In an episode of the medical-drama House (2004–2012), the title character’s (Hugh Laurie) advice for a mother (Leigh-Allyn Baker) concerned about her young daughter’s (Amber DeMarco) masturbation was “teach your girl about privacy and she’ll be fine.” In an episode of the sitcom That 70s Show (1998–2006), Eric (Topher Grace) was caught masturbating in the bathroom by his love interest Donna (Laura Prepon). Later, Eric’s mother, Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp), assured him that masturbation was natural but that he needed to lock the door. Neither Dr. House nor Kitty had any obvious concern with masturbation—both deeming it perfectly normal, in line with modern understandings—but that it was something that needed to be done in private. The idea of masturbation as a private activity plays out in the vast majority of examples discussed in this book where characters are invariably shown masturbating somewhere alone. This somewhere takes a variety of forms and this chapter explores the bedrooms and bathrooms, prisons and cars which backdrop masturbation to analyze what venue reveals about characters.
For both male and female characters, the bathroom is a very common venue for masturbation. In real life, this location is equally identified in research as the most common location for self-stimulation.[1]
In scenes from the animated series Family Guy (1999–) and the period-drama The Ice Storm (1997) discussed in chapter 1, adolescent boys were assumed by family members to be masturbating in the bathroom. While in those examples the assumptions were incorrect, such a location is actually very common on screen.
In the comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002), sexually frustrated Matt (Josh Hartnett) was intent on ending his self-imposed abstinence: with a porn magazine in tow, he headed to the bathroom. In an episode of the animated series American Dad! (2005–), Steve took a copy of National Geographic with him to the same venue. In an episode of Family Guy, Peter went into the bathroom with a lingerie catalog. While in 40 Days and 40 Nights Matt never made it to the bathroom and in American Dad! and Family Guy audiences can’t be positive that the material was used for masturbation, there are of course, many examples where male bathroom masturbation is made more obvious.
In the sitcom Roseanne (1988–1997) it was DJ (Michael Fishman), in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) it was Brad (Judge Reinhold), in My Wife and Kids (2001–2005) it was Michael Jr. (George O. Gore II), in Dirty Deeds (2005) it was Zach (Milo Ventimiglia), in Parenthood (2010–) it was Drew (Miles Heizer), in Weird Science (1985) it was Gary (Anthony Michael Hall), in That 70s Show, it was Eric and in Weeds (2005–2012) it was Shane (Alexander Gould): in each example, the bathroom was the venue for the self-stimulation of adolescent boys. Adult men, of course, also routinely select the same site. In the drama Shame (2011), Brandon (Michael Fassbender) was doing so in the bathroom when his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) walked in on him. In Californication (2007–), Zig’s (Fisher Stevens) autoerotic asphyxiation transpired in his bathroom, as did Christian’s (Julian McMahon) in Nip/Tuck (2003–2010) and Sérgio’s (Ricardo Meneses) in the Portuguese drama O Fantasma (The Phantom) (2000). In Sex and the City (1998–2004), Trey (Kyle MacLachlan) retreated to the bathroom to masturbate after being unable to perform sexually with his wife. The suburban-drama American Beauty (1999) opened with Lester (Kevin Spacey) masturbating in his shower. Dark (James Duval) masturbated in the shower in the opening scene of the comedy-drama Nowhere (1997) and in an episode of the sitcom The League (2009–), Kevin (Stephen Rannazzisi) did so in the shower using porn on his smartphone wrapped in a plastic bag. Ted (Ben Stiller) masturbated in the bathroom before his date in the comedy There’s Something About Mary (1998). Similarly, despite the low numbers of people using toilets for masturbation in real life,[2] on screen and a specific role for the bowl is also identifiable. In a scene from the comedy-drama Spanking the Monkey (1994), Ray (Jeremy Davies) masturbated while seated on the toilet. In Fast Times and Ridgemont High, Brad masturbated over the bowl, as did both Alex (Allen Covert) in the teen-comedy Grandma’s Boy (2006), and Hector (Jonathan LaPaglia) in the Australian mini-series The Slap (2011). In Shame, Brandon also used a toilet cubicle at his workplace. In rare female examples, Lee (Maggie Gyllenhaal) masturbated in the toilet cubicle at her workplace in the drama Secretary (2002), as did the unnamed Kate Lyn Sheil character in the drama Autoerotic (2011), and Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) in Nymphomaniac (2013).
When Brad got sprung in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, his frustrated response was “Jeez! Doesn’t anyone fucking knock anymore?” His complaint seems perfectly logical and alludes to one of the central reasons that bathrooms invariably host masturbation: they are assumed—perhaps more so than any other place—to be rooms that people go to on their own. Bathrooms are private places where intimate bodily functions are tended to—frequently in varying states of undress—and thus it is somewhere that a person can expect not to be disturbed. I discussed this issue in my book Periods in Pop Culture: Menstruation in Film and Television, in the context of the predictable staging of menstruation narratives in bathrooms:
[B]athrooms are just the place where women are likely to already be engaged with intimate bodily functions like urination and defecation. Bathrooms are also usually the place where menstrual product storage and disposal happens.[3]
The same rationale can be applied to a masturbation narrative: characters are, presumably, naked while they are showering—or at least have their pants down while using the toilet—and thus masturbation in such a place makes logistic sense. A more conservative reading of these scenes however, is that such venues in fact motivate masturbation; that it is place that stimulates the act rather than merely providing a private retreat for it. In Steven Cramer’s Christian-themed discussion of masturbation, he alluded to the motivation idea noting that, “For the majority of addicts, the two major battlegrounds with masturbation are encountered either in the bathroom or in the bedroom.”[4] While Cramer’s definition of addiction appears hyperbolic, when thinking of autoeroticism as accidentally stumbled across (chapter 2), it is perhaps reasonable to think that for some people accidental pleasurable contact with genitals—something that is more likely to occur in the bathroom than other places—may encourage further self-stimulation.
In a scene from the family-drama Life as a House (2001), Sam (Hayden Christensen) was showering when his friend Alyssa (Jena Malone) entered the stall. In a rare example of masturbation occurring within a romantic situation (discussed further in chapter 8), the two kissed while Sam masturbated. After he ejaculated, Alyssa responded, “Oh yuck. Oh you’re scrubbing down the shower.” This scene spotlights another important reason why masturbation is invariably conducted in the bathroom: male masturbation—and more specifically ejaculation—is routinely considered disgusting and thus is best staged somewhere where clean-up is easier. In Periods in Pop Culture I noted that one of the reasons for—as well as consequences of—situating menstruation narratives in bathrooms is that periods are inevitably construed as a “sanitary event”[5] and as a bodily function akin to urination or defecation where making things invisible is crucial:
[T]he bathroom is simply where it is most practical to tend to a period: the space is sanitary, there is running water, a flushing toilet and soap thus making the bathroom an obvious place for menstrual activities both on screen and off.[6]
Just as there are logistical reasons why bathrooms host menstruation narratives—notably because clean-up is facilitated—the same situation transpires for self-stimulation scenes whereby the act can be made invisible much quicker than had another venue been used; this in fact, was something noted by sex researchers William Masters et al.: “Because of concern for the “evidence” of masturbation—dried semen leaves a tell-tale stain—many males masturbate in the bathroom, where a little soap and water will remedy this problem.”[7]
As in menstruation narratives, the preoccupation with making masturbation invisible—a burden more strongly connected to male masturbation than female masturbation[8]—works to highlight that even in an increasingly sexually liberal world, the privacy imperative, introduced at the beginning of this chapter, remains important.
A more erotic interpretation of these examples pertains to them referencing the clichéd shower scene in porn. Shower scenes are common in both heterosexual and homosexual-themed porn whereby characters are presented alone and masturbating (in turn, naked and vulnerable), alternatively joined by others, often in the context of public showers in settings like prisons or the military.[9] While most of the examples discussed in this section aren’t overtly sexy, sexiness is, of course, subjective and certainly the setting lends itself to such a reading.
Another interpretation at the opposite end of the spectrum centers on the deliberate lack of sexiness. Bathrooms, at best, are cold, sterile places and at worst are disgusting, unsanitary sites marked by grotesquery. Having a man masturbate in such a space—notably over a toilet bowl—gives the act a rushed, shameful, if not also disgusting feel. Unlike most of the women who masturbate in bathrooms and who, as discussed in the next section, invariably get to luxuriate in a bathtub, men are presented as trying to do it as fast as possible before being sprung. This inevitably renders a scene humorous rather than erotic.[10] Two outlier scenes that break this pattern however, transpired in the comedy-drama Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) and the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2007–). In both examples, male characters were allowed a more leisurely self-stimulation session in a bath. That Tommy was homosexual however, may provide reason to interpret the bathtub location as a means to feminize him; to liken him to the deluge of female bathtub masturbators, in turn demonizing his homosexuality. In The Big Bang Theory, Howard (Simon Helberg) masturbated in the bath to a fantasy involving sci-fi actress Katee Sackhoff. This scene similarly appeared staged to emasculate Howard, something compounded when Sackhoff questioned his choice to stay home and masturbate rather than go out with a real-live women; Howard’s pitifulness was compounded when he was interrupted by the screeching of his mother.[11]
In a scene from the romantic-comedy She’s the One (1996), Renee (Jennifer Aniston) threatened that unless her husband Frances (Mike McGlone) had sex with her, she was going into the bathroom to masturbate with a vibrator. Renee’s threat highlights a number of ideas: firstly, that if she was to masturbate, that she would go off and do so privately. Secondly, just as men inevitably masturbate in the bathroom, so too do women.
In an episode of Girls (2012–), Marnie (Alison Williams) self-stimulated in a bathroom at a party after a date. In a wide range of narratives women masturbated lying in a bath, for example in the television series Banshee (2013–), Six Feet Under (2001–2005), The Big C (2010–2013), Offspring (2010–), Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (2012–2013) and The Slap, as well as in the horror films The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), The Chair (2007), The Cook (2008) and The Awakening (2011). Bathtub masturbation similarly transpired in the thrillers Sliver (1993), Viol@ (1998) and The Resident (2011), in the teen-comedy Coming Soon (1999), in the dramas Iron Jawed Angels (2004), Paixão Perdida (1998) and in the romantic-comedy Little City (1997). In the sex-drama Shortbus (2006), Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) masturbated on the bathroom floor, as did Anne (Juliette Binoche) in the French drama Elles (2011). Samantha (Kim Cattrall) masturbated with water from the faucet in the bath in Sex and the City. In the Argentinian romantic-comedy Amorosa Soledad (Lovely Loneliness) (2008), Soledad (Inés Efron) masturbated with the waterjet from the bidet.
The film horror Carrie (1976) opened with an adolescent girl in the shower, the camera lingering on her nudity as her hands moved up and down her body. In film theorist Pete Falconer’s work on virginity in horror films, he discussed this scene, noting that, “It has been claimed that Carrie is masturbating in this scene, but this is based on one ambiguous shot where she could just as easily be washing herself.”[12] In many other scenes shower masturbation is much less ambiguous. Shower masturbation played out in the thriller Dressed to Kill (1980), in the Australian drama Five Moments of Infidelity (2006), in the French crime-drama La chambre des morts (Room of Death) (2007), in the sci-fi film Amanda & the Alien (1995) and in the sitcom Will & Grace (1998–2006). The showerhead used as a sex toy was referenced in the teen-comedy Heathers (1988), as well as actually shown in the comedies The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005), American Reunion (2012) and Identity Thief (2013), in the Italian film Melissa P. (2005), in the thriller When Will I Be Loved (2004) in an episode of The Mind of the Married Man (2001–2002), and also in the biopic The Runaways (2010).
Female bathroom masturbation can, of course, be viewed in the same ways as the male masturbation discussed earlier: while there are less concerns for women related to disguising tell-tale signs, the bathroom nevertheless provides a logical backdrop for scenes where a character may want to wash up afterwards. A reading more specific to female masturbation, and one relevant to the common depiction of women’s bodies presented as worth looking at,[13] is that bathroom scenes creates a plausible opportunity for an audience to look at the naked female form. While the idea of audience voyeurism is discussed in greater detail in chapter 6, for this chapter it is worthwhile contrasting the male bathroom masturbation scenes with the female ones. While both can be construed as referencing porn, it is the female scenes—notably as related to elements such as the clichéd breast-soaping—that are lingered on; there is rarely a sexy mainstream equivalent for men. In the vast majority of male bathroom scenes, either the masturbation is discussed rather than shown, alternatively it is shown with a character largely dressed or filmed in a way where very little of their body is revealed and often, where he gets caught before he is permitted to orgasm. For the female examples, conversely, bodies are lingered on and the pleasure is every bit as much for the audience as for the masturbator.
Mentioned at various junctures in this book is that the depiction of some female masturbation techniques reference art. Nowhere is this clearer than in presentations of women masturbating in, near or with water.
In his discussion of nude women bathing in Ancient Greek art, art historian Robert Sutton noted that “the bath serves as a transparent pretext for showing naked women”[14] and the female bather is “essentially erotic in nature.”[15] Certainly this is the most obvious interpretation of these scenes: that they are simply about facilitating audience voyeurism: that nudity is encouraged by the bathroom backdrop; masturbation just provides additional scopophilic pleasure. In art historian Sarit Shalev-Eyni’s work on bathing women in religious art, she provided a slightly different argument, proposing that the depiction centers on the “purifying and healing effects of water, going back to the biblical periods.”[16] This idea is equally applicable to interpreting the masturbation scenes: that women engage in an act that is traditionally thought of as dirty in a place synonymous with cleansing.
Another explanation—referencing the conservative Christian position articulated by Cramer earlier—is that circumstances and notably locations, create the temptation that leads to masturbation. In a discussion of sex education literature form the early twentieth century, Mabel Donnelly quoted gynecologist Bernard Talmey who warned about the dangers of masturbation for women: “The girl should never be allowed to remain in a bed when not asleep. She should not sleep on her back. She should not be allowed to remain any longer than necessary in the toilet or bathroom.”[17] As implied by Cramer, there is an assumption that location somehow inspires masturbation and that if a woman has too much contact with her body, sin will ensue. Just as menarche is inevitably discovered in the bathroom on screen,[18] arguably masturbation is also first experienced there, thus potentially justifying the venue’s continued use.
Noted by both Cramer and Talmey is the idea that bedrooms can equally motivate masturbation: that—in line with the idle hands idea discussed in chapter 2—that if a person is allowed too much time to languish, that they might be tempted to touch themselves.
Bedroom masturbation was presented humorously in an episode of the sitcom Modern Family (2009–) when parents Jay (Ed O’Neill) and Gloria (Sofía Vergara) assumed (incorrectly) that their son Manny (Rico Rodriguez) was spending so much time locked away in his bedroom because he was masturbating. While Manny was just stretching, the bedroom is in fact a common site for both male and female self-stimulation.
In the British comedy Human Traffic (1999), Moff (Danny Dyer) was masturbating in his bedroom when his mother walked in. This also happened in the British teen-comedy The Inbetweeners Movie (2011) when Jay (James Buckley) was interrupted by his mother and sister. In The Big C, adolescent Adam (Gabriel Basso) was masturbating in his room when he was disturbed by his mother: this also happened to the title character (Paul Iacono) in an episode of The Hard Times of RJ Berger (2010–2011). In the British drama Ashes and Sand (2003), adolescent Hayley (Lara Belmont) masturbated alone in her bedroom, as did Jessica (Rheagan Wallace) in the comedy Extreme Movie (2008) and Janey (Chyler Leigh) in the comedy Not Another Teen Movie (2001). In the drama We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), adolescent Kevin (Ezra Miller) masturbated in his bedroom with his door open. In the Australian surf movie Newcastle (2008), adolescent Jesse (Lachlan Buchanan) masturbated on his bed before he was sprung. In the British series Skins (2007–), teenager Alo (Will Merrick) masturbated while watching porn in his bedroom. In the horror film The Attic (1980), teenager Louise (Carrie Snodgress) lay in bed masturbating before her father called out to her. For the young people in these examples, there exists the reality that their bedroom is quite possibly their only private place.[19] Another reading proposed by cultural theorist Siân Lincoln is that masturbating in a bedroom in the parental home “can add to the excitement of these teenage rites of passage; the fear of getting caught . . . trying to do it quietly so that no one else in the house hears . . .”[20] Interestingly, aside from the Ashes and Sand, Skins and Extreme Movie examples, all of the characters in these scenes do actually have their masturbation interrupted. While it is unlikely for most of these characters that their location boasted added thrill—or at least, such a thrill is not made obvious—this actually does appear part of the storyline in We Need to Talk About Kevin: Kevin knew that his mother saw him masturbating and he continued doing so, with a slight smirk on his face.
While adults have comparatively more private venues available to them, many nevertheless still masturbate in their bedrooms. In American Beauty, Lester (Kevin Spacey) masturbated in the marital bed while lying next to his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening). In the romantic-comedy Rules of Attraction (2002), Sean (James van der Beek) lay in his bed masturbating while smelling the pages of love letters. In the British sex-drama 9 Songs (2004), Lisa (Margo Stilley) masturbated on her bed. In American Horror Story (2011–), Ben (Dylan McDermott), after seeing his young maid, Moira (Alexandra Breckenridge), masturbating, he retreated to his bedroom to do so himself. In another episode, Ben’s wife Vivien (Connie Britton) masturbated in her bed with a vibrator. In the drama Somewhere Tonight (2011), Leroy (John Turturro) masturbated in his bed while listening to sex sounds over the phone. In the British television series Love in the 21st Century (1999), Jack (Ioan Gruffudd) masturbated on his bed. In the thriller The Temp (1993), Kris (Lara Flynn Boyle) masturbated in her bedroom, as did Patricia (Shannon Tweeds) in the thriller Scorned (1994). In Magic City (2012–), Lily (Jessica Marais) masturbated on the marital bed. In the black-comedy Happiness (1998), Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) ejaculated onto his bedroom wall while making nuisance calls. In the drama A Dangerous Woman (1993), Martha (Debra Winger) masturbated alone in her bedroom. In the drama Margaret (2011), Joan (J. Smith-Cameron) masturbated in her bed, as did the title character (Nicole Kidman) in the comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding (2007). In Secretary, Lee masturbated in her bed. In the French horror film Haute tension (Switchblade Romance) (2003), Marie (Cécile De France) lay in bed masturbating, as did Nina (Natalie Portman) in the thriller Black Swan (2010). In the thriller In the Cut (2003), Frannie (Meg Ryan) masturbated while lying face down on her bed. In an episode of Rome (2005–2007), Atia (Polly Walker) lay on her back in bed masturbating. When Rusty (Harrison Ford) entered the marital bedroom in the mystery Presumed Innocent (1990), he asked his wife (Bonnie Bedelia) whether she had been exercising: “masturbating,” she answered, “the refuge of the lonely housewife.”
The most obvious explanation for the depiction of bedroom masturbation is simply that this how people masturbate in real life: sexologist Mels van Driel discussed research on the location of masturbation and noted that almost half of survey respondents preferred doing so lying down in bed.[21]
While privacy is an obvious explanation, so too is the comfort provided by a bed and, notably, the ability to fall asleep straight after; a distinct advantage given that, as discussed in chapter 10, masturbation is often used off screen and on to relax. The bedroom is also a predictable location given the routine association of bedrooms with sex. Particularly for scenes where the masturbation is eroticized—Moira’s masturbation in American Horror Story is a good example of this—such scenes are sexy because the character is able to position, and in turn display, herself in a more comfortable, and notably more sensuous, position which would be harder to accomplish in a more sterile environment like a bathroom.
Cars are a location at the crossroads of the public and the private: masturbating inside a car may feel as though it is private even if easily witnessed. This paradox was discussed in social theorist William Miller’s book on disgust:
What constitutes the safe domain of the private will also vary with the practice at hand. People will blithely pick their noses in the car next to you at the stoplight, who would not do so in a convertible or even with their windows down. For some reason being enclosed in one’s car works to make the space private enough to sing, to talk to oneself, and to pick one’s nose, despite the transparency of the glass enclosure.[22]
On screen and characters masturbate in cars in numerous examples. In the Italian comedy Amarcord (I Remember) (1973), four boys were in a car masturbating together. In Happiness, Bill (Dylan Baker) masturbated in his car after a session with his therapist. In a scene from Six Feet Under, Nate (Peter Krause)—delaying a return home to his wife Lisa (Lili Taylor)—pulled his car over to masturbate. While neither Bill nor Nate got caught, getting sprung is, in fact, the standard trajectory for the car masturbator. In the Australian television series Puberty Blues (2012–), Martin (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor) got caught masturbating in her car by his wife Judy (Claudia Karvan). In the sitcom Two and a Half Men (2003–), Alan (Jon Cryer) didn’t want to waste an erection-enhancing pill, so he spent a weekend masturbating in places including his car. In one scene, his brother, Charlie (Charlie Sheen), caught him:
Alan: It’s not what it looks like.
Charlie: That’s a relief cause it looks like you were masturbating to mariachi music in your car.
Alan: What do you want? I only get AM radio!
In The League, heavily pregnant Jenny (Katie Aselton) masturbated in the car before being interrupted by her husband and then going into labor. In the comedy Hall Pass (2011), after his wife (Christina Applegate) informed him that they wouldn’t be having sex, Fred (Jason Sudeikis) masturbated in his car. In a scene from the Australian film Soft Fruit (1999), Nadia (Sacha Horler)—desperately seeking some time away from her family—retreated to her car and masturbated under a blanket. In the comedy Due Date (2010), Ethan (Zach Galifianakis) masturbated in the car next to a sleeping Peter (Robert Downey Jr.). Fred, Nadia and Ethan, of course, each humorously got sprung. In other examples, car masturbation was presented less comically. In the thriller The Pleasure Drivers (2006), Faruza (Lacey Chabert) was a passenger in a car. The driver (Angus Macfadyen) was talking, Faruza zoned out, reclined her seat and masturbated. In an episode of the crime-series Brotherhood (2006–2008), Michael (Jason Isaacs) was in the car with his ex-girlfriend Kath (Tina Benko). She tried to seduce him, he rebuffed her, so she masturbated, claiming, “I like to be watched.” In a similar scene in the Japanese drama Yawarakai seikatsu (It’s Only Talk) (2005), Yuko (Shinobu Terajima), was a passenger in a car. At one point she took out a cloth, put it under her, and masturbated. In the Chinese action film Xia dao Gao Fei (Full Contact) (1992), the nymphomaniac character “Virgin” (Bonnie Fu) was a passenger during a car chase. She masturbated throughout, trying to get the driver, Gou Fei (Yun-Fat Chow), to join in. In the horror film Alive or Dead (2008), Maria (Ann Henson) used her phone charger to masturbate with while driving. In the suburban-drama Little Children (2006), Ronnie (Jackie Earle Haley) masturbated in a car parked outside a playground while seated next to his date Sheila (Jane Adams).
On the most basic level, scenes of characters masturbating in cars can be likened to the deluge of scenes of characters having sex in cars,[23] that—as alluded to earlier—the venue is construed as a kind of private space that can be conveniently relocated as necessary. The use of cars specifically for autoeroticism however, raise a number of practice-specific readings.
Noted above was Ronnie’s masturbation in Happiness. In this scene, he did so in front of his date and afterwards threated, “Better not tell on me or I’ll fuckin’ get you.” Part of Ronnie’s arousal was being parked outside a school, but undoubtedly it was also grounded in exhibitionism. While in the Happiness scene, as well as those in Pleasure Drivers, Brotherhood, Yawarakai seikatsu and Xia dao Gao Fei the exhibitionism is obvious, for the others it exists merely as a possibility.
The idea of car-masturbation offering the titillating possibility of being caught was discussed in Cathy Winks and Anne Semans’s book on sexuality where a woman described, “Several times now I’ve started thinking about my “needs” and I’ve masturbated in the car in the park. There aren’t many people there, but the thought of someone “catching” me or “watching me” really excites me.”[24] Sex therapist Patrick Carnes similarly documented a patient with a penchant for masturbating in his car: “He also enjoyed watching and listening as the young women walked past his car.”[25] Car masturbation was also referenced in psychologists John Morin and Jill Levenson’s book The Road to Freedom where a sex offender described, “I would drive up beside the boys and let them notice me masturbating in the car, exposing my parts.”[26] Psychoanalyst Joyce McFadden also noted that some of the women she spoke to masturbated in their cars.[27]
Not all car-masturbators are exhibitionists however; some genuinely do interpret their automobile as a kind of private space, and quite possibly as the only venue where they can achieve privacy. This issue was addressed in Morin and Levenson’s work on sexual deviance. The authors discussed Phil, a truck driver who had been arrested for masturbating in his car in a parking lot after a fifteen-year-old boy had reported him:
Phil admitted he was masturbating, but insisted that the boy could not have seen his penis because it was covered by his shirt. . . . Phil was furious about being charged with lewd exposure simply because the boy had walked by his car and looked in. Phil had no intention of being seen and no desire to be seen.[28]
Car masturbation of course, raises a variety of issues beyond the curious relationship drivers and passengers have regarding privacy. Discussed earlier were Miller’s thoughts on cars providing those within a sense of cocooning. An extension of this is the car functioning as a kind of not-home and not-work “private” space. Third place is a term increasingly used to describe gathering places that are distinct from home and work. In sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s book The Great Good Place for example, he discussed a variety of third places—cafés, hairdressing salons etc.—and briefly mentioned cars serving as third places for young people: “youths sometimes gather in or near their cars in the parking lots of hamburger franchises. It’s the best they can manage, for they aren’t allowed to loiter inside.”[29] The group car masturbation scene in Amarcord certainly seems in line with this description. Whereas cafés and hairdressing salons, of course, are not conducive to masturbating, cars are comparatively private spaces providing a seemingly viable alternative to work, school or home (and one less sterile/disgusting than a bathroom). In reference to the Six Feet Under scene mentioned earlier, John Teti in his A.V. Club article noted that “As long as the work and home spheres were separate, [Nate] had the in-between space where he could briefly be a man who has base urges—and who shamelessly satisfies those urges.”[30] The idea of a car functioning as an in-between place is certainly relevant for analyzing the other examples.
Another interpretation is that these scenes in fact mirror the masturbation practices of some people in real life. News media, for example, has reported on a variety of cases where individuals have been caught masturbating inside vehicles. In an Australian story from 2008, a man was caught “pleasuring himself” with his penis in a jar of pasta sauce.[31] In a 2012 American case, a man was caught masturbating in a car while parked at a gas station and looking at porn.[32] While it is impossible to gauge how common such an activity is, undoubtedly masturbation in cars does transpire in real life.
The psychological connotations of automobiles provide another reading for these scenes. In psychologist Sarah Redshaw’s discussion of driving, she explored the emotional connections people have to cars:
Freedom is one of the abiding characteristics of the car and is frequently mentioned as a value that is prized. Freedom in this sense often means the freedom to go where you want, when you want and with whomever you want.[33]
Freedom in the context of cars was also alluded to in writer Dan Slater’s book Love in the Time of Algorithms: “released youth from the tyranny of parental oversight. . . . Now every date was a bedroom on wheels.”[34]
The idea of a car being able to embody freedom is certainly relevant to analyzing many of the scenes discussed in this section. Nate in Six Feet Under, Nadia in Soft Fruit, Martin in Puberty Blues and Alan in Two and a Half Men are each characters who, within their narratives, experienced a lack of freedom: each were burdened by their roles as parents and living in crowded households. While depicting them retreating to a car centers on showcasing the limitations on their ability to carve out privacy in their lives (akin to the adolescent examples discussed earlier)—if not also their sexual desperation—it is also about the car providing one of their last bastions of freedom: a third place where they can in fact, do what they want (at least until they get caught).
The link between cars and freedom is inextricable and equally so is the link between cars and sex. Marketing theorists Elsa Simões and Lucas Freitas explored this issue in their book on advertising:
Cars have traditionally been seen as extensions of male virility . . . as a powerful way of attracting beautiful women; and as a privileged place for teenage or extra-marital sex. Cars are sexy, and it is accepted that they are often marketed in terms of sex.[35]
Unlike retreating to a bathroom—a sterile or filthy venue—retreating to a car, a place that film and advertising frequently connect with more positive equalities such as freedom and sex likely, explains its appeal as a masturbation location.
Something that enables many of the car-masturbators to do so (at least until detection) is that many were doing so in darkness; that, like vehicles, the absence of light gives them the illusion of privacy.
In the period-drama The Road to Wellville (1994), Doctor John Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins) declared masturbation as “the silent killer of the night! The vilest sin of self-pollution! It is the sin of Onan!” Kellogg makes the assumption here that masturbation transpires at night; a position supported by many of the scenes explored in this book. In this section the inextricable link between darkness and masturbation is examined.
In American Beauty, in the darkness of the marital bedroom, Lester masturbated while lying next to his wife Carolyn. While it was indeed dark, masturbation is rarely a silent event and the rustling of the sheets–not to mention the movement of the bed–woke Carolyn and led to Lester being caught. In the crime-drama Bad Lieutenant (1992), the title character (Harvey Keitel) was only able to get away with stopping two women in a car and then masturbating in front of them because it was dark. In the period-drama Manderlay (2005), Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) masturbated in a room shared with several other women; again something that was only possible because of the darkness. Darkness similarly facilitated many of the peeping tom scenes discussed in Chapter 6. Darkness for example, allowed Peter (Timothy Dutton) to stand outside and peep on Kris masturbating in The Temp, and similarly allowed adolescent Matt (John Hensley) in Nip/Tuck to stand unnoticed outside Ava’s (Famke Janssen) house and masturbate as he peeped on her disrobing. In both examples, darkness however, was interrupted and the men got caught when lights were shined on them.
In writer Sitansu Ray’s work on lightness and darkness, he proposed a number of different ways to interpret the latter, including as referencing the “darker side of life,” its role in facilitating “closeness and . . . privacy” and darkness alluding to the “mysterious and mystic.”[36] Certainly the idea of masturbation as something taboo, private as well as something often done in bed (a place often associated with sleep and night) explains the appeal and the logic of scenes of self-stimulation in darkness.
Another interpretation relates to the idea of romance, of sexuality. In sociologist Eva Illouz’s work on love, she discussed darkness, noting,
The night is more romantic that the day because it facilitates the lovers’ symbolic and physical isolation from their ordinary daytime identities. Night is both a typical marker of romantic time and also the private time par excellence, and this suggests that the boundaries of romantic time are often structured by the boundaries dividing private and public life.[37]
Illouz highlights another way to think about nighttime-masturbation as an event transpiring at a time (and, invariably, also a place) that is distinct from the normal demands of the day and thus, in turn, the night gets imbued with the romance of the private sphere, in contrast to the pressure and demands of the less sexy public sphere.
While thus far I have discussed masturbation in comparatively private locations such as bathrooms, bedrooms and cars, the next sections focus on masturbation conducted in more public arenas.
In an episode of the crime-drama Dexter (2006–2013), the serial killer protagonist (Michael C. Hall) was at his workplace—a police station—accessing a database for non-work purposes. When Dexter was interrupted, he quickly tabbed out of the database and brought up a porn website. Dexter was pretending to engage in the one activity that a character would do surreptitiously, alone in an office: while porn might not necessarily be acceptable it is certainly less worthy of suspicion than had he been accessing the database.[38] Actual at-work masturbation is identifiable in a number of examples.
Mentioned earlier was 40 Days and 40 Nights: while he never got there, it was his workplace bathroom that Matt was headed to masturbate. In an episode of the sitcom Spin City (1996–2002), Mike (Michael J. Fox) was in his office when, after a truncated make-out session with Caitlin (Heather Locklear), he looked down at his hand and said, “So, how was your day?”[39] While masturbation didn’t transpire in either example, it does occur in other scenes. In the romantic-comedy Finding Bliss (2009), Jody (Leelee Sobieski) masturbated at her desk. Jody was however, employed to edit porn films, and thus her arousal and self-stimulation was perhaps not unusual. In other examples, the act seems more surprising. In an episode of the British sitcom Extras (2005–2006), Andy (Ricky Gervais) caught his manager Darren (Stephen Merchant) masturbating at his desk. In Californication, it was Charlie’s (Evan Handler) repeated masturbation in his office that got him fired. In an episode of Family Guy, Opie also got fired from his brewery job for workplace autoeroticism, as did Ted (Scott Lowell) in the American version of Queer as Folk (2005–2005). In Little Children, Richard (Gregg Edelman) masturbated at his desk while persuing the Slutty Kay website. In the drama Closer (2004), Larry (Clive Owen) did so while engaged in cybersex at his desk. In the Canadian romantic-comedy Love, Sex and Eating the Bones (2003) Michael (Hill Harper) masturbated at work while engaged in phone sex with girlfriend Jasmine (Marlyne Barrett), something Emma (Lisa Faulkner) also did in the British series Burn It (2003). In an episode of Orange is the New Black (2013–), prison counselor Joe (Nick Sandow) masturbated at his desk after a prisoner left his office. In the Argentinian drama La mirada invisible (The Invisible Eye) (2010), María Teresa (Julieta Zylberberg)—employed as a teaching assistant at a boy’s school—spied on the boys in the bathroom and masturbated. In the Australian comedy The Rage in Lake Placid (2003), Jane (Saskia Smith) offered her colleague Placid (Bee Lee) sex to relieve her tension. He declined so she masturbated at her desk. In Shame, as noted earlier, Brandon masturbated in the toilet at his workplace. In Secretary, after a spanking session, Lee equally went into the toilet to self-stimulate. Joe did the same thing in Nymphomaniac. In an episode of the sitcom Veep (2012–), Mike (Matt Walsh) retreated to his workplace bathroom to masturbate (although in his case it was less for pleasure and more centered on providing a semen sample).
An obvious interpretation for workplace masturbation in these scenes is that they mirror reality. van Driel discussed research that suggested that 50 percent of women and 60 percent of men have masturbated at work.[40] In Carnes’ research with sex addicts, he found that “by far the biggest losses [of time] recorded were in the workplace.”[41] In sociologist Katie Deverell’s research on the impact of work on sex lives,[42] she quoted Chris Nickolay’s description of balancing employment and arousal: “In the last four weeks I would masturbate at work in the toilets—it refreshed me, I came a little bit alive in myself.”[43] Workplace masturbation was also identifiable in case histories discussed by sociologist Douglas Pryor; one patient for example, noted, “And [I] would masturbate in the office. . . . I had my own office.”[44] A woman in McFadden’s work also mentioned workplace masturbation: “When I’ve been crazed I’ve even done it at work in the bathroom or in my office with the door shut, after everyone else has left for the day.”[45]
Like all screen masturbation, the workplace venue is consciously selected to portray characters in a certain way. For a character to self-stimulate in a place where getting sprung is highly likely, the inference is that perhaps they don’t take their job very seriously (like Darren in Extras and Charlie in Californication), are sexually compulsive (like Opie in Family Guy, Ted in Queer as Folk or Brandon in Shame)[46] or are throwing caution to the wind, and are aroused in spite of—or potentially because—they are breaching the decorous mandates expected of a workplace (like Michael in Love, Sex and Eating the Bones or Emma in Burn It). In Deverell’s research, she noted that often the workplace is thought of as distinctly not home, “Within sociology there has been a tendency for sex to be regarded as something very separate from work; indeed at times almost its opposite.”[47] A character masturbating in such a space conveys the idea that they are failing to neatly separate their different lives and thus are prioritizing the private sphere act of sexual pleasure over the mores of public space.
School shares much in common with work: it is a public space, characters are compelled to be there—notably for long periods of time—and while there, they remain sexual beings even if their circumstances dictate that carnal desires should be supressed. Unlike workplaces however, schools are invariably populated by horny teenagers and therefore masturbation doesn’t seem like a complete surprise, even if, of course, considered inappropriate. That the majority of examples involve adolescent male masturbators again contributes to the perception that men prioritize sexual pleasure over decorum whereas women are expected to exhibit sexual restraint.[48]
In an episode of the Canadian teen series Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–), Clare (Aislinn Paul) was caught with a vibrator at school after stealing it from a teacher’s house. This is an example of “masturbation”—or at least its metonym—brought to school even if it wasn’t actually engaged in. In other examples, the school/self-stimulation link is much more explicit. In the family-drama The Squid and the Whale (2005), Frank (Owen Kline) masturbated by rubbing himself against a shelf in the school library. In the teen-drama series Dawson’s Creek (1998–2003), Pacey (Joshua Jackson) got detention after being caught masturbating in the locker room. In an episode of the sitcom Married with Children (1987-1997), Miss Hardaway (Beverly Archer)—the school librarian—caught Bud (David Faustino) masturbating in a private study room. In the comedy Up the Academy (1980), boys masturbated in classrooms. In the television series Glee (2009–), Jacob (Josh Sussman) was sprung in the school library self-stimulating to a video of his classmate Rachel (Lea Michele). In the drama Saint Ralph (2004), Catholic school student Ralph (Adam Butcher) was caught rubbing his genitals against a rope at school. While rarer, female scenes are also identifiable. In Melissa P., the title character had an orgasm rubbing against the rope in her gym class. Female rope-friction masturbation at school was also alluded to in Nymphomaniac. In the French drama Une vraie jeune fille (A Real Young Girl) (1976) adolescent Alice (Charlotte Alexandra), masturbated frequently out of boredom at school. In an episode of The Hard Times of RJ Berger, Lily (Kara Taitz) masturbated at a desk in the school library. In La mirada invisible, a female teacher masturbated while working at a school.
Ascertaining how common school masturbation is in real life is obviously difficult, but it is something mentioned in case notes of people with sex addiction and intellectual problems[49] as well as identified as an activity associated with boarding schools[50] (a theme briefly alluded to in the Australian film The Devil’s Playground (1976)). Such examples also reflect the limited opportunities young people have for privacy at home (chapter 2) and thus school might be viewed as a comparatively preferable venue (and one with perpetual peer-stimulation).
The school setting can also be attributed to the erotic tropes of the location. Aside from being a venue populated by young people with raging hormones, classrooms and teacher-student liaisons have a notable role in porn (referencing the power imbalances that make other venues like prisons so popular). A good example where the two are fused transpired in the drama About Cherry (2012). Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw) embarked on a porn career. Dressed as a school girl and sitting on a desk, she was instructed by the film’s director to masturbate. In Nymphomaniac, a similar scene transpired when teenage Joe (Stacy Martin), dressed in a school uniform, masturbated in a classroom with props including a set square. Staging masturbation in schools can be construed as tapping into the thrill of a location frequently sexualized for the benefit of a voyeuristic audience familiar with the naughty schoolgirl cliché.
While customers paying to watch sex workers masturbate is explored in chapter 6, in this section, places where customer sexual arousal is experienced—cinemas, peep shows and strip shows—are discussed to explore a public, or at least a commercial place, set up to stimulate. Such erotic environments are in fact invariably portrayed without masturbation; in turn, the venues serve as metonyms: self-stimulation is simply assumed to take place, even if it is not often shown.
Adult cinemas are an interesting example of spaces that are public—in the sense that they are open to patrons—but in real life are also commonly used for masturbation. In my book Part-Time Perverts: Sex, Pop Culture and Kink Management, I discussed the real life brouhaha that followed actor Paul Reubens’ masturbation at an adult cinema:
In 1991, masturbation was publically treated and punished as a perversion when Paul Reubens (the actor who played Pee-Wee Herman), was arrested in an adult cinema for masturbating. Despite being in a cinema designed to arouse, popular perception — demonstrated through extensive media coverage—was that “Pee-Wee’s a pervert.”[51]
In 2012, comedian Fred Willard was arrested for the same thing.[52]
While there are numerous screen examples where characters visit adult cinemas or peep shows—Taxi Driver (1976), Hill Street Blues (1981–1987), The Pelican Brief (1992), The Sopranos (1999–2007) and La pianiste (The Piano Teacher) (2001) where a woman actually attends—less common is the depiction of masturbation actually transpiring in such venues. In the thriller The Departed (2006), autoeroticism was briefly referenced when Frank (Jack Nicholson) pretended to masturbate whilst at a porn cinema; it turned out however, that he was only playing with a dildo. In the comedy The Internship (2013), Yo-Yo (Tobit Raphael) received multiple lap-dances at a strip club and repeatedly ejaculated into his pants: his ejaculation however, wasn’t explicitly connected to self-stimulation either. Masturbation in a cinema did however transpire in the Italian historic-drama Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso) (1988): a row of boys masturbated during the screening of a romantic film. In aforementioned episode of Two and a Half Men, on Alan’s masturbatory weekend, he also got sprung doing the same thing in a cinema. In an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–), a suspect had been at a porn theatre and during questioning admitted to masturbating there. Adult cinema masturbation was presented substantially more explicitly in the comedy-thriller Cecil B. DeMented (2000): in one scene the camera panned to show the audience members masturbating. In another explicit display, in the thriller Crimes of Passion (1984), a deranged priest (Anthony Perkins) also masturbated at a peep show.
Discussing the Reubens case, film theorist Linda Williams identified the appeal of sex cinemas and simultaneously provided an additional lens to read the in darkness narratives discussed earlier:
Video ensures that you need no longer brave a stage club to get your celluloid kicks (unless, of course, the semi-public condition of the darkened cinema and the possibility that you might be watched by undercover police officers —as was Reubens—constitute part of the thrill).[53]
While the trigger in adult cinema scenes could be assumed to be the porn, as Williams alludes, there is the also the thrill of being observed and potentially caught (akin to the car masturbation scene discussed earlier). Also, similar to the group masturbation scenes discussed in chapter 2, such venues also likely provide sexually charged atmospheres whereby being in close to proximity to other masturbators constitutes part of the arousal.
In a scene from the comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Sarah (Kristen Bell) was an actress in a crime-themed television show. The following exchange transpired between her and “Detective Rush” (William Baldwin):
Sarah: Remember how we thought the killer masturbated before committing his crimes?
Rush: Yes?
Sarah: Take a look . . .
Rush: Looks like where he’s going he’ll need to know how to masturbate.
Rush’s where he’s going comment references prison; the suggestion being that the perpetrator will need to learn how to masturbate because prison is a place where most inmates don’t have access to the sex they want. In historian Anne Butler’s discussion of prisons in the nineteenth century, she presented a summation of prison life that appears equally applicable today:
Divorced from the outside society, young men entered into a state of limited sexual opportunity. Their new sexual lives depended on masturbation, same sex encounters with other inmates and guards . . .[54]
In Part-Time Perverts I discussed circumstantial homosexuality—something transpiring in environments such as prisons and boarding schools—where gender-segregated people may participate in sex that is unusual for them but reflects their lack of options.[55] In his discussion of circumstantial homosexuality, physician Lawrence Mass described such sex as “rather like masturbation” and contended that, “There are lots of people who masturbate, even a lot, but who would prefer some other kind of interpersonal relationship.”[56] While circumstantial homosexuality might be something that some prisoners engage in, doing so may not always be desirable or even possible. A scene from the comedy-drama Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999) illustrated this well when sex was suggested, rejected, and thus masturbation substituted. Cyclona (María Celedonio) asked her fellow inmate White Girl (Natasha Lyonne) whether she wanted oral sex. White Girl refused, and Cyclona proceeded to nosily masturbate. On screen and masturbation is frequently presented as a common sexual outlet for prisoners.
In an episode of the prison-themed series Oz (1997–2003), Moses (Erik King) masturbated while watching fellow deathrow inmate Shirley (Kathryn Erbe) have sex with supervising corrections officer Len (Carl DiMaggio). In another episode, prisoner Miguel (Kirk Acevedo), shouted at another prisoner, “Hey, will you shut the fuck up? I’m trying to masturbate!” In a scene from the thriller The Paperboy (2012), Hillary (John Cusack) masturbated through his prison outfit while his visiting girlfriend pantomimed fellatio. When he finished, a semen stain appeared on the inner thigh of his pants. In the thriller Silence of the Lambs (1991), Miggs (Stuart Rudin)—an insane inmate—masturbated furiously and then hurled semen at Clarisse (Jodie Foster), a visiting FBI cadet. In the biopic Midnight Express (1978), Billy (Brad Davis) masturbated when his girlfriend (Irene Miracle) visited him in prison. In an episode of the biker-drama Sons of Anarchy (2008–), Otto (Kurt Sutter) masturbated in his cell and in an episode of Rectify (2013–), a death row inmate did the same. Prison masturbation was also referenced in the crime-drama Papillion (1973) when Warden Barrot (William Smithers) warned the title character (Steve McQueen)—just as he was being locked into solitary confinement—“Put all hope out of your mind. And masturbate as little as possible, it drains the strength.”
Female inmates also masturbate on screen. In an episode of Orange is the New Black, inmate Big Boo (Lea DeLaria) masturbated with the handle of a screwdriver. In a scene from the drama A Map of the World (1999), Alice (Sigourney Weaver) walked into her cell to find her cellmate, Debbie (Sara Rue), lying on the floor masturbating. The Swiss horror film Frauengefängnis (Barbed Wire Dolls) (1976)—set in a woman’s prison—included an explicit scene of Bertha (Martine Stedil) masturbating. In another scene, prisoner Pompadour (Peggy Markoff), did so with a cigarette. In The L Word (2004–2009), Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Candace (Ion Overman) masturbated while talking dirty to each other during their brief incarceration. Worth noting, female visitors to prison are also shown masturbating for the viewing pleasure of male inmates, as identifiable in Fast-Walking (1982) and the Australian heist film The Hard Word (2002), serving again as reminders of the erotics of the female masturbation display (chapter 6).
As noted in the introduction of this section, an obvious reason why prisoner characters masturbate is because this is what prisoners in real life do. Research undertaken on Australian prisons for example, noted that the vast majority of both male and female inmates reported having masturbated while incarcerated.[57] In sociologist Dana Britton’s work on prisons, one female corrections officer reported: “On a daily basis, when I make my rounds, there’s a couple of particular inmates that will masturbate every time I go down range in front of the cells. Every time.”[58] Prisoners on screen likely masturbate simply because in real life prisoners do the same.
Another explanation is that such masturbation serves to convey the idea that prisoners are not like other people. In chapter 1 I discussed the connection often made in narratives between masturbation and insanity as well as masturbation and criminality. In the vast majority of the examples discussed in this section, the masturbating prisoners are bad or mad and autoeroticism is a show-don’t tell way to portray them as acting out in accordance with their deviance. In a real life context this issue was alluded to in political scientist James Slack’s discussion of prison life where one inmate claimed:
We have had a cultural shift in our views of sensitivity in society—much more permissive now. The younger guys coming into prison now have no inhibitions about masturbation in public. It is a twenty-first century version of acting-out.[59]
Just as in real life public masturbation can be a way for a prisoner to act out, for the prisoner on screen, their framing as bad or mad can certainly be bolstered by presenting them with a disregard for social decorum and impulse control. Inmate masturbation more broadly, can also be used to frame prison as a frightening place where different rules and social mores apply. When Clarisse first entered the prison in Silence of the Lambs and was confronted by the masturbating madman Miggs, this was a way to establish her circumstances as alarming and otherworldly. In Rectify, the vigorous masturbation of another inmate worked to establish Daniel as a fish-out-of-water in a terrifying place.
A more renegade interpretation of prison masturbation centers on such a display being erotic. In porn, prison themes are effortlessly detected, notably in homosexual themed-material; something discussed by literature scholar Stephen Cox:
Prison sex has become a major theme of both heterosexual and homosexual pornography. Both kinds of porn exploit leading features of the Big House icon: “hard time,” “men in cages” (or women in manlike cages), numbers, uniforms, overbearing guards, initiation scenes, the enforced transformation of identity.[60]
Similar themes abound in mainstream narratives whereby the idea of the tension created by many sexually frustrated characters in one space charges a scene with eroticism. In his research on media representations of prisons, Cox—referencing the 1957 film—discussed something he termed “Jailhouse Rock phenomena,” and described it as involving,
the sexualization of prison, the use of the Big House as a screen for the projection of sexual conflicts and fantasies. . . . Here fantasies both of sexual humiliation and of sexual dominance and fulfilment can be cultivated . . .[61]
Cox explored these ideas in the context of the aforementioned prison-themed series Oz:
Prison reform is not the emphasis or, undoubtedly, the goal of Oz. The goal is to realize the Big House aesthetic, to create a self-sufficient, purposely unnatural world, a total environment in which men are initiated, humiliated, and transformed in interesting ways—especially, in this case, sexually. In such an environment, the audience is encouraged to believe, one can experience all the possibilities of erotic life, so long as they are violent and cruel.[62]
As related to incarcerated women, an entire eroticized genre–women in prison films[63]—exists where sex is obviously a key theme. The erotics of prison sex—notably in relation to masturbation—are particularly well illustrated in The L Word episode discussed earlier. Bette and Candace ended up in jail after a protest got out of control at Bette’s gallery. The two women—who had previously had a sexual relationship—were placed in the same cell. Even though these women had only been in the shared cell for minutes—and even though their stay was only ever going to be temporary—the sexual tension was palpable and the two ended up masturbating while talking dirty to each other. While the characters’ pre-existing sexual tension presumably added heat to this scene, undoubtedly the jail setting fuelled their libidos: the eroticism of incarceration, notably same-sex incarceration, was apparently as familiar to the characters as to the audience.
Sharing similar themes as related to gender-segregation, uniforms and authority figures, is military-themed masturbation scenes. While certainly not as common as prison-themes ones, such examples provide another venue for the where of autoeroticism on screen.
In chapter 1 I discussed masturbating asylum patients where I proposed that one explanation was boredom: that patients had time to spare and masturbation was just another pastime. Boredom is relevant to interpreting asylum and prison masturbation and also to masturbation in the military. As part of his narration in the military-drama Jarhead (2005), deployed marine Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) reflected on his boredom while serving in Kuwait:
Suggested techniques for the marine to use in the avoidance of boredom and loneliness: masturbation. Rereading of letters from unfaithful wives and girlfriends. Cleaning your rifle. Further masturbation. Rewiring Walkman. Arguing about religion and meaning of life. Discussing in detail, every woman the marine has ever fucked. Debating differences, such as Cuban vs. Mexican, Harleys vs. Hondas, left- vs. right-handed masturbation. Further cleaning of rifle. Studying of Filipino mail order bride catalog. Further masturbation . . .
In one scene, Anthony masturbated to a photo of his girlfriend. In the military-themed comedy Biloxi Blues (1998) the protagonist Eugene (Matthew Broderick) mentioned in his diary the excessive masturbation of another soldier in his barracks. In the Vietnam War themed Full Metal Jacket (1987), Private “Cowboy” (Arliss Howard) mentioned Private “Hand Job” (Marcus D’Amico), who apparently “was jerkin’ off ten times a day” before being sent away for her medical treatment. Worth noting, the masturbating boys in Up the Academy were students in a military school.
Like prison, being deployed creates a lack of access to desired sexual activities, and thus military masturbation can be construed similarly; a situation mirroring real life. van Driel for example, quoted from the writings of Arnon Grunberg who noted that the shower is the most popular self-stimulation venue for personnel stationed in Afghanistan; he described the floor as “slippery with sperm.”[64] An earlier and more subtle example of this came from an Austrian soldier during World War I who once wrote, “Formerly my wife was my right hand, now my right hand is my wife.”[65] Worth noting, like prison, military settings—and soldiers more broadly—are themes often used in porn where drill sergeants and uniforms are eroticized.[66]
Another interpretation for the military-masturbation scenes, explored further in chapter 9, is self-stimulation as a balm for depression. Extensive research documents soldier depression,[67] and therefore, the act on screen can be connected to this. Certainly in other films set in conflict zones—Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter) (1974), Bent (1997) and In Darkness (2011) for example—autoeroticism achieves a similar ends: to distract characters from their awful and stressful wartime circumstances.
While serving soldiers are rarely shown masturbating on screen, the military-theme is indeed identifiable in other self-stimulation scenes. In the opening scene of the drama The Master (2012) for example, Freddie (Joaquin Phoenix)—a recently returned marine—was drunk, crazed and roaming a beach and eventually stopped to masturbate. In an episode of Homeland (2011–), former prisoner of war Brody (Damian Lewis) attempted to adjust to life at home with his wife, Jessica (Morena Baccarin). In a scene where Jessica initiated sex, Brody asked her to take off her blouse. She did and Brody began masturbating. Jessica said, “let me,” but Brody says, “no, it’s better if you don’t.” Something evident for both Freddie in The Master and Brody in Homeland is that, in varying degrees, military service had changed them. The masturbation in these scenes can be interpreted as evidence of a kind of madness, but more specific to these narratives, symptomatic of how these men likely lived during their deployment: presumably frequently self-stimulating, and thus—as cautioned in the anti-masturbation literature—meant that they had trouble adjusting to “normal” sexual relations once home.
In the comedy The Hangover (2009), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) discussed card-counting, and remarked, “It’s not illegal. It’s frowned upon, like masturbating on an airplane.” Presented obviously as a joke in this scene, Alan nevertheless highlights that masturbation in public is something generally considered socially inappropriate: as discussed in chapter 1, those characters who breach this social more are routinely considered mad or bad.
While adolescent Julie (Jessica Campbell) masturbated outside in her backyard in the suburban-drama The Safety of Objects (2001), as did Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) in American Horror Story and Billy (Rufus Read) did so on the balcony in Happiness, each example could be construed as somewhat private in that the locations were extensions of private residences. Public masturbation however, does transpire in other scenes; Bad Lieutenant, discussed earlier, is one example. A more obviously public example transpired in the crime-drama Happy Face Murders (1999): the intellectually-challenged Tracy (Emily Hampshire), masturbated on a beach. Freddie also masturbated on a beach in The Master.[68] In a scene from the romantic-drama Monogamy (2010) Theo (Chris Messina)—while taking photos in the park—photographed a woman (Meital Dohan) masturbating on a bench. In the drama Antichrist (2009), The Wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) masturbated naked in a forest. In Autoerotic, the unnamed Kate Lyn Sheil character masturbated in a laneway during the middle of the day. In an episode of sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005–), a homeless man used the alley behind the bar to masturbate; at one point Mac (Rob McElhenney) remarked, “The streets are flooded with the ejaculate of the homeless . . . ”
While in these examples, masturbation was done in the open, there are a variety of other examples that transpire in indoor public spaces. In the sitcom Louie (2010–), Jeanie (Chloë Sevigny) masturbated while seated in a bar. In a scene from Nymphomaniac, Joe (Stacy Martin) did so while seated at a restaurant. In an episode of Shameless (2011–), young Debbie (Emma Kenney) (2011–) spotted a man masturbating on the bus. Bus masturbation was also referenced in an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–). Keeping in mind that masturbation is invariably connected to madness or badness, Jeanie in Louie, Joe in Nymphomania and the public masturbator in Shameless, are each presented as strange, socially awkward characters: their masturbation is a way to prove this. Akin to the sex venue examples discussed earlier, the exhibitionist thrill of such masturbation is a likely appeal of such outdoor self-stimulation, as is the disregard for social mores.
This chapter focused on the where of masturbation, exploring the private bathrooms and bedrooms and the more public cars and prisons as venues for autoeroticism. Chapter 6 focuses on the performance of masturbation engaged in by characters for the pleasure of others within a narrative as well as for the audience.
Mels van Driel, With the Hand: A Cultural History of Masturbation (London: Reaktion Books, 2012), 24.
Sexologist Mels van Driel noted that only 3 percent of survey respondents identified the toilet as a place where they masturbated (Mels van Driel, With the Hand: A Cultural History of Masturbation (London: Reaktion Books, 2012), 24).
Lauren Rosewarne, Periods in Pop Culture: Menstruation in Film and Television (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012), 12.
Steven A. Cramer, Putting on the Armor of God: How to Win Your Battles with Satan (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 1992), 275.
The idea of thinking of menstruation as a “sanitary event” comes from Hope Edelman’s book Motherless: Daughters: The Legacy of Loss where she quoted psychologist Naomi Lowinsky who commented, “Without a mother, a first menstruation is just a big sanitary event” (Hope Edelman, Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2006), 218).
Lauren Rosewarne, Periods in Pop Culture: Menstruation in Film and Television (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012), 13.
William H. Masters, Virginia E. Johnson and Robert C. Kolodny, Masters & Johnson on Sex & Human Loving (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company 1986), 294.
A rare example of a woman seemingly concerned about leaving a masturbatory mess transpired in the Japanese drama Yawarakai seikatsu (It’s Only Talk) (2005). Before Yuko (Shinobu Terajima) masturbated in the car, she took out a cloth and put it under her. Worth noting, an alternative interpretation of this scene is Yuko perhaps protecting herself from contact with the seat.
Queer theorist Nguyen Tan Hoang identified “gay porn’s (re)appropriation of homosocial spaces—locker rooms, mechanic’s garages, college fraternity houses, military barracks and prisons—as the “stages” where sexual fantasy unfolds” (Nguyen Tan Hoang, “The Resurrection of Brandon Lee: The Making of a Gay Asian American Porn Star,” Porn Studies, ed. Linda Williams (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004): 223–270, 234–235). Similarly, in their discussion of sexualized violence in a military context, Carmine Sarracino and Kevin Scott highlighted the role that power disparities have long had in porn: “The theme of asserting one’s will over another is also found in most porn, fascinated as it is with narratives of the exploitation of power differential. . . . The prison guard/prisoner fantasy has been popular in porn for decades, in print and film” (Carmine Sarracino and Kevin M. Scott, The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What it Means, and Where We Go From Here (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2008), 144).
In song, the bathroom is mentioned as the venue for male masturbation in Alice Cooper’s “Muscle of Love” (1974).
The emasculating nature of a mother screaming at—and in turn interrupting the masturbation of—adult males also transpired in the Australian mini-series The Slap (2011) for Hector (Jonathan LaPaglia). (A female version transpired in Dirt (2007–2008), when Lucy’s (Courteney Cox) masturbation was interrupted by a phonecall from her mother).
Pete Falconer, “Fresh Meat? Dissecting the Horror Movie Virgin,” Virgin Territory: Representing Sexual Inexperience in Film, ed. Tamar Jeffers McDonald (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2010): 123–137, 126–127.
Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Screen, 16(3) (Autumn, 1975): 6–18.
Robert F. Sutton, Jr., “Female Bathers and the Emergence of the Female Nude in Greek Art,” The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing, and Hygiene from Antiquity through the Renaissance, eds. Cynthia Kosso and Anne Scott (Boston, MA: Brill, 2009): 61–86, 61.
Robert F. Sutton, Jr., “Female Bathers and the Emergence of the Female Nude in Greek Art,” The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing, and Hygiene from Antiquity through the Renaissance, eds. Cynthia Kosso, Anne Scott (Boston, MA: Brill, 2009): 61–86, 63.
Sarit Shalev-Eyni, “Purity and Impurity: The Naked Woman Bathing in Jewish and Christian Art,” Between Judaism and Christianity: Art Historical Essays in Honor of Elisheva (Elisabeth) Revel-Neher, eds. Katrin Kogman-Appel and Mati Meyer (Boston, MA: Brill, 2009): 191–214, 191.
Mabel Collins Donnelly, The American Victorian Woman: The Myth and the Reality (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986), 42.
Lauren Rosewarne, Periods in Pop Culture: Menstruation in Film and Television (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012).
This idea was briefly alluded to in a scene from the comedy Van Wilder: Party Liaison (2002): Taj (Kal Penn) commented, “You have shown me a life I could only dream about back home while masturbating in my father’s woodshed.” Here, Taj spotlighted the limited places available for your young people to masturbate.
Siân Lincoln, Youth Culture and Private Space (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 73.
Mels van Driel, With the Hand: A Cultural History of Masturbation (London: Reaktion Books, 2012), 24.
William Ian Miller, The Anatomy of Disgust (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 178.
Car sex in film is common in a wide variety of films, for example in Saturday Night Fever (1977), Birdy (1984), The Doom Generation (1995), Crash (1996), Fucking Åmål (Show Me Love) (1998), The Loved One (1999), Gone In 60 Seconds (2000), Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mother Too!) (2001), Suckers (2001), Ma Mère (My Mother) (2004) and Havoc (2005).
In Cathy Winks and Anne Semans, Good Vibrations Guide to Sex: The Most Complete Sex Manual Ever Written (San Francisco, CA: Cleis Press, 2002), 84.
Patrick Carnes, Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2001), 55.
In John W. Morin and Jill S. Levenson, A Comprehensive Competency-based Workbook for Sexual Offenders in Treatment (Oklahoma City, OK: Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing, 2002), 10.
Joyce T. McFadden, Your Daughter’s Bedroom: Insights for Raising Confident Women (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
John W. Morin and Jill S. Levenson, “Exhibitionism,” Sexual Deviance: Theory, Assessment, and Treatment, eds. D. Richard Laws and William T. O’Donohue (New York: The Guilford Press, 2008): 76–107, 76.
Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place (New York: Marlowe and Company, 1989), 18.
John Teti, “The Eye Inside,” A.V. Club (June 25, 2013). Retrieved July 18, 2013 from http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-eye-inside,98997/.
“Oz Man Fined for ‘Pleasuring’ Himself in Pasta Jar!” Hindustan Times, November 19, 2008. Retrieved February 6, 2010, from Lexis Nexis.
“Deputies: Man Caught Masturbating In Car,” KCRA.com, January 13, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2013 from http://www.kcra.com/Deputies-Man-Caught-Masturbating-In-Car/-/11798090/12647168/-/140bchu/-/index.html.
Sarah Redshaw, In the Company of Cars: Driving As a Social and Cultural Practice (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2008), 69.
Dan Slater, Love in the Time of Algorithms (New York: Current, 2013), 29.
Elsa Simões and Lucas Freitas, Taboo in Advertising (Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing, 2008), 59.
Sitansu Ray, “Tagore on the Dialectics of Light and Darkness,” The Elemental Dialectic of Light and Darkness: The Passions of Soul in the Onto-poiesis of Life, Volume 38, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992): 101–110, 102.
Eva Illouz, Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997), 114.
The same idea was presented as a joke in an episode of the British series The IT Crowd (2006–2013). Roy (Chris O’Dowd) was caught using his computer late one night by his girlfriend. He had been looking up plans of sea parks, but instead lied and said he was masturbating.
A musical verison of this idea transpires in Jackson Browne’s song “Rosie” (1977) where the artist sings, “Looks like it’s me and you again tonight, Rosie,” lyrics which reference the common “Rosie Palms” euphemism for masturbation.
Mels van Driel, With the Hand: A Cultural History of Masturbation (London: Reaktion Books, 2012), 24–25.
Patrick Carnes, “Editorial: Cybersex, Sexual Health, and the Transformation of Culture,” Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity, 8 (1999): 77–78.
Katie Deverell, Sex, Work and Professionalism: Working in HIV/AIDS (London: Routledge, 2001).
Chris Nickolay, “Computer Games,” The Achilles Heel Reader: Men, Sexual Politics and Socialism, ed. Victor J. Seidler (London: Routledge, 1991): 160–163, 161.
In Douglas W. Pryor, Unspeakable Acts: Why Men Sexually Abuse Children (New York: New York University Press, 1996), 79.
Joyce T. McFadden, Your Daughter’s Bedroom: Insights for Raising Confident Women (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 83.
The idea of sexual compulsion and the workplace was briefly explored by psychologist David Ley when he discussed the Brazilian case of Ana Catarian Bezerra who won the legal right to masturbate at work while looking at porn because she had been diagnosed with hypersexuality (David J. Ley, The Myth of Sex Addiction (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2012)).
Katie Deverell, Sex, Work and Professionalism: Working in HIV/AIDS (London: Routledge, 2001), 3.
This topic of women and sexual restraint has been extensively discussed. Philosopher Michel Foucault for example, noted how, from the nineteenth century, sexuality was used as a means to control society (Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality. Volume 1: An Introduction (New York: Vintage, 1980)). Social theorists Amy Lind and Stephanie Brzuzy specifically discussed these ideas in relation to the impact on women’s sexuality, identifying that “upper-class Victorian women became the symbolic representation of restraint, a carefully constructed (and politically significant) shift for both women’s sexual health and women’s social and political status in society. Chastity became, for women, a symbol of status; lack of sexual desire linked womanliness with social mobility. Women who deviated from this Victorian exterior of purity and chastity were situated as cultural outsiders: madwomen, criminals, and disordered beings” (Amy Lind and Stephanie Brzuzy, Battleground: Women, Gender, and Sexuality (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008), 166). Health researcher Ellen Essick specifically discussed the modern day burden that women have “to perform sexually, behave appropriately, and maintain all standards of feminine behavior. In addition, denying or suppressing sexual appetite keeps one’s moral status intact. For decades women have received messages reinforcing the need for restraint and caution with sexuality in order to remain pure. . .” (Ellen Essick, “Eating Disorders and Sexuality,” Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia, Volume 2, eds. Shirley R. Steinberg, Priya Parmar and Birgit Richard (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006): 276–279, 279).
Gerald Schoenewolf, 101 Therapeutic Successes: Overcoming Transference and Resistance in Psychotherapy (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1989); Jay Haley and Madeleine Richeport-Haley, Directive Family Therapy (Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press, 2007).
Peter W. Cookson, Jr. and Caroline Persell, Preparing for Power: America’s Elite Boarding Schools (New York: Basic Books, 1985); Axel Bundgaard, Muscle and Manliness: The Rise of Sport in American Boarding Schools (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2005). Queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick also discussed this briefly: “According to [queer theorist] Ed Cohen, for example, anxiety about boys’ masturbation motivated mechanisms of school discipline and surveillance that were to contribute so much to the late nineteenth-century emergence of a widespread, class-infected male homosexual identity and hence to the modern crisis of male homo/heterosexual definition.” (Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Tendencies (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993), 116–117).
Lauren Rosewarne, Part-Time Perverts: Sex, Pop Culture and Kink Management (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011), 33.
Kiki Von Glinow, “Fred Willard Arrested: Actor Caught With Pants Down In Adult Movie Theater,” Huffington Post (July 19, 2012). Retrieved September 16, 2013 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/fred-willard-arrested-masturbating-movie-theater_n_1685667.html.
Linda Ruth Williams, The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), 256.
Anne M. Butler, Gendered Justice in the American West: Women Prisoners in Men’s Penitentiaries (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 71.
Lauren Rosewarne, Part-Time Perverts: Sex, Pop Culture and Kink Management (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011). Self-stimulation as a stand-in for other options was also briefly alluded to by Thomas Laqueur in his discussion of the masturbation of slaves in Ancient Greece: “Either they lacked the quality or quantity of sexual outlets that free men enjoyed, or, in the case of those from the East in particular, they were generally licentious” (Thomas W. Laqueur, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation, New York: Zone Books, 2003, 103).
Lawrence D. Mass, “Homosexuality as Behavior and Identity,” Dialogues of the Sexual Revolution, vol. II (Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press, 1990), 212.
Tony Butler, Juliet Richters, Lorraine Yap, Cerissa Papanastasiou, Alun Richards, Karen Schneider, Luke Grant, Anthony Smith and Basil Donovan, Sexual Health and Behaviour of Queensland Prisoners with Queensland and New South Wales Comparisons (Perth and Sydney: National Drug Institute, 2010). Retrieved July 19, 2013 from http://ndri.curtin.edu.au/local/docs/pdf/publications/R236.pdf.
Dana M. Britton, At Work in the Iron Cage: The Prison As Gendered Organization (New York: New York University Press, 2003), 140.
In James D. Slack, Abortion, Execution, and the Consequences of Taking Life (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publications, 2011), 151.
Stephen D. Cox, The Big House: Image and Reality of the American Prison (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 96.
Stephen D. Cox, The Big House: Image and Reality of the American Prison (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 96.
Stephen D. Cox, The Big House: Image and Reality of the American Prison (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 97.
Suzanna Danuta Walters, “The (R)evolution of Women-in-Prison Films,” Reel Knockouts: Violent Women in the Movies, ed. Martha McCaughey and Neal King (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2001): 106–123.
In Mels van Driel, With the Hand: A Cultural History of Masturbation (London: Reaktion Books, 2012), 25.
Joshua S. Goldstein, War and Gender (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 336.
Hoang, Nguyen Tan. “The Resurrection of Brandon Lee: The Making of a Gay Asian American Porn Star.” Porn Studies, ed. Linda Williams. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004, 223-270; Jeffrey Escoffier, Bigger Than Life: The History of Gay Porn Cinema from Beefcake to Hardcore (Philadelphia, PA: Running Press Book Publishers, 2009).
Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, David S. Riggs, Risk and Resilience in U.S. Military Families (New York: Springer, 2011).
Beach masturbation was also briefly alluded to in the comedy Going Berserk (1983) when John (John Candy) told his therapist about a recurring dream where he gets caught masturbating on a beach.