With the Hand: A Cultural History of MasturbationPeople call it everything from “walking your dog” to “scratching your bean.” Women usually do it at home. Men, it sometimes seems, do it everywhere. Some people think it’s healthy; others think it is a sin that will send you straight to hell. But while many people declare that everyone’s doing it, no one actually talks about it—outside the pages of Cosmo, masturbation is among the most taboo of topics, not suitable for polite society or public conversation. Mels van Driel boldly breaks this silence in order to help the world overcome its diffidence toward solo sex in With the Hand. Consulting everyone from doctors and sexologists to feminists and chauvinists, van Driel explains what masturbation actually is and describes the latest discoveries and developments on the subject. He also looks to theologians, historians, and philosophers to understand perceptions of masturbation across cultures and religions throughout history. Covering a great number of topics, including age, location, and frequency, as well as the effects of circumcision and the ability to have multiple orgasms, With the Hand also explores masturbation in art, literature, poetry, and music. Addressing the physical, mythical, and mythological, this often humorous and always informative book clears up the confusion surrounding this universal, and universally unmentionable, topic. |
Contents
| 7 | |
| 16 | |
3 Education | 26 |
4 Sex Aids | 57 |
5 Animals | 94 |
6 Doctors and Other Scientists | 100 |
7 Culture Religions and Philosophers | 146 |
8 Writers and Poets | 172 |
9 Entertainment | 202 |
10 Artists | 209 |
11 In Conclusion | 234 |
| 242 | |
Photo Acknowledgements | 249 |
| 251 | |
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achieve orgasm activity American animal artist auto-eroticism Bataille bation beauty behaviour body boys Butt Plug called Cap d'Agde cent Christian circumcision clitoris coitus describes dildo disease doctors Dutch ejaculation erotic example experience eyes fact fantasies feel female prostate film finger foreskin Freud genital genitalia girls give godemiché Greek hand homosexual horny human infibulation jerking kind legs less look mainly male Masters and Johnson masturbation moral mother never onanism orgasm painting partner patients pelvic floor penis philosopher play poem poet porn pornography produced prostate cancer result says seed sensation sex education sex toy sexologist sexual intercourse sexual pleasure Signior Dildo someone sometimes sperm stimulation story surgeon survey taboo on masturbation things tion Tissot Tracey Emin treatment turbation urethra urge urine usually vagina Venus vibrator vulva woman women words writer wrote young Yvonne Kroonenberg