Going Solo part 2

[differenceblog]

njyoder pointed out several articles I missed yesterday on masturbation. All studies seem to uphold the hypothesis that men are more likely to masturbate than women. Their results, in order of publication date:

• Leitenberg et al (1993) found in a U.S. sample that nearly twice as many men as women admitted to masturbation, but found this had no effect on

Comments

[detonate_for_me]

I never believed my female friends who said they didn't masturbate. Bunch of liars. Wait, I was lying about it, too. No girl would EVER admit to doing that!

I started doing it when I was 10. I think the study is wrong.

[differenceblog]

So, do you think it's entirely a reporting issue: that women really do masturbate at levels equal to men? I suspect there is a significant reporting bias, but I suspect this is a gender difference with some reality to it.

For one thing, it's just a lot easier for most men to masturbate.

[detonate_for_me]

Easier how? SRSLY. For me, all it takes is a little rubbing through my clothes. No mess, no cleanup. It doesn't take long.

It's probably true that women really do masturbate less frequently than men (I guess; I do it more often than all the men I know, apparently I'm weird), but not THAT much less. And it may be true that fewer women do it, but I find that hard to believe.

[differenceblog]

For me, all it takes is a little rubbing through my clothes.
Color me envious. Before testosterone, it took me erotica, over an hour, and usually mechanical assistance.

[detonate_for_me]

There are trade-offs for everything. When someone else is "helping" it takes 45 minutes. And I've never had an orgasm during intercourse. I've never really even come close. It's to the point where I have trouble believing the women who say they can come just from PIV sex. Yeah, right.

[njyoder]

That's the problem with anecdotes, it becomes hard to believe something different from your own experience, which is why we have studies. Offhand, I think about a third of women in studies reported having reached orgasm through PIV intercourse. I don't know of any that checked the difference between strict PIV sex and PIV sex involving significant clitoral stimulation, but I haven't really looked into it much.

To 'differenceblog'/dan4th:
In regards to hormones, I saw a bunch of studies on hormones and masturbation. A quick check confirms that testosterone increases masturbation and sexual activity, which is probably why it was proposed as a treatment for female sexual arousal disorder.

I tried 'masturbation' along with the following: hormone[s], testosterone, estrogen, androgen, steroids, oral contraception/contraceptives. Archives of sexual behavior (again) showed a bunch in this area, so you might try that specificalyl. A lot seem to be on adolescents with various disorders (hypogonadal ones with delayed puberty for

[vinnie_tesla]

That doesn't make the study wrong, exactly. It just means that it demonstrates something different than it might have appeared to. It's no less interesting if you read it as purely about self-presentation rather than actual masturbation.

[detonate_for_me]

But the study is supposed to BE about masturbation. Dang it.

It's interesting to think about the self-presentation aspect, but that, to me, is nothing new. Women aren't supposed to be sexual, blah blah. Maybe I read too many feminist blogs. :D

[differenceblog]

Grin. Discovering biases in the information we take in is a big part of what The Difference Blog is all about.

I keep thinking I should add a section to each post saying "these are the biases I have (that I know about) pertinent to today's post". I did come into this issue hoping to find that men and women had nearly equal rates of masturbation. I haven't found any evidence to back up that claim.