Dear V,
I love masturbating, and as far as I can tell, almost everyone does it. However, I still feel people get uncomfortable around me when I talk about masturbation publicly. It doesn’t seem to matter how graphic or tame it is. Everybody acts like I’m weird when I do it, and I don’t understand why. Am I missing something, or am I just more sexually open than most?
Sincerely,
Perpetually Hot and Bothered
Dear Hot and Bothered,
This is one of those topics that some think is no big deal and others think is completely inappropriate. And while we may all assume that pretty much everyone plays with themselves, a study of American adults found that only 38 percent of women and 61 percent of men masturbate during a given year. Surprising, huh?
On that note, if it’s something that you commonly feel the need to talk about, don’t let other people’s shyness keep you from doing it. It may be that you ARE more sexually open that your friends, maybe the timing is just wrong, who knows. Either way, masturbation is perfectly normal as well as healthy.
My advice would be keep doing what your’e doing. If it really feels awkward, maybe tone it down a bit, but you shouldn’t feel bad about what you enjoy discussing…or what you enjoy alone in your bedroom.
Best of luck,
V.