Still in the Dark Ages About Masturbation?

by WiredBerries Editors — August 23, 2007

Although Freud has been quoted "the subject of masturbation is quite inexhaustible," there has not been any inexhaustible outpouring of books about it. According to the Journal of Sex Research, since the 1960s, only around 30 have appeared (this total includes 7 works of either fiction, jokes, or photos). A surprisingly low number considering all the available texts about sex and considering that masturbation could be considered an extremely common human sex act. The article reviews three of the most recent publications and asks whether serious scholarship and publishing about masturbation finally be catching up to a millennia-old sexual practice. Perhaps masturbation is out of the closet at last.