Britney Spears had “Touch of My Hand” (2003), Cyndi Lauper had “She Bop” (1984) and Tori Amos had “Icicle” (1994). While these songs can each be interpreted as being about the performance of masturbation for an audience appreciative of risqué material, they can also be construed as simply centered on the everydayness of female masturbation: that women masturbate and that on rare occasions they even sing about it, much like they do about love, loss, or a million other everyday topics. This chapter focuses on screen presentations that follow this lead and which, instead of demonizing it (chapter 1), eroticizing it (chapter 6) or even celebrating it (chapter 9), simply present autoeroticism as an ordinary activity. This normalness gets portrayed in a variety of ways: this chapter focuses on depictions that show it as seamlessly integrated into ordinary life, that present the motives as multi-faceted and akin to other pastimes, and those which bind the practice to props, rendering it as an activity with a distinctly commercial bent.
While the screen offers normalized presentations of the masturbation of both genders, the normalization of male masturbation provides an interesting starting point for this discussion. In an episode of sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), the normalness of male masturbation was referenced when Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld)—during his conversation with Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) about her alleged unfair advantage in their masturbation contest—explained, “[men] have to do it. It’s part of our lifestyle.” In an episode of sitcom Friends (1994–2004), when Chandler (Matthew Perry) was caught masturbating by his partner Monica (Courteney Cox), Monica relayed the story to her friend Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) who knowingly responded, “men do that.” In both examples masturbation is dismissed simply as the ordinary behavior of men. Normalization of male masturbation was articulated in both examples and is a presentation widely identifiable.
In an episode of the British fantasy series Misfits (2009–), Curtis (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) transformed into a woman and one of the first things he did in his new body was masturbate. While this scene could be construed as the character simply taking the opportunity to touch the genitals of a woman—even if they are technically now his own—another reading is the normalness of bodily curiosity and the quest for new sexual pleasures: that if you have genitals—or, as in Curtis’ case, a brand new vagina—of course you will want to play with it, and of course you will want to pursue the new pleasures it proffers. The sci-fi film Amanda & the Alien (1995) presented similar themes: after taking over the body of a woman, one of the first things the alien did in its new host was masturbate: new body, new sensations; masturbation was presented as inevitable. These themes can be detected in a range of narratives. In chapter 2, the masturbation of adolescents in their newly maturing bodies was discussed. As in the Misfits and Amanda & the Alien examples, it was presented as completely inevitable that adolescents responded to their physical and hormonal changes by self-stimulating. Along similar lines are those (albeit rare) presentations of pregnant women masturbating—as in the Spanish romantic-drama Lucía y el sexo (Sex and Lucia) (2001), the comedy-drama Junebug (2005), the sitcom The League (2009–) and the drama Autoerotic (2011)—where changing and increasingly rounded bodies delivered expectant mothers new sensations.
Each of these scenes can, of course, be interpreted as primarily sensual presentations. While not necessarily erotic—although, like any such scene, they can certainly be construed that way—they are narratives that present touch as a way to connote transformation and to promote sensuality, to illustrate the many ways that being human can be felt. That just as a character might touch grass or snow or fresh rain to send a subtle message about the joy of different skin sensations—the joy of being alive and human[1]—masturbation can function similarly.
Autoeroticism also gets depicted as normal when it is spoken about as though it is akin to any other pastime; when its inclusion in a narrative is not particularly scandalous or jarring or comic or maudlin, but rather functions to present the act as just like any other. In chapter 3 I discussed out and proud vibrator owners such as Renee (Jennifer Aniston) in She’s the One (1996), Bobbie (Bette Midler) in The Stepford Wives (2004), Max (Kat Dennings) in 2 Broke Girls (2011–) and Judy (Colleen Camp) in Sliver (1993) who each casually mentioned their vibrators during conversations. Just as talk of a vibrator can expose a character as a masturbator and present the act as normal and one without extensive shame or embarrassment attached, the casual divulging of the act can also frame it as perfectly normal. In a scene from the zombie series The Walking Dead (2010–) for example, a group of women were shown washing clothes in a quarry. Carol (Melissa McBride) mused, “I do miss my Maytag,” and Jacqui (Jeryl Prescott) spoke about missing her “coffeemaker, with that dual-drip filter and built-in grinder.” Andrea (Laurie Holden) divulged, “I miss my vibrator,” a remark with which Carol agreed: “Me, too.” While in this scene Andrea and Carol identified ownership and enjoyment of vibrators in their pre-zombie apocalypse past, most notable for this chapter, their vibrators were pined for as keenly as other conveniences of modern life. This scene presents masturbation with a vibrator as similar to coffee or laundry: that there is an everydayness to it and, notably, that modern conveniences can make it better or easier. A variation of masturbation’s everydayness was apparent in an episode of The Simpsons (1989–) when Homer confessed to a priest that he had masturbated “eight billion times” and had “no intention of stopping.” Here, happily married Homer frankly divulged the extent to which masturbation has been integrated into his life. The same themes transpired in a scene from the British series Skins (2007–): adolescent Tony (Nicholas Hoult) gloated to a friend about how productive his day had been: “I’ve been home, showered, done my chi, had a wank, subtly undermined my dad, put new clothes on and here I am, with my English course work.” Tony’s friend doesn’t pause at the masturbation reference—it doesn’t jar him—instead, more tellingly, he cringed at the mentioning of the English homework. The undercurrent here is that boys masturbate and that this perfectly normal and no big deal.[2] In an episode of the animated British series Bromwell High (2005–), the same idea was alluded to in a conversation between journalist Steve, school principal Iqbal and deputy principal Roger:
Steve: It must be hard work keeping the school at the top of the class. How do you relax?
Iqbal: I take five minutes every day to recharge my batteries, read the newspaper, and have a lovely big wank.
Roger: I enjoy doing the crossword puzzle. Obviously I use a different newspaper.
This idea of a daily “lovely big wank” humorously reflects the idea of masturbation as casual and as ordinary as reading a newspaper. While, of course, Tony in Skins and Iqbal in Bromwell High could be accused of oversharing and not observing social mores regarding masturbation being kept a secret, there is also the idea that they simply construe masturbation as free from the drama more commonly underpinning screen portrayals: that the casualness they speak about it is in line with the everydayness that most masturbators likely think—or perhaps not think—about their actions.
A more explicit demonstration of the same themes was identifiable in the comedy Slackers (2002). Jeff (Michael C. Maronna) entered a dorm purporting to be looking for Angela (Jaime King) but instead encountered her roommate Reanna (Laura Prepon). Reanna was masturbating with a vibrator and continued to do so throughout Jeff’s time in the dorm. Given how many presentations focus on masturbation as something done in private—and thus, as something potentially traumatizing to have exposed (chapter 2)—in this scene not only is Reanna unashamed about her behavior, but most notably, she continues to use her vibrator throughout the scene: masturbation is presented as an ordinary, everyday activity that can happily be conducted in the presence of a stranger. While Reanna’s unusual behavior is designed to cast her as somewhat strange—or at least distinctly brazen—nevertheless, she was not an exhibitionist: she didn’t seek out to masturbate publicly, nor did she appear to get an enhanced thrill from being caught, rather, she simply was already masturbating when Jeff walked in and she wasn’t humiliated into stopping.
As in Slackers, a character’s reaction to getting sprung is often another way that masturbation is depicted as normal. While Slackers is an outlier depiction—where Reanna continued self-stimulating—in other examples, a masturbator’s casual response works to convey the same idea that autoeroticism is not shameful, and that getting caught doing it is like being discovered engaged in any other ordinary, unstigmatized activity. In the mystery Presumed Innocent (1990) for example, when Rusty walked in on his wife (Bonnie Bedelia) and asked her whether she had been exercising, she corrected him and said that she had been masturbating. In the British comedy-drama Somers Town (2008), Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) was caught masturbating by his friend Marek (Piotr Jagiello). Rather than being humiliated, Tomo laughed at the interruption. Such scenes—while indeed stirring up discussion points pertaining to marriage and gender respectively—frame the self-stimulation as one of complete naturalness.
While the presentation of masturbation as normal might be done to showcase the possibly liberal views of the masturbator, they can also be read as in line with contemporary views on masturbation where the act is distanced from repressive attitudes and is thus included to frame a narrative as modern and abreast of the Zeitgeist. Hephzibah Anderson for example, in her memoir Chastened: No More Sex in the City, noted “Yes, masturbation is big in indie movies right now . . . but mightn’t that just be a metaphor for sexual alienation?”[3] Part of the explanation for it being big is that it can be a subtle way to set a narrative apart from others: to mark it as daring, realistic and cutting-edge.[4] A good demonstration of this is comparing Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho (1960) to Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake. Van Sant’s remake was almost scene-for-scene identical to Hitchcock’s. One of very few changes made however, was Van Sant’s inclusion of a scene where Norman (Vince Vaughn) masturbated while he spied on Marion (Anne Heche) through a peep hole. In film theorist Peter Verstraten’s discussion of the two films, he spotlighted that the new film “supplements some typically contemporary accents.”[5] Film writer Justin Vicari took the contemporary idea a step further noting “the sexuality of Vaughn’s [Norman] Bates is not hidden or repressed: he is able to masturbate, for instance. . . .This is something that [Anthony] Perkins’ Bates could never have done . . .”[6] Here, Vicari alludes to the idea that a modern presentation of Norman meant doing away with a hidden or repressed sexuality more common to the 1960s (due in part to censorship restrictions) and instead allows a character the opportunity to be depicted more completely: that masturbation was a way for a narrative to be more cutting edge, more realistic and to present masturbation as an illustration of normal sexuality within a contemporary narrative. While, of course, there are many better illustrations of masturbation connoting normal sexuality than Psycho—in Psycho masturbation is, in fact, directly connected to creepiness (chapter 1)—the inclusion of it being reflective of modern approaches to sexuality is worth noting.
Masturbation is also presented as ordinary via its depiction as explicitly disconnected from sexiness and when the erotic aspects often associated with the act are sidelined.
As discussed throughout this book, masturbation—specifically female masturbation—is routinely presented as sexy. When a representation deviates from the erotic standard—when the act is presented more as a relaxation activity akin to having a bath or a glass of warm milk before bed—the scene can reflect the act’s normal role in everyday life. In chapter 5 for example, I discussed the role that location can have in masturbation scenes by eschewing sexiness and replacing it with connotations of sterility and hygiene. When adolescent boys masturbate in bathrooms for example, location can position the act similar to bathing or using the toilet. Even scenes staged in comparatively sexier locations—such as bedrooms—aren’t always erotic. A good female example of this transpired in the comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding (2007). While of course, “sexiness” is subjective, this scene deliberately downplays the eroticism often assumed in a female masturbation display: Margot (Nicole Kidman) masturbated while lying on her stomach; a position concealing most of her face and body. Not only does the act not seem particularly pleasurable for Margot, but notably—to add realism to the scene—the character still had her mouthguard in. Margot was notably masturbating for herself and not the audience. In line with the scenes discussed in chapter 9—where masturbation is often deployed as a technique for relaxation such as in Seinfeld or the comedy Due Date (2010)—Margot’s masturbation was less erotic and more simply a relaxation attempt. Worth noting—and something also working to downplay the sexiness—is that akin to many of the male masturbation examples, Margot doesn’t get the opportunity to orgasm. As discussed in chapter 6, moans and faces contorted in pleasure are common ways to imbue a scene with some subtle, non-genital sexiness. Margot’s masturbation was void of any such sexiness; she was simply masturbating as an (unsuccessful) means to fall asleep.
A variant of the unsexy—or at least less consciously erotic—masturbation scene are those where the self-stimulation is conducted by characters who are unattractive; who the audience is less likely to sexualize. An obvious example of this is the pregnant woman. While for Elena (Najwa Nimri) in Lucía y el sexo (Sex and Lucia), her pregnancy was not yet visible (and thus she still looked slender and conventionally desirable), in Junebug, a heavily pregnant Ashley (Amy Adams) masturbated, as did the unnamed Kris Swanberg character in Autoerotic (2011). Jenny (Katie Aselton) in The League in fact went into labor soon after her masturbation. There are many reasons why pregnant women are rarely portrayed as figures of desirability on screen including that The Mother is routinely (if albeit ironically) thought of as chaste and pure. Another explanation is the popular contempt for the “fat” body. In chapter 7 I discussed a number of narratives where unsexy—unfuckable—characters masturbated. While such behavior can be used to demonize an overweight character and cast them as loathsome and disgusting (and use their masturbation to prove this), such presentations can also be construed, more simply, as a normal activity for someone who is not conventionally Hollywood-attractive (and thus who likely has decreased sexual options). Such an analysis can be extended to Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Happiness (1998), Nadia (Sacha Horler) in the Australian drama Soft Fruit (1999), Ethan in Due Date, Lewis (Tyler Labine) in Control Alt Delete (2008), Neil (Josh Gad) in Thanks for Sharing (2012) and Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) in American Horror Story (2011–) who were each lonely and overweight and masturbated accordingly. The characters’ comparative unattractiveness can also be construed as part of a narrative’s realistic feel: that it wouldn’t be believable that a Hollywood-attractive man or woman would be in the lonely masturbator role, but an overweight masturbator seems plausible.
In chapter 7 I discussed the idea of masturbation chosen over intercourse for purposes of efficiency. Speed—particularly as related to male masturbation—is another way masturbation can be made unsexy and presented as akin to other daily activities. Having a character quickly “rub one out” presents the act as simply something done out of necessity and distanced from the eroticism of a more leisurely display.
In the romantic-comedy Jersey Girl (2004), after Maya (Liv Tyler) admitted to masturbating “like, twice a day,” Ollie (Ben Affleck) said, “You’re gonna get carpal tunnel syndrome,” to which she countered, “I just have a healthy sexual appetite.” This idea of masturbation as somehow connected to health is another way it is normalized on screen: that tending to the natural and instinctive wants of the body is human, healthy and completely normal.[7]
In sex researcher Shere Hite’s work, one woman described masturbation as “a natural part of regular, everyday life.”[8] This idea of thinking of masturbation as natural, notably, describing it as such, is widely identifiable. In an episode of the sitcom That 70s Show (1998–2006), after Eric (Topher Grace) had been caught masturbating by a friend, his mother, Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp), reassured him that masturbation was natural but that he also needed to remember to lock the door. Naturalness was similarly referred to in an episode of sitcom Roseanne (1988–1997): when discussing the masturbation of DJ (Michael Fishman), Aunt Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) commented, “It’s very natural. It’s not like we all didn’t do it.” Nature was also referenced in the animated series Family Guy (1999–): Peter and Lois walked in on Brian, the dog, masturbating. Lois insisted that it was “natural.” In Weeds (2005–2012)—after the household plumbing got blocked because of Shane’s (Alexander Gould) flushed masturbation socks—his mother, Nancy (Mary Louise Parker), assured her son that masturbation was, as in the other portrayals, “perfectly natural.” While in these examples the naturalness is spoken aloud, the same sentiments can also be presented through not masturbating as a kind of aberration; that refraining is the truly unnatural thing. Like the examples discussed in chapter 9—where not-masturbating was presented as causing irritability—equally, not masturbating can be viewed as fighting nature. In the comedy There’s Something About Mary (1998) for example, Dom (Chris Elliott) found it thoroughly astonishing, that his friend Ted (Ben Stiller), didn’t plan on masturbating before his date: “Are you crazy? That’s like going out there with a loaded gun!” This same idea was mentioned explicitly in Thanks for Sharing: during a sex addicts meeting, Neil mocked the directive that recovering addicts refrain from masturbating, “Should I not breathe while I’m at it?”
Just as naturalness can be conveyed through dialogue and through the depiction of the unnaturalness of refraining, the same idea can also be conveyed through the presentation of masturbation as inevitable; that a scene is set up to imply that of course masturbation will happen. The Misfits, Amanda and the Alien, Lucía y el sexo, Junebug, Autoerotic and The League examples discussed earlier are in line with this depiction: that, when presented with a whole new body that of course a character would masturbate. A variant of this transpired in the comedy Reno 911: Miami (2007). In a scene where the interiors of a variety of police officers’ motel rooms were shown, in each room the officer inside was masturbating. While this scene could be construed as a way to demonize policemen—and frame them as “wankers”—there is also an element of naturalness to it; that downtime in a motel of course leads to masturbation. (Worth noting, the inevitably of hotel room masturbation also played out for Chandler in Friends as well as Adam (Mark Ruffalo) in Thanks for Sharing, and was mentioned in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000–) when Susie (Susie Greene) reprimanded her husband, Jeff (Jeff Garlin), for masturbating in Larry’s (Larry David) spare room: “You masturbate in this house and this house alone. Maybe a hotel, not in a friend’s house.”).
Discussed throughout this book were the historic demonizations and supposedly unholy and health-destroying consequences of masturbation. That 70s Show, Roseanne, Family Guy and Weeds were each examples perfectly in line with contemporary interpretations whereby the shackles of sin have been shaken and where, rather than the act being condemned or punished, themes of privacy and hygiene are advanced.[9] Such portrayals are in line with modern writings on the topic. Betty Dodson in her book Sex for One for example, described masturbation as our “first natural sexual activity.”[10] This “first natural sexual activity” phrase was also used by Jina Bacarr in her sex manual[11] and Joan Price in her work on sexuality in older age.[12] Sex writer Jamye Waxman similarly described masturbation as natural and instinctual,[13] and in psychologist Sally Ozonoff et al.’s work on autism, the authors described, masturbation as “a natural means of exploring developing sexuality.”[14] Sex writer Violet Blue similarly contended that, “Masturbation is our natural way of releasing tension, and it teaches us sexual self-reliance.”[15] Such examples reflect modern thinking whereby masturbation is considered as fine, natural and normal and that it is only troublesome when it negatively impacts on relationships (chapter 8) or when it is done compulsively (chapter 1).
Whether considered normal and natural or not, masturbation is generally construed of as having only one goal: sexual pleasure. While sexual pleasure might be the obvious and most common explanation for it—sociologist Edward Laumann et al noted that 73 percent of men and 63 percent of women claimed to masturbate because they were horny, and 40 percent of men and 42 percent of women did so for physical pleasure[16]—on screen and a multitude of other reasons for it exist. Like any other normal activity, the reasons motivating autoeroticism are diverse.
In their discussion of the why of public masturbation, education theorists Cecil Reynolds and Elaine Fletcher-Janzen suggested that it was often about “the lack of anything else interesting to do.”[17] Pastimes, as the word suggests, are about passing time; about doing things that are not necessarily goal-oriented or meaningful, but rather, might simply be recreational, be fun, and a way to wile away the time; i.e., that being alone in a hotel room—like Chandler in Friends or Adam in Thanks for Sharing—creates an opportunity to use self-stimulation to pass time. This idea of masturbation transpiring because of the lack of anything else interesting to do is widely identifiable. While boredom might be a reasonable assumption for much screen masturbation, in a number of examples boredom as the primary motivator is made comparatively explicit. Akin to The Basketball Diaries scene, in an episode of Supernatural (2005–), Dean (Jensen Ackles) showed his brother, Sam (Jared Padalecki) his newly hairy palm: “I got bored, that nurse was hot,” Dean rationalized. In a scene from the comedy Delivery Man (2013), talk show host Bill Maher joked about masturbation being “a hobby.” In an episode of The Mind of the Married Man (2001–2002), Missy (Ivana Milicevic) also described masturbation as her “hobby.” Mickey (Woody Allen) identified masturbation as one of his “hobbies” in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). In the military-drama Jarhead (2005), masturbation out of boredom was also explicitly named: deployed marine Anthony (Jake Gyllenhaal) described masturbation as a technique “for the marine to use in the avoidance of boredom and loneliness.” In the French film Une vraie jeune fille (A Real Young Girl) (1976) schoolgirl Alice (Charlotte Alexandra), masturbated frequently out of boredom. In Jersey Girl Maya explained her twice-a-day masturbation habit, “What can I tell ya? I get bored easily.” In the British comedy series Gavin & Stacey (2007–2010), Stacey (Joanna Page), during a period of unemployment, frequently masturbated out of boredom, noting “Being at home doing nothing, it just passes the time.” In one episode, she mentioned having masturbated three times just watching the television game show Cash In The Attic (2002–2013).
In line with many of the masturbation presentations on screen, the reality is that they mirror the ways the act is sometimes thought about off screen. Laumann et al., for example, contended that 11 percent of men and 5 percent of women claimed to masturbate out of boredom.[18] While such statistics might seem low, Laumann et al were describing adult masturbation; the masturbation/boredom connection as related to young people is made more frequently: as discussed in chapter 2, the young often masturbate because they simply have more free time to actually be bored. This idea is certainly supported in academic work. Psychologist Fred Kaeser for example, discussed school-age children masturbating because they were bored,[19] and psychoanalyst Joyce McFadden made the same point in the context of teenage girls.[20] In work on adolescents with Down’s Syndrome, it has also been alleged that “excessive masturbation” is often associated with boredom.[21] A character masturbating out of boredom serves as both a mirror to the motivations for autoeroticism in real life, but notably, is a way to also normalize the activity and present it as similar to other pastimes; that some people engage in sport or other hobbies and that masturbation is just another way to spend time, particularly for those without intercourse alternatives.
In their work on sex addiction, sex therapist Patrick Carnes et al. discussed compulsive masturbation as being one of many different coping—or as they term it, “numbing”—mechanisms used to soothe people suffering from trauma and other psychological problems.[22] In Paula Hall’s work on the same topic she also explored the role of masturbation in escapism, noting:
While most would accept that masturbation is a natural and healthy way of discovering and enjoying one’s sexuality, for someone with sex addiction it soon becomes a primary way of coping with the struggles of life.[23]
This idea alluded to some interesting ways to explore the various motivations for masturbation beyond sexual pleasure: that people sometimes masturbate to experience something other than their pain. This idea of alternative physical sensations being deployed to numb or distract is notably identifiable in work on self-mutilation[24] and equally so can be interpreted as an explanation for some masturbation within narratives.
While for the screen’s sex addicts—think Brandon (Michael Fassbender) in Shame (2011), Valérie (Belén Fabra) in the Spanish film Diario de una ninfómana (Diary of a Sex Addict) (1998), Neil and Alex in Thanks for Sharing, Jon in Don Jon, the unnamed Kate Lyn Sheil character in Autoerotic and Joe (Stacy Martin/Charlotte Gainsbourg) in Nymphomaniac (2013)—we don’t have complete psychological profiles to know precisely why they are addicted, but as with any addiction, escapism from anxiety, depression or sadness is certainly a likely possibility. Certainly for Brandon in Shame, the character seemed to be experiencing some substantial internal turmoil and rather than tending to it, he masturbated and had sex. Equally so for the men in Thanks for Sharing, we can speculate about the why of their sex addiction but audiences are left with the simple assumption of masturbation as a kind of coping mechanism.[25] In some examples however, the connection between masturbation and escapism is presented much more explicitly.
In chapter 7 I discussed autoeroticism as a tool to deal with loneliness, and in chapter 9 I explored its use to moderate—and potentially escape from—mental and physical maladies. Another form of escape that it provides is from grim realities. In chapter 2 I discussed scenes from the Italian film Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso) (1988), the Irish film Angela’s Ashes (1999), and the Spanish films Historias del Kronen (Stories from the Kronen) (1995), Barrio (1998), Krámpack (Crazy Summer) (2000) and Planta cuarta (The Fourth Floor) (2003)—the dramas Bent (1997), Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter) (1974), In Darkness (2011) and Babel (2006) can equally be added to this list—where characters used masturbation to escape from tough realities: that characters who were poor, for example, or living in war zones or concentration camps, self-stimulated to pass time and to distract themselves from their dire circumstances. For the men in these examples autoeroticism provided no-cost respite from their lives in a world failing to offer many other kinds of pleasures.[26] Cinema has a long history of intercourse used as a form of distraction and escapism and masturbation can function similarly.[27]
In chapter 4 I discussed scenes from the horror film Vacancy (2007), the Scandinavian series Bron/Broen (The Bridge) (2011–), the German thriller Winterschläfer (Winter Sleepers) (1997), Soft Fruit and the British mini-series Between the Sheets (2003), where characters masturbated while reading novels. Reading is frequently considered as a kind of escapism. When reading is combined with masturbation in a scene, there is a multi-sensory kind of escapism depicted where, via both their imagination and pleasurable physical sensations, a character can be transported. In the period-drama Nora (2000) for example, the title character (Susan Lynch) masturbated to a letter from her lover James Joyce (Ewan McGregor). While masturbating, her child knocked on the door and Nora quickly shooed them away. This latter detail notably worked to portray a character as not wanting her escapism, her spell, broken.[28] (The idea that masturbation sometimes involves a kind of spell was also referenced in a scene from the series Oz (1997–2003), when prisoner Miguel (Kirk Acevedo), shouted at another prisoner, “Hey, will you shut the fuck up? I’m trying to masturbate!”).
While in most of the examples we don’t know precisely what a character is reading—and whether the material itself is overtly erotic—in Vacancy, the title of the book was actually clear: Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron (c. 1353), a novel with well-known erotic content. In this scene, the novel can simply be construed as a source of stimulation akin to the wide variety of arousing materials discussed in chapter 4. Another interpretation however, akin to the visual stimulation offered by porn, is the escapism offered; that by reading sexy material a character can get vicarious access to another sex life. In my book Part-Time Perverts: Sex, Pop Culture and Kink Management I extensively discussed the use of media products—including porn—to provide people vicarious access to sexual behavior that they may be aroused by but which they may not be able to—or might not even want to—participate in so are satiated by portrayals.[29] Nadia in Soft Fruit for example, was a frumpy single mother. Her masturbation while reading, enabled her to escape her domestic life and, even if only temporarily, experience a sexual existence different to her own, and one with perhaps more romance and passion. Masturbation equally serves as escapism for those inside relationships, albeit ones that are lacklustre. In earlier chapters for example, I discussed women in narratives including the Chilean comedy Sexo con amor (Sex With Love) (2003) and the comedy-drama The Oh in Ohio (2006) who masturbated to compensate for some of the deficits in their relationships. Another interpretation is simply to read these characters as attempting to escape: to physically distance themselves from the unsatisfying aspects of their relationships. A different kind of escapism transpired for the adolescents masturbating in Skins, the teen-comedy American Pie (1999), the mystery Afterschool (2008) and the dramas Ma Mère (My Mother) (2004) and 2:37 (2006). Masturbation to porn provided these characters the opportunity to vicariously experience a kind of sex life that they didn’t have access to. In chapter 7 I discussed masturbation as a substitute for sexual acts that a character might be interested in, but which are not physically pursued. It is equally relevant to interpret the fantasy of participation—vicariously imagining themselves as a character in a romantic novel or a star in a porn film[30]—to use masturbation to temporarily escape reality. Sexologist Albert Ellis briefly alluded to this idea, describing masturbation as “a fine apprenticeship in erotic fantasy.”[31] Taking this idea a bit further, psychotherapist Bernhard Hensel noted that, “The self-sufficiency afforded by masturbation enables individuals to conjure up relationships in fantasies peopled by their internal object relations. . . .”[32] Through masturbation, an opportunity is created to escape into a fantasy sexual life with a fantasized personae and potentially even a fantasized partner.
In chapter 9 I noted that sometimes on-screen masturbation—notably female masturbation—is a way for a character to be framed as feminist; that being able to tend to her own sexual needs without a man can be a sign of independence. An extension of masturbation as serving purposes beyond pleasure is that a person might elect to masturbate to be hurtful; that a display of self-sufficiency is less about politics or pleasure and is more directly a way to cause pain to other characters. At the more extreme end of the spectrum the act can function as an overt assault.
Masturbation is an everyday activity that people engage in for a wide variety of reasons beyond sexual pleasure. In chapter 8 I explored the role of masturbation in relationships, identifying that sometimes such behavior can be construed by a partner as a betrayal. In some situations, masturbation can actually serve as an attack. Such attacks can take a variety of different forms, in this section I examine masturbation used to hurt, frighten and assault.
In the realm of partnered sexual relationships, masturbation has a unique role in being able to subtly hurt a partner. Because the dyad is one invariably built upon sex and sexual intimacy, masturbation can provide an opportunity for one partner to consciously display their sexual self-sufficiency if not also their estrangement from the relationship.
As discussed in chapter 8, in a number of examples—such as the romantic-drama Erosion (2005) and the comedy Sex and Breakfast (2007)—characters who were sexually rebuffed by their partners masturbated. For these characters masturbation was simply about tending to unmet sexual needs. Sometimes however, masturbation performed in a similar situation can function as—or at least be construed as—a retort, as an I’ll show you subtle attack on a partner. In an episode of Sex and the City for example, prior to eventually recovering from his erectile problem, initially Trey (Kyle MacLachlan) was having difficulty maintaining an erection with his wife, Charlotte (Kristin Davis), but was somehow able to masturbate. When Charlotte discovered this, she construed it as a betrayal. While in this example it didn’t actually seem that Trey was deliberately intending to hurt his wife, in other examples masturbation as a relationship attack does transpire more explicitly. In Weeds, a display of autoerotic asphyxiation functioned as a quite obvious fuck you: via voiceover, Doug (Kevin Nealon) read out a letter to his ex-wife while he masturbated with a noose around his neck and at ejaculation said, “So fuck you and your lawyers! Come get me if you want, I don’t give a shit.” Akin to a raised middle finger,[33] in this scene masturbation was an act of defiance. In the thriller Perfect Fit (2001), autoeroticism also functioned as a fuck you: after her boyfriend was emotionally distant with her over the phone, Perry (Maria Ford) poured red nail polish over her bare breasts and masturbated. While this scene can be construed as akin to the female madness examples discussed in chapter 1, it is also a demonstration of angry masturbation (chapter 9) and a display of sexual independence. Similarly, when Lisa (Margo Stilley) in the British sex-drama 9 Songs (2004) noticed her partner Matt (Kieran O’Brien) watching her masturbate, she continued even thought she was aware that the scene was not only not sexy for him, but was hurting his feelings. It is viable to interpret the scene as a wordless exertion of feelings of estrangement and, in Lisa’s case, indicative of her diminishing empathy for her partner.[34] In each of these examples, masturbation is a show-don’t tell expression of a character’s thoughts and feelings: that they might not be able to adequately articulate their sentiments, but their autoeroticism can send a message nevertheless.
Taking this idea a step further is masturbation used on screen to frighten: to unsettle other characters—as well as the audience—and to create a sentiment of weirdness.
In chapter 1, I discussed a variety of scenes from narratives including Silence of the Lambs (1991), Quills (2000), Psycho (1998) and the Spanish thriller Matador (1986), where masturbation functioned to illustrate that a character was mad or bad. Inside narratives the act can function similarly to frighten and disorient.
In an episode of the television series Rectify (2013–), a deathrow inmate masturbated furiously and loudly with the full knowledge that his inmates in the surrounding cells could hear him. This was an aggressive act and one seemingly designed to make fellow prisoners feel uncomfortable. The inmate presented himself as sexually aggressive, sexually inappropriate, and wanted others to fear him. In the crime-drama Havoc (2005), Allison (Anne Hathaway) masturbated in front of documentary film maker Eric (Matt O’Leary). Unlike scenes such as those in Body of Evidence (1993), We Own the Night (2007) or the French film La femme qui pleure (The Crying Woman) (1979) discussed in chapter 6—where women masturbated to tempt their lover—Allison wasn’t trying to seduce Eric, rather, she was doing so to be provocative and to disorient him: to make him feel ill at ease; to make him want her without opportunity to have her. Allison seemingly, thrived on the idea of him being unsettled by her sexuality.[35] Just as Carol (Rachel Griffiths) in the Australian heist film The Hard Word (2002), Marie (Laura Antonelli) in La gabbia (The Trap) (1985) or Mai (Yayaying Rhatha Phongam) in Only God Forgives (2013)—where women masturbated in front of men who physically couldn’t touch them due to restraint—Allison was simply using her sexuality as a way to exert feminine sexual power while simultaneously disconcerting a man. Masturbation to frighten also transpired in the horror film The Exorcist (1973), when an adolescent plunged a crucifix between her legs. This scene distanced the presentation of female autoeroticism from the standard titillation tropes and instead presented it as terrifying. The horror film The Sentinel (1977) used a similar technique: lesbian Sandra’s (Beverly D’Angelo) masturbation was used to scare Alison (Cristina Raines); Sandra’s masturbation was designed as predatory and aimed at disorienting the naïve and timid Alison.[36] In a scene from the New Zealand horror film The Ferryman (2007) the same themes transpired: Tate (Sally Stockwell)—while possessed—masturbated to orgasm, covered in blood and gore, in front of Chris (Craig Hall) and throughout the act said things like, “You like that? . . . You like to watch? Fucking pervert! You fucking bitch.” While of course, these examples can each be read, again, along the lines of the mad and bad masturbators (chapter 1), they can also be in interpreted as being examples of masturbation being performed to make other characters frightened. Tapping into the act of masturbation as a taboo and as an unusual public display—if not also one linked to ideas of sacrilege (chapter 1)—these examples present masturbation as a kind of sexual terrorism in circumstances where a more aggressive physical act, like rape or masturbation—might not be possible.[37] This theme, taken a few steps further, is used both on screen and off in ways akin to sexual harassment or rape: that masturbation can be something done to someone else—or at least at them—in an effort to scare if not assault.
During an argument between Danny (Danny McBride) and James (James Franco) in the comedy This Is the End (2013), masturbation and the ensuing ejaculation was repeatedly mentioned in an argument as a possible weapon:
Danny: I’ll cum wherever the fuck I want, James. I’ll fucking cum on your kitchen, I’ll cum on your fucking art, I’ll cum anywhere I want.
James: I will fucking cum right on you. I will cum like a fucking madman all over you, McBride.
Danny: I fucking wish you’d cum on me right now. I fucking dare you to cum on me.
Masturbation in this scene was presented humorously as a kind of weapon, but in other examples the idea is taken substantially more seriously. In the suburban-drama Little Children (2006), Ronnie (Jackie Earle Haley) used masturbation as an attack while on a date with Sheila (Jane Adams): after he asked her to turn the car lights off, he began masturbating. While Ronnie’s display could be read an extension of his exhibitionist pathology, the scene can equally be read as him trying to exploit an already fragile woman; this interpretation is supported by the fact that afterwards he threatened, “Better not tell on me or I’ll fuckin’ get you.” In a scene from Girls (2012–), Adam (Adam Driver) and his girlfriend Hannah (Lena Denham) were having sex when he stopped, took off his condom, and masturbated over her chest. While semen can, of course, mean many things, the idea of Adam masturbating on Hannah can be construed as about making her feel as though she is like a toilet or a soon-to-be-discarded tissue, and merely a receptacle for his “waste” product. If all the very many male masturbation scenes set in bathrooms—where masturbation is presented as a kind of hygiene activity (chapter 5)—are considered, this idea of thinking of ejaculation on a woman as an act of defilement seems plausible.
In the romantic-drama The Center of the World (2001), a weekend that stripper Florence (Molly Parker) and entrepreneur Richard (Peter Sarsgaard) spent together ended badly: Richard developed feelings for Florence and she had to explain that her interactions with him—including her orgasms—were all about the money; that she had performed the role of girlfriend as a job. As things were getting tenser, Florence sat on the floor, legs spread, and said, “You want real? I’ll give you real.” She then masturbated to orgasm to show Richard what she really looked like when she climaxed. While this presentation was indeed one of female masturbation performed for a man to watch, unlike the examples discussed in chapter 6, Florence’s masturbation was not about Richard’s titillation. While he was indeed supposed to look at her, the display was primarily about shaming him: to serve as a demonstration of what Florence actually looked like when she orgasmed and to prove how dissimilar her real one was to those she “had” with him. In Rebecca Schneider’s work on performance art, she briefly discussed ways to read masturbation presented on stage. While her comments centered on masturbation where a performer has more control over their act than an actor inside a film production—Schneider’s comments nevertheless raise some interesting ways to interpret Florence’s masturbation:
[C]ontemporary performers from Madonna to Susie Bright advocate a masturbation explicitly touted as geared to satisfy the desire of the self-proclaimed exhibitionist as if to say: watch if you want to, get off if you want to, but I’m doing this for my own pleasure.[38]
Richard of course doesn’t get off to Florence’s performance: he appears to find it insulting in the manner Florence intended.
Akin to the Rectify example, in Silence of the Lambs, Miggs (Stuart Rudin), an insane inmate, masturbated furiously and then—because unlike in Rectify he was not in a sealed room—hurled semen at prison visitor Clarisse (Jodie Foster). While, as in Rectify, Miggs’ masturbation was designed to unsettle those around him—particularly Clarisse—more directly than in Rectify, Miggs threw semen at Clarisse to convey a subtle hint to what he would perhaps do to her if he wasn’t incarcerated; he masturbated at her because raping her wasn’t possible. In an episode of the medical-drama Nip/Tuck (2003–2010), something similar transpired when Sean (Dylan Walsh), after a heated phone call with his estranged wife, exerted his rage via masturbating into a sex doll; rough sex with his wife wasn’t possible so masturbation was his alternative. In the crime drama Bad Lieutenant (1992), the title character (Harvey Keitel) pulled over two women in a car. He threatened to arrest them unless they cooperated. He masturbated in front of them and spoke dirty. In this scene, the Lieutenant’s masturbation was about sexual assault; that for whatever reason, raping the women would have been impossible, but, that through masturbation, he could still use his penis to terrorize. The very same themes—albeit in the context of female masturbation and a male victim—transpired in the Australian thriller The Book of Revelation (2006). Daniel (Tom Long) had been drugged and kidnapped by three hooded women. Amongst the torturous acts that the women subjected him to, in one scene a woman masturbated, aggressively, in front of him. While able to be construed as similar to the you like to watch idea portrayed in The Ferryman—where women turned the tables on their traditional objectification—more so the act appeared to be about a woman subverting gender expectations and being sexually aggressive—being sexually offensive—in a way traditionally only associated with men and penises. That through a certain kind of aggressive masturbation, a woman has the capacity to assault a man even if she doesn’t possess a penis.
While these examples each presented masturbation as something bad and as able to terrify if not assault, such examples are also widely indicative of masturbation as normal if normal is construed as reflective of the reality that people do it for all kinds of different reasons, many far distanced from the sexual stimulation functions more generally assumed (and also more generally shown).
While the examples discussed in this section were largely concerned with autoeroticism as an act able to hurt others, worth exploring are depictions at the complete other end of the spectrum: masturbation for a good cause.
In the sci-fi film Zerophilia (2005), Luke (Taylor Handley) experienced a condition where he could change sex upon arousal. He made his first full transition upon masturbating to orgasm. In the British supernatural series The Fades (2011) something simular occurred when haunted teenager Paul (Iain De Caestecker) grew wings at orgasm; something he first discovered when he masturbated. In the comedy Delivery Man , not only did the many hundred semen samples that protagonist David (Vince Vaughn) had donated result in the birth of several hundred children—which could be considered as positive on its own—the character notably made several thousand dollars from the donations which funded a trip for his family to Venice. In Control Alt Delete, Lewis’ penchant for masturbating into computers eventually caused one server to short circuit and actually saved his company from the imminent disaster. In an episode of Nip/Tuck, a patient looking years younger than her age revealed that she had her sons masturbate into jars; she would then apply their semen topically to her face. In an episode of the sitcom Scrubs (2001–2010), a teenage patient suffered from phimosis, a hardening of the foreskin. Part of his treatment was masturbating five times a week. While these examples are thoroughly outlier illustrations of masturbation serving a “purpose” on screen, more common are narratives where masturbation is presented as a positive when men do so to provide a semen sample: whereby the act is done in a medical setting for the purposes of testing, insemination or donation. Such scenes establish an interesting situation whereby an act that is generally thought of as private, shameful and normally done in secret is relocated into a comparatively more public, and invariably more sterile, setting. Moving private masturbation into the public sphere is often presented as a difficult adjustment for characters and invariably serves as comic fodder. For the purposes of this chapter, such scenes also work to portray masturbation as normalized—or at least medicalized—and functioning as another example of it being done for reasons completely disconnected from pleasure.
In the romantic-comedy The Good Girl (2002), Phil (John C. Reilly) had to provide a semen sample at a clinic because he and his wife, Justine (Jennifer Aniston) had been unable to conceive. Far removed from pleasurable masturbation, Phil was having trouble staying erect and says to his wife, “let me hold your boob.” In an episode of sitcom Veep (2012–), Mike’s (Matt Walsh) need to provide semen samples led him to masturbate repeatedly at work, resulting in him becoming a laughing stock. In the horror film Seed of Chucky (2004), the doll at the center of the narrative masturbated in order to provide enough semen to inseminate a surrogate. The semen sample narrative was also played for laughs in a scene from Idiocracy (2006), where reference was made to a man who died from a heart attack while producing sperm for artificial insemination. In the sitcom Bored to Death (2009–2011), when Jonathan (Jason Schwartzman) went to visit his friend Ray (Zach Galifianakis), he was informed by Ray’s wife (Heather Burns) that her husband was upstairs making a sample for a lesbian couple. Humor stemming from the bureaucratized nature of the act was apparent in the historic-drama The Right Stuff (1983): aspiring astronaut Gordon (Dennis Quaid) was asked to give a semen sample and was bemused at how he was expected provide it. Nurse Murch (Jane Dornacker), straight-faced, instructed, “The best results seem to be obtained through fantasization, accompanied by masturbation, followed by ejaculation.” Such themes were also identifiable in an episode of Peep Show when Jeremy (Robert Webb) was at the clinic without “reading material” and had to use a £20 note with the face of the Queen. In the sitcom Rules of Engagement (2007–2013), when Jeff (Patrick Warburton) was compelled to masturbate to give a semen sample, his frustrated wife (Megyn Price)—who had been waiting for him to finally finish—knocked on the door, in turn interrupting him and making him “miss” the cup. In the romantic-comedy She's Having a Baby (1988), Jake (Kevin Bacon) arrived at the clinic with his semen in a container, finding the whole thing very embarrassing. The nurses laughed when they examined his container, remarking on the small quantity. Continuing with the themes of masturbation on-demand and male anxieties, Steve (Jack Davenport) in an episode of the British series Coupling (2000–2004) actually referenced the difficulties of masturbation under such difficult and seemingly unnatural circumstances:
Masturbation is supposed to be a bad thing. It’s a stealth activity. You do it on your own, in secret, and you lie about it afterwards. You feel guilt! It’s one of the last forms of entirely safe guilt left available to a man. I mean, look at this place! Look what the mad fools have done: it’s an office suite for masturbation. There’s a receptionist. There are no receptionists in masturbation. Do you realize what I’m supposed to do here? Do you understand the insanity of it? I am being asked to masturbate in a good cause. No. Susan, I implore you. I implore all women everywhere on behalf of all men. Do not take the wrongness of masturbation from us.
Here, Steve explains the awkwardness of the semen sample masturbation in narratives like The Good Girl and The Right Stuff , whereby the sterility and the need to do so on command, frames masturbation as technically normal but under such circumstances as awkward and anything but sexy.
These scenes each present masturbation as behavior that showcases a range of male anxieties. Just as men in real life associate the ability to maintain an erection with masculinity, such scenes put this to the challenge where men’s functionality as men is tested with the added pressure that others are reliant on their successful performance.
Worth noting, outlier presentations of both male and female clinical masturbation transpired in the historic-drama series Masters of Sex (2013–) where the scenes were played straight, if not at times sexy. One explanation is that such scenes were free from awkwardness and humor because they were still pleasure-centred even if in a clinical setting; orgasm was still the goal and the researchers had a vested interest in normalizing the act enough for the participants to comfortably orgasm.
In the last section of this chapter, masturbation as a normal activity with an entire industry attached is explored.
In discussing how, after the 1930s, the image of masturbation changed dramatically from the medical models of earlier decades, historian Thomas Laqueur noted that the act was now able to be construed as,
an act of individual liberation, a proclamation of autonomy, an affirmation of pleasure for its own sake, a way to make money from sex toys, a practice in the cultivation of the self, a gambit and counter gambit in the sexual and more general cultural politics of the era, a subject of painting and performance art, a deeply interesting part of the human erotic experience as a sign of abjection or of triumph.[39]
The idea of masturbation as being a way to make money from sex toys is certainly a point worth discussing. Like many pastimes, something that links masturbation to other everyday recreational activities is the role of commerce: that akin to sports and other hobbies, an entire industry surrounds masturbation which conveys the impression that the act is normal, common, inevitable, and that everyone else is apparently doing it.
In the biopic Prick Up Your Ears (1987) for example, Kenneth (Alfred Molina) put his hand on lover Joe’s (Gary Oldman) leg in an attempt to initiate sex. Joe rebuffed his advance: “No. Have a wank.” Kenneth responded with an interesting rant:
Have a wank? I can’t just have a wank. I need three days’ notice to have a wank. You can just stand there and do it. Me, it’s like organizing D-day. Forces have to be assembled, magazines bought, the past dredged for some suitably unsavory episode, the dogged thought of which can still produce a faint flicker of desire. Have a wank. It’d be easier to raise the Titanic.[40]
While this scene relates to themes discussed in chapter 4 where characters—notably men—need accoutrements to aid their masturbation, the scene also highlights that stuff often needs to be bought to facilitate masturbation. The acquisition of stuff and the industry around it can be construed as part of the normalizing of masturbation on and also off screen.
In an episode of Sex and the City, Samantha (Kim Cattrall) attempted to return a “massager” to The Sharper Image because she claimed it was not getting her off. Samantha had no compunction whatsoever about participating in this transaction: she was not ashamed about her masturbation, nor the tools she used for it: she treated autoeroticism and the surrounding industry as akin to any other. A similar theme was identifiable in the comedy Bad Neighbors (2014). To make some quick cash, the members of a frat house decided to create rubber replicas of their penises to sell as dildos: the young men ended up making 10,000 dollars in one afternoon: so large, apparently, was the market. Similar themes are identifiable in screen examples centered on the production of one of the key accoutrements of masturbation: pornography. While the role of porn in masturbation was discussed in chapter 4, worth noting are the many films centered on its production, for example Hardcore (1979), La ley del deseo (Law of Desire) (1987), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Wonderland (2003), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), Finding Bliss (2009) and Lovelace (2013). Such films are primarily about the production of the very material synonymous with masturbation but which invariably avoid reference to masturbation itself. Similar themes are apparent in narratives with scenes set in sex shops which retail many of the aids associated with masturbation: The Party Animal (1985) Merchants of Venus (1998), Ghost World (2001). While tropes such as creepy customers and weird products can be construed as ways to demonize masturbation and frame participation as deviant,[41] masturbation itself is invariably a topic avoided: the weird customers and products serve simply as metonyms for the often maligned act.
In his cultural history of masturbation, Mels van Driel discussed a case of two Belgian business men cashing-in on the supposed “liberation” of female masturbation by producing t-shirts and stickers aimed at women, reading “We Masturbate (Yes We Do).”[42] While the liberating themes of masturbation were being marketed, arguably the liberation was also being exploited for money: that rather than being about empowerment, the t-shirts were just another way to commodify masturbation; to normalize it in order to sell stuff. Discussed in chapter 9 were supposedly liberating scenes of women masturbating whereby the erotics of the display—and the fact that such scenes were inside a commercial vehicle like film or television—diluted the politics. Arguably the same analysis can be extended to the Belgian entrepreneurs: the liberation is just another way to market goods.
In this chapter, masturbation as an everyday activity was explored as demonstrated through examples which present it as akin to other pastimes and activities.
A good example of this transpired at the end of the adventure film Gravity (2013) when astronaut Ryan (Sandra Bullock) repeatedly grasped at the sand after she finally landed on earth and swam to shore.
This idea can potentially substantiate some men’s belief that group masturbation—discussed further in chapter 2—is not actually necessarily construed as having any homoerotic undertones and can simply be viewed as an ordinary male sexual activity.
Hephzibah Anderson, Chastened: No More Sex in the City (London: Chatto and Windus, 2009), 102.
Worth noting, the “newness” of masturbation’s prominence in cinema can be traced back long before Margot at the Wedding (2007). Ryan Murphy in his review of the 1993 film The Temp for example, noted “In the ‘90s . . . the job description for the psychotic femme fatale has become much more demanding. Now, as evidenced by the current cycle of movies featuring women from hell—Basic Instinct [1992], The Hand That Rocks the Cradle [1992] and Single White Female [1992], for example—you have to do a lot more than scream and scheme. Showing off your naughty bits is a must. . . . A masturbation scene is de rigueur” (Ryan Murphy, “Cutthroat Competition,” The Inquirer (February 16, 1993). Retrieved April 13, 2013 from http://articles.philly.com/1993-02-16/entertainment/25956728_1_fatale-movie-west-hollywood-hotel).
Peter Verstraten, “Cinema as a Digest of Literature: A Cure for Adaptation Fever,” Between Page and Screen: Remaking Literature Through Cinema and Cyberspace, ed. Kiene Brillenburg Wurth (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012 ): 173–183, 179.
Justin Vicari, Gus Van Sant Touch: A Thematic Study (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company Inc. 2012), 73.
This of course, is an interesting contrast to the examples discussed in chapter 1, where tending to the wants of the body—of kowtowing to them—was in fact construed as making a person less human and more animal-like.
In Shere Hite, The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1981), 65.
Such themes are very much in line with contemporary presentations of menstruation: that the act might not be demonized as often as it once was, but that themes of privacy and hygiene are still advanced (Lauren Rosewarne, Periods in Pop Culture: Menstruation in Film and Television (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012)).
Betty Dodson, Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving (New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1996), 36.
Jina Bacarr, The Japanese Art of Sex: How to Tease, Seduce, and Pleasure the Samurai in Your Bedroom (Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press, 2004), 59.
Joan Price, Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud About Senior Sex (Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2011), 1.
Jamye Waxman, Getting Off: A Woman’s Guide to Masturbation (Emeryville, CA: Seal Press, 2007), 68.
Sally Ozonoff, Geraldine Dawson and James McPartland, A Parent’s Guide to Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism (New York: Guilford Press, 2002), 225.
Violet Blue, The Ultimate Guide to Cunnilingus: How to Go Down on a Women and Give Her Exquisite Pleasure (San Francisco, CA: Cleis Press, 2013), 19.
Edward O. Laumann, John H. Gagnon, Robert T. Michael, and Stuart Michaels, The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 86.
Cecil R. Reynolds and Elaine Fletcher-Janzen, Encyclopedia of Special Education (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2007), 1320.
Edward O. Laumann, John H. Gagnon, Robert T. Michael, and Stuart Michaels, The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 86.
Fred Kaeser, What Your Child Needs to Know About Sex: A Straight-Talking Guide for Parents (New York: Random House, 2011).
Joyce T. McFadden, Your Daughter’s Bedroom: Insights for Raising Confident Women (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Mark Selikowitz, Down Syndrome: The Facts (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 151.
Patrick J. Carnes, Robert E. Murray and Louis Charpentier, “Addiction Interaction Disorder,” Handbook of Addictive Disorders: A Practical Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment, ed. Robert Holman Coombs (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2004), 43.
Paula Hall, Understanding and Treating Sex Addiction (New York: Routledge, 2013), 40.
Armando Favazza, Bodies Under Siege: Self-Mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).
Lauren Rosewarne, “Thanks For Sharing, Thanks For Not Psychoanalysing,“ The Conversation (September 30, 2013). Retrieved September 30, 2031 from https://theconversation.com/thanks-for-sharing-thanks-for-not-psychoanalysing-18718.
It is interesting that men in these situations masturbate and not women. While the sample of such scenes aren’t plentiful—so we can’t necessarily infer too much—another explanation could be that in scenes where female characters are poor or in war zones, they engage in sex work instead. When we consider narratives such as Cabaret (1972) or Les Misérables (2012), women engage in sex work in times of war and poverty rather than masturbate: potentially explicable not because it is a different outlet for their arousal, but rather, because they are entrepreneurial enough to profit for men’s desires in order to escape their circumstances.
This was something well illustrated in a scene from the comedy-drama High Fidelity (2000). After her father’s funeral, Laura (Iben Hjejle) propositioned her ex-boyfriend Rob (John Cusack): “Listen, Rob, would you have sex with me? Because I want to feel something else than this. It’s either that, or I go home and put my hand in the fire. Unless you want to stub cigarettes out on my arm.” Laura wanted to feel something other than her reality, something other than her pain. This issue is also discussed in Lauren Rosewarne, “Sex Motives and Kenneth Lonergan’s ‘Margaret,’” The Conversation (August 3, 2012). Retrieved September 30, 2013 from https://theconversation.com/sex-motives-and-kenneth-lonergans-margaret-8610.
Lauren Rosewarne, “Thanks For Sharing, Thanks For Not Psychoanalysing,“ The Conversation (September 30, 2013). Retrieved September 30, 2031 from https://theconversation.com/thanks-for-sharing-thanks-for-not-psychoanalysing-18718.
Such ideas have resonance with masturbation portrayals where a character can equally be construed as masturbating to material that provides them access to another kind of sex life. (Lauren Rosewarne, Part-Time Perverts: Sex, Pop Culture and Kink Management (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011)).
Lauren Rosewarne, Part-Time Perverts: Sex, Pop Culture and Kink Management (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011).
Albert Ellis, Sex and the Single Man (New York: Lyle Stuart, 1963), 26.
Bernhard F. Hensel, “An Object Relations View of Sexuality Based on Fairbairn’s Theory,” The Legacy of Fairbairn and Sutherland: Psychotherapeutic Applications, eds. Jill Sevege Scharff and David E. Scharff (New York: Routledge, 2005), 70.
Lauren Rosewarne, “The Rude Gestures Chapter,” American Taboo: The Forbidden Words, Unspoken Rules, and Secret Morality of Popular Culture (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2013).
This can be a similar interpretation for Kevin’s (Ezra Miller) masturbation in the thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) where he continues masturbating after he sees his mother watching him.
Such a scene can be likened to those discussed in chapter 6 where women take advantage of the knowledge that the display of female masturbation is invariably found erotic by men, and thus masturbate in his presence, thriving on his sexual discomfort.
This scene can also be used to demonize lesbianism. In chapter 4 I discussed scenes from Another Gay Movie (2006) and Will & Grace (1998–2006) where “weird” kinds of male masturbation were used to demonize homosexuality. Sandra’s masturbation in this scene can be construed similarly. Such demonization of lesbianism also transpired in an episode of Masters of Sex (2013–), where the only female character in the masturbation study that requested porn to help her get in the mood was a lesbian.
In my book Cheating on the Sisterhood, I similarly discussed “domestic terrorism” in relationships where one party uses sex—for example, infidelity—to hurt their partner (Lauren Rosewarne, Cheating on the Sisterhood: Infidelity and Feminism (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009)).
Rebecca Schneider, The Explicit Body in Performance (London: Routledge, 1997), 105.
Thomas W. Laqueur, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation (New York: Zone Books, 2003), 361.
The idea that masturbation requires work and concentration was also referenced in a scene from the series Oz (1997–2003), prisoner Miguel (Kirk Acevedo), shouted at another prisoner, “Hey, will you shut the fuck up? I’m trying to masturbate!”
This issue is discussed further in Lauren Rosewarne, American Taboo: The Forbidden Words, Unspoken Rules, and Secret Morality of Popular Culture (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2013).
Mels van Driel, With the Hand: a Cultural History of Masturbation (London: Reaktion Books, 2012), 20–21.