Female Masturbation

Chapter 11
What Do You Call A Female Stud?
by
Sabrina Aset
High Priestess of The House of The Goddesses
NEW: Sabrina On... Videos
Female Masturbation

Masturbation in women, like that with men is a do-it-yourself job. It can be defined as sexual self stimulation involving some kind of physical activity. You can only masturbate yourself, no one else does it for you.

People are more reluctant to take about masturbation than their other sexual activities. Guys will brag about how many girls they've laid, or a woman may mention how many lovers she's had, but they will not admit to masturbation. Girls will not readily admit to masturbating for fear they will be labels nymphomaniacs and being the brunt of meany male chauvinist offers to, "show them how it's really done". Masturbation is usually done in private, with doors locked or under the covers.

There is a large variety of phrases for male masturbation --jack off, jerk off, beat off, slam the salami, pull your pud, to name a few, but what is female masturbation called in the English language?

Nothing! We don't even have any popular slang words for it. Finger banging, refers to what the man does to the woman.

For most of history, at least since Christianity became dominant, women were not supposed to enjoy sex. The rare woman who did admit to having an orgasm was considered terrible, loose and degenerate.

To quote from the leading Victorian author of the day, D. W. Acton, "As a general rule a modern woman seldom desires any sexual gratification for herself. She submits to her husband but only to please him and, but for the desire of maternity would far rather be relieved of his attention."

Acton goes on to admit that there were a few sad exception to this rule who might be found in lunatic asylums suffering from, "the form of insanity called nymphomania". This was the acceptable position of women due to centuries of Christian teaching based on the writing of St. Paul. Ephesians 5:22, "Wives submit yourselves into your husbands as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife". I Corinthians 11, "Man was not created for woman's sake, but woman for the sake of man". These passages have really been milked by Christian clergy for centuries to oppress women and make them subservient to men.

Before the patriarchal religions of the Jews, Christian and Moslems took over, woman's sexuality was not repressed. Women masturbated and talked about it openly. In the Greek play Lysistrata written by Aristophanes around 411 B.C., the Athenian women whose husbands and lovers are all off to war with Sparta are lamenting the lack of 8 inch dildoes to console themselves. The prized dildoes were made in Miletus which, unfortunately for Athenian woman, no longer traded with Athens because they had joined with the enemy, Sparta. Lysistata, a classic Greek play, was banned in the United States by do-good-Christians until the 1960's.

Dildoes were common in ancient cultures, though they didn't vibrate like many of our modern versions. And they were made of much harder materials, like ivory in the Orient and if you could afford it, even gold as related in the Bible, Ezekiel 16:17, "Thou hast also taken they fair jewels of my gold and of my silver which I had given thee and madest to thyself images of men and didst commit whoredoms with them."

These images of men were not little statutes of men, but rather images of the male penis. In addition to dildoes, women in the Orient used ben-wa balls which they inserted in the vagina and rock back and forth enjoying the motion of the balls. Early dildoes were often made of wax, like penis shaped candles, before rubber was invented. Wax dildoes saw a resurgence in the back to basics nature movement of the 1960s.

After the Goddess religions were persecuted out of existence, women's sexuality was suppressed. All sex was deemed sinful, including masturbation. To prevent women and young girls from masturbating, doctors prescribed straight jackets at bedtime, for boys and girls alike, wrapping the child in cold wet sheet to cool the desire and tying the hands to the bedposts. Inventions similar to old chastity belts for women were designed so parents could padlock the young girl's genitals safely away from her own roaming hands, instead of some guys roaming penis.

Doctors also applied leeches to the genital area to suck away blood congestion that caused sexual arousal. One very extreme, barbaric method used on woman was to cauterized the genitals, that is to burn the clit with electric current or a hot iron. Kraft-E'bing, that abominable pseudo-scientist of whom I cannot speak too lowly, and author of Psychopathalis Sexualis, refers to a little girl who, "at the age of 10 was giving up to the most revolting vices (masturbation). Even a white hot iron applied to the clitoris had no effect in overcoming this practice. In 1894 in St. Johns Hospital, Ohio, a surgeon sewed a young girls clitoris with silver sutures because she had not been effectively stopped by cauterization. The girl tore the sutures and resumed the habit, so they resorted to an even more barbaric treatment, that of castration. That is, totally removing the clitoris. Clitorectony (or clitoridectomy) as the operation is called, were very popular in the 1850's and 1860's, but continued long after that. The last surgical clitorectony, done in the U.S. was as recent as 1948. On a five year old girl no less. I'm sure the Christian god rejoiced over that one. That was a surgical operation, but there have been hundreds done since then by Muslims and other religious followers. And that make you wonder if Muslims have a Mohel for girls.

Some tribes in African, even in Egypt and in South American still practice female castration. At the 6th World Congress of Sexology in 1983 a resolution was made to formally oppose this procedure, but it was defeated because many delegates felt they had no business regulating long standing customs of other cultures, regardless of the barbaric effects on women. More attention as been drawn to Female genital mutilation (FGM) recently and the United Nations recognized FMG as a human rights violation, one which the United Nations will intensify its efforts to persuade people to abandon the practice. In other words, "please don’t do it." I'm sure the castration of men would have brought the appropriate response.

Do you wonder why women aren't enjoying sex in our days as they are reported to have done in ancient times? All the sexy women were killed off as heretics and witches by the Christian churches during the Inquisition or tortured and had their clits removed during the Victorian era. The gene pool of sexual women had to have been diluted and the women who survived to reproduce were those who were the most sexually unresponsive. It's not their fault. Christianity and sick pseudo-scientists like Kraft-E'bing and money grubbing physicians did it to them. Modernly we have well meaning scientists like Masters and Johnson who, for all their good work still insist that "once and for all" they have proved that women can only have clitoral orgasms. According to them there is no such thing as a vaginal orgasm.

That's bull shit! I have very distinct vaginal orgasm, vary different from my clitoral orgasms. I'd volunteer for their studies. I've had more sex with men myself than they used in their entire study. They studied a bunch of prostitutes and a small group of other men and women before coming to conclusions that have, and will continue to influenced women's ideas and expectations about sex for decades. Women will give up trying to have vaginal orgasm now just as women gave up having any kind of orgasms in Victorian days, because doctors, psychologists and preachers said normal women shouldn't have them. To many militant feminists that's okay. They push the idea that women were never meant to have orgasms during intercourse anyway. To quote Shere Hite in The Hite Report A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality, "Having an orgasms during intercourse is an adaptation of our bodies. Intercourse was never meant to stimulate women to orgasm."

I disagree totally. I believe that women can enjoy vaginal stimulation and have orgasm whether it is with sexual intercourse, with a man, or a dildo while masturbating. I will grant that it is easier and probably more common to have clitoral orgasm. Most women have orgasm either during intercourse or during masturbation as a result of clitoral stimulation. But to absolutely rule out the possibility of vaginal orgasm is a great disservice to women and to male-female sexual relations.

When do women start masturbating? Kinsey, that great pioneer of sexual research, a true scientist for which I have great respect, reported masturbation as early as 7 months. Other researchers have confirmed masturbation under one year of age. How do researchers get most of their data on kids? From parents watching and reporting. Naturally these would be parents without the typical hang ups towards

Early masturbation does not always lead to orgasm. However little boys and girls do have orgasm, though little boys do not ejaculate. Kinsey described a young 3 year old girl's masturbation to orgasm as observed by her mother who described the way she lay face down on the bed, with her knees drawn up against a doll onto which she pressed with rhythmic pelvic thrusts. The mother counted the number of thrusts and noted their intensity, which brought the girl to orgasm. A second series of reaction began two minutes later. Not only did the little girl have an orgasm, but she was multi-orgasmic.

The technique used in the description is not the most common method of masturbation for women. Most women rub the clitoral area by hand. The whole area not just the clitoris which is often too sensitive.

Perhaps it's a false assumption that everyone knows what a clitoris is. The latest reports from the Kinsey Institute of Sexual Research says that 55% of American are sexually illiterate and could not answer correctly simple questions on sexual anatomy and contraception. Even Shere Hite mentions in the Hite Report that some women turned in questionnaires with the comments that they didn't know what she meant by some of the questions. Master and Johnson report this incident in their book Human Sexuality, "A married couple in their mid-twenties who were sex therapy patients said they frequently used stimulation of the clitoris as part of making love. When asked to identify the clitoris during a physical exam, the husband pointed to a large freckle on the lower part of his wife's left labia major." The lack of sexual response of the freckle may have been what brought them into therapy in the first place.

The whole vaginal area of a woman is called the vulva. The clitoris, which is the most sensitive area of female genitals, is located at the top, above the vaginal opening, where the lips, or labia, come together. The clitoris varies in size tremendously. Many are not visible, being tucked away under a skin hood. Some can protrude noticeably. There is no relationship between size of the clitoris and the size of the orgasm a women has.

Masters and Johnson in their 1966 Book, Female Sexuality reported that no two women they studied had been observed to masturbate in exactly the same way. "Even if the general pattern of physical self stimulation was similar, the timing, tempo and style of each individual's approach were unique." Men were reported to have more sameness. Though women are unique, researchers have come up with some general statistic.

According to Masters and Johnson and Shere Hite around 73% of women prefer to masturbate while lying on their backs. Most of these, 48%, will rub the clitoral area with the fingers or palm of the hand. Very few, 4%, will stimulate the clitoris directly by pulling back the hood. The clitoris is so excitable, so sexually sensitive, that direct pressure may be too excruciating. Around 26% of women use vibrators to stimulate the clitoral area. Master and Johnson believe a woman can become dependant on the use of a vibrator, but I have used vibrators to masturbate both with clitoral stimulation and also inserted into the vagina. I have found no problems relating to men. Nor do I try to compare men with vibrators.

Some men do get quite uptight and feel almost in competition with vibrators, while other men like to watch a women use a vibrator. I personally do not enjoy using both a man and a vibrator at the same time. I find my pleasure is best when I can concentrate on the man and adjust to his rhythm and not to a machine at the same time. Very few women, only 1.5% masturbate only by vaginal insertion. These women were not only using vibrators, but fingers, candles and dildoes. I have tried those, plus cucumbers, bananas, carrots and sausages to name a few. It depends on your curiosity and your imagination. None is as good as the real thing.

Another technique used in masturbation is the type used by the little 3 year old girl who rubbed against an object. About 4% of women use this approach which is usually done while lying on the stomach. With children, the object many be a stuffed toy, older women use pillows, sometimes rolled up blankets, bed clothes or a towel. Some women vary this technique by rubbing against objects while sitting down or standing up. Another technique used in female masturbation is thigh pressure. You cross your legs very tightly and squeeze, you can be sitting or lying, on your side or your back, around 3% of women use this method. Another technique is water pressure. According one doctor, "Many children discover the running water or bathtub technique. It consists of lying in the tub and maneuvering your body so that the genitals are directly under the faucet or attach a small hose to the faucet. Direct the stream of warm water onto the clitoral area. The sensation produced is akin to that of a thousand tiny fingers rapidly moving over the genitals. The pressure of the water on this sexually sensitive area can produce an orgasm."

Although the variety of methods, positions and items used by women in masturbation are numerous, once a women finds what is best for her she tends to masturbate the same way all the time. Only 11% of women who masturbate do it in more than one way. Personally I'm a very curious person so I have tried all of the mentioned methods and then some.

Many women report playing with their nipples as part of masturbation, but none use breast stimulation only. I am fortunate to be able to have orgasm through nipple stimulation only, but I prefer having other parts stimulated at the same time.

Who is masturbating? There seems to have been an increase in the number of people, both male and female who admit to sex researchers that they masturbate. In Kinsey's original report in 1948, 62% of the females reported masturbating. In Hunts Playboy Foundation report in 1975, 63%. Shere Hite reports 82% of the women answered, "yes", they masturbated. Of that 82%, 95% of those could orgasm easily and regularly whenever they wanted. Compare the masturbation statistics to the Playboy figures that 15% of women never or almost never experience orgasm with a partner during intercourse. In the Hite report 12% never had orgasm during intercourse. Yet in the list of preferred sexual activities of heterosexual women in the Book of Sexual Lists, women rate intercourse much higher than masturbation.

When asked about sexual intercourse in The Hite Report, the most frequent reason given for liking intercourse by far was that it is a time of great affection an closeness. What was lowest on women's preference list was performing fellatio on a man. Women do not just want to suck a man's cock. They would rather masturbate. But unfortunately fellatio is what most men desire, it's the at the top of the man's preference list.

Many people believe that people masturbate only because they can't get a sex partner, but statistics show that many married people continue to masturbate. Just because you're married doesn't mean you automatically have a willing sex partner. The Playboy foundation reported 18 to 24 year old masturbated around 37 times a year. 68% of young married women continued to masturbate after marriage, and they did so around 10 times a year. Since the majority of women are not having orgasms during intercourse even with their husbands, why not masturbate?

Many women get excited when a man is having his orgasm but his cuming ends her enjoyment, so she will go into the bathroom ostensibly to clean up, but actually to masturbate.

It is a common misconception that women don't need sex and sexual release like men do. It is believed that a man, once aroused has to get off or he's in great discomfort, get blue balls, hard nuts, but that nothing happens to the woman. But this is not true. Women can get aroused having her partner play with her nipples, finger her clit, get her genitals all excited and engorged, get her hips moving, then her partner dives in, cums, pulls out and that's the end. She's left frustrated. Dr. Lucienne Lanson in his book From Woman to Woman, gives a rather lengthy description of what, "Regular sexual stimulation up to but not including orgasm" can do to women, when the "genital tissues remain congested and engorged with stagnant blood... The uterus itself, which can frequently enlarge in size by two or three times... may take hours to return to its former size... This causes vague abdominal discomfort, backaches and a sense of pelvic fullness, there can even be a constant vaginal discharge absence of any infection. For other women chronic pelvic congestion ultimately make them tense and irritable and interfere with normal sleep."

Masturbation releases congestion and tension. I don't know about other women, but it relieves me of hiccups. It also has other benefits in that once a woman has experienced orgasm in masturbation she knows what sensation to look for and encourage during sex with a partner. Dr. Wendell Pomeroy, co-author of the Kinsey Reports states in his book Your Child and Sex, "There is a correlation between early masturbation in girls and their adult sex lives. Those who have a history of masturbation to orgasm in their teens are far more likely to achieve orgasm as adults in their heterosexual relationships. Women who have orgasm easily in marriage, no matter what other circumstances may exist in the relationship, are likely to have been early masturbators who achieved orgasm. Consequently it should be a great relief to parents if their early teen age daughter is masturbating to orgasm. After all, masturbation is not sinful; the genitals are not dirty. Masturbation is a normal, healthy activity and was always viewed as such in the Goddess religions.

Sex researchers have finally caught up with our ancient ideas. However, despite all the beneficial aspects, masturbation can engender some very serious problems.


Copyright 1986, 1990, 1997, 2012, 2015 by Sabrina Aset. All rights reserved.