age, have things changed?
Nature and nurture. From an evolutionary perspective, men are hardwired to want to orgasm because it's necessary for reproduction, says Dr. John Bancroft, a senior researcher at the Kinsey Institute, in an article for Mens health. Did you know that this was even discussed in the Bible? It's said that since Eve ate the forbidden fruit, her punishment was that she'll (women) be the one who carries a child and that since Adam allowed himself to be tempted as well, he (men) shall have the desire for sex.
The National survey of sexual health and behavior provided us with statistics on this matter. They said “Regarding the highest-frequency masturbators, 5% of women ages 25-29 engage in solo sessions more than 4 times a week, while 20.1% of men do. The gap closes in for those who reported masturbating multiple times a month, with 21.5% of women ages 25-29 and 25.4% of men in that same age group.”
By FiveThirtyEight
According to another research, A study in the Journal of Sex Research was released. The research tracked the sexual habits of teenagers from Sweden, Belgium, and Germany, and one of the major lines of questioning was about masturbation. The big surprise was that, in this study, the male-female response percentages were shockingly close when it came to masturbation. According to the data, “approximately 98.9% of male participants and 85.5% of female participants said they had masturbated at some point in their lives. Furthermore, almost all men and more than 81% of women said they had orgasms while masturbating.”
Turns out, men still tend to masturbate more than women. Countries with different cultures make all the difference. To some, female masturbation is considered normal behavior and on par with male masturbation. While for others, it's still a taboo subject, but then again, that's another story. This just goes to show that masturbation is now becoming a gender-neutral phenomenon.