Episode 36: The Magic of Masturbation

May is Masturbation Month, so let’s talk self-pleasure! Masturbation is a topic that has long been shrouded by secrecy and shame, and it’s well past time that we bust the harmful myths, break the taboo, and normalize self-pleasure. For this episode of the Sex and Psychology Podcast, I spoke with Marie Aoyama, who works in the Global Marketing Department for TENGA, a Japanese-based sexual health and wellness brand enabling users around the world to celebrate self-pleasure with its innovative and diverse sex and masturbation toys. TENGA recently released their 2021 Self-Pleasure Report, which was based on a representative survey of 1,000 American adults aged 18-54. This survey offers important insights into masturbation attitudes and practices in the United States today, as well as how they have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, including: How did self-pleasure change over the last year? Why was there a bigger drop in masturbation for women than there was for men during the pandemic? What do people actually do when they masturbate? When people fantasize during masturbation, who and what are they most likely to think about? What are the benefits of self-pleasure, and why should we think of it as a form of self-care? If people had to give up either sex or masturbation for a month, which one do you think they’d choose? (The answer may surprise you!) How many people are comfortable talking openly about masturbation? And what do we need to do to break the taboos surrounding self-pleasure? To learn more about the key findings from TENGA’s 2021 Self-Pleasure Report, see here. *** Want to learn more about Sex and Psychology? Click here for previous articles or follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit to receive updates. You can also follow Dr. Lehmiller on YouTube and Instagram.  Listen and stream all episodes on Apple, Spotify, Google, or Amazon. Subscribe to automatically receive new episodes and please rate and review the podcast! Credits: LEGIT Audio (Podcast editing) and Shutterstock/Florian (Music). Image created with Canva; photos used with permission of guest.