Male Self-Pleasuring

From the dawn of time men and primates have self-pleasured with guiltless abandon, Diogenes the Cynic stating that of the three appetites, food, drink and sex, sex is the easiest to fulfill as one need only rub oneself to obtain instant satisfaction. In Renaissance Italy, as in Greece and Rome, it was considered a normal initiation into sexuality, even when done by boys together, and never homosexuality. After the fall of Rome religions forbade onanism in order to compensate for the number of Christians lost through martyrdom, some thrown to the lions, others used as torches to light the night, if Neronian historians are to be believed. Religious dogma was supplemented by scientific proof of physical damage when Dr. Samuel-Auguste Tissot published his 1758 Thesis on Masturbation, which caused what was known as the Masturbation Panic, a scare that was only partially alleviated by the Kinsey Report on male sexuality published in 1948, Kinsey himself devoted to self-pleasuring. My generation was so soiled by the heinous effects of self-abuse that my best friend promised God he would never again touch himself if accepted into Yale. He was, and did manage to keep his word for a courageous three days [not counting the two nights when he accidently rubbed himself to orgasm against his sheets], after which he placed himself in the hands of the all-merciful and understanding Lord. Salvation came with Internet, and today’s boys are as free to dispose of their bodies as are our friends the notoriously lascivious bonobos. This book is the history of those times, as well as an in-depth study of literary sources, from the Ancient Greeks to the writings of Casanova and Don Juan, as well as Roth’s Portnoy, along with the works of pornstars Scott O’Hara, Rich Merritt and Jack Wrangler, for whom self-pleasuring was his raison d’être. Self-pleasuring in schools and colleges will be disclosed, together with coverage of the erogenous zones of the body, techniques, toys, circle-jerk clubs and the foremost cyber-sex sites.