It would seem that going right back in history to the Egyptians, masturbation was celebrated in their myths and religious practices. As there is no record of vast numbers of ancient Egyptians going blind (after all, you had to see what you were doing to build a pyramid) I assume that there were no side effects.
However more recent religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are not in favour, and consider it wrong and immoral. As a result secular society has taken this view, and the range of myths (makes you blind/deaf/mad/have hairy hands etc) have grown.
The medical view is that there is nothing wrong with the activity, and the attached site seems to try to support this, by use of images involving people far away from the stereotype image of the deaf, blind dirty mac man with hairy mits.
If we are now more enlightened in the 21st century, why do we have such a problem discussing the matter, or acknowledging the practice? It seems that the majority of films treat the subject as either a joke (American Pie and There's Something About Mary are
good examples) or the province of the loner, or person with relationship problems (Kevin Spacey in American Beauty). The movie world doesn't seem to be able to look at it normally, or as just one other acceptable example of human behaviour, along with
other sexual practices. The only 'acceptable' portrayal I have found
so far on film is 9 Songs - which is an arthouse movie depicting a torrid relationship and which includes the act as a normal part of the process. Any thoughts on other serious treatments of the subject in film or other arts??
2 comments:
I found this to be a really interesting way of looking at the subject. I had a look at the portrayal of masturbation in films too, and so I did a bit more research on the subject. There's bound to be serious masturbation scenes in mainstream cinema, we're just not thinking of them.
Well I discovered this site: http://sexuality.about.com/od/masturbation/a/masturbation_mo.htm
and unfortunately, half of the serious ones it mentions I've never heard of. Perhaps I just live a sheltered life. However, I didn't think of the masturbation scene from Pleasantville, which is treated very well and you should look up if you've not seen it already.
Thanks for the interesting read!
Hey Fran
I totally agree with your comments on how masturbation is treated in films, either as a joke or as something that is strange or kind of pervy (couldn't think of a better word).
I think that in reality masturbation is the one of the lesser serious of the bad behaviours discussed in the module, yet in some films it is portrayed as something quite wrong.
The film 'Happiness' springs to mind when commenting on masturbation in films and I think it is the only film I have seen that tackles the subject of masturbation with some degree of dignity. The film features two sub-plots in connection with masturbation, one portraying it as a normal behaviour discussed between a young boy and his dad and the other portraying it as a behaviour practiced by a pervy stalker guy who is obsessed with his neighbour. Although the film has some darkly funny moments it is a serious observation on disfunctional families/individuals and I think that this is why the subject is included with some sort of seriousness. If you are going to see this film (is you haven't already) it has some really cringey moments!!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147612/
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