7 Masturbation myths to stay away from

“Masturbating will make you blind”, “Maturbating while being in a relationship is considered cheating” ...blah …blah …and blah. There is no end to myths and misconceptions when it comes to masturbation.

Masturbation is a regular physical activity that can be as mundane as going to the washroom or eating. But due to the taboo around sex in general, masturbation has also earned a bad name. So Let’s bust some myths around masturbation.

1. Masturbation will make you go blind

Let’s begin with one of the most ridiculous ones out there. Masturbation will make you go blind. It doesn’t take much medical knowledge to understand that there is no correlation between masturbating and going blind. A lot of these myths stem from the time when sex or any sexual activity was solely associated with procreation. And since masturbation couldn’t lead to procreation. Masturbation is also linked to hairy palms as well as insanity. It doesn’t take a medical genius to understand that these are untrue.

2. People in relationships do not masturbate

This is quite a popular belief to date. Masturbating while being committed to someone is often taken as a sign of cheating and is considered a sign of an unhappy relationship. This is completely untrue. People often have different levels of sexual drives and desires. At times, one person in a relationship is in the mood to have sex while the other is not or someone may just enjoy masturbating. None of these necessarily reflect that a person is not sexually satisfied in the relationship or is cheating on their partner.

3. Masturbation can ruin sex with your partner

If anything, masturbation can help you improve your sex life with your partner. Masturbation is a great way to discover and explore your body. It is a great way to get you to know what you like and what you don't. What turns you on, what excites you versus what puts you off. Once you are well versed with what your body likes and desires you can communicate the same to your partner, and your partner can in turn do the same. This can help you enrich your sex life to an extent that you can’t even imagine.

4. There’s something like too much masturbation

There’s no safe limit as to the number of times you can masturbate in a day unless affecting your day-to-day life and your relationships, truth be told, very few people reach that point. Another myth related to too much masturbation is that you can run out of orgasms. At times your body might get too familiar with a particular touch and may get desensitized which might make it a tad bit hard for you to orgasm when you masturbate. However, it is temporary and it doesn’t mean that you will run out of orgasms.

5. Masturbation is harmful to your health

Another myth is deep-rooted in misinformation. The only way masturbation can affect your health is intrinsically masturbation can pose no danger to your health. On the contrary, it can be quite beneficial to you. Masturbation can help you reduce your stress, tension, or even headache. Masturbation has also been linked to a more youthful appearance and even better self-esteem. For women, especially older women, masturbation can help with problems like vaginal dryness and experiencing pain during sex.

6. Masturbation causes erectile dysfunction

Another commonly believed myth with no scientific evidence is that Masturbation causes erectile dysfunctional Masturbation is a normal part of sexual development and it has nothing to do with erectile dysfunction whatsoever.

7. Masturbation is only for boys

A myth that is deeply rooted in sexism stems from the taboo around female sexual pleasure. Female sexual pleasure was not even a topic of conversation even till a few years back. It was considered unnecessary and the notion was that women should only engage in heterosexual sex with men to provide them pleasure. masturbation completely negates this idea. It is a solo activity that is solely meant to give pleasure to the individual an idea that didn't sit with the conventional notions of pleasure female masturbation was highly looked down upon and is continued to look down upon to date.

However, masturbation is a natural part of sexual development for both men and women. So next time someone says masturbation is not for women, don’t think twice before teaching some basic biology.

In this day and age when self-love is so highly spoken of, why do we still look down upon masturbation which is just an expression of self-love itself?