There is an interesting discussion on Yahoo Answers that explores the ways in which male masturbation is characterized (in contrast to female masturbation) and the Victorian-style repression that is, unfortunately, still part of the age-old controversy.

Listen, folks, every man I know masturbates or has masturbated at one time or another. It is a healthy and natural part of human sexuality. Here’s another shocker. Women masturbate too for the same healthy, natural reasons born of the same human need. In fact, even in prehistoric places where masturbation is punishable by death, people masturbate anyway so it never ceases to amaze me that there is still so much controversy and shame.

For my part, people who view masturbation as ’sinful’ or ‘base’ are usually sexually repressed, uptight, unhappy people. Why? Because at the core, to take such a rigid position (pun intended) inherently denies that human beings have the right to pleasure themselves. After all, we pleasure ourselves in so many other ways like eating our favorite foods, going to see a good movie, taking a walk in the park. How is masturbation any different at its core? We can look at our primate cousins for empirical proof that masturbation has been around for a hell of a lot longer than our limited and relatively new capacity for language that has allowed us to label it ‘bad’

Check out the full post on Yahoo Answers.