Scottie wrote:wenglund wrote:beastie wrote:It's all about control. If you can control sexuality - even the most private act of masturbation or marital sex - you can control everything.
Given your fundamentalist/authoritarian mindset, I can see how you might think that. After all, it makes sense that those, such as yourself, who are controlling, will see the beliefs and actions of others as "all about control". Such is the nature of projection.
Others of us, however, view religious-based sexual morals as navigational tools to assist the beloved traveler in life to steer away from the dangerous shouls of sexually transmitted deseases, out-of-wedlock and teen pregnancies, and other sexual behaviors that may well lead to the destruction of individuals and relationships, particularly the family. These navigational tools are not only lovingly intended to help the weak and the niave to avoid sorrow and hardship, but they are also designed to assist all in becoming their very best selves, and to satisfy the basic human needs to love and be loved and respect and be respected.
Thanks, -Wade Englund-
If you really believed that, you would support the healthy act of masturbation as a valid release of sexual tension.
While it may release sexual tension (which I am not sure is necessarily healthy), I don't know that it is healthy on the whole. In fact, I don't think that it is. I see it, like pornography (which it is often closely tied to) as inclining its practicioneers towards the artificial, and also as a potential hinderance to a healthy sense of self and healthy and proper relations with the opposite sex.
Since masturbation is taboo and viewed as almost as bad as sex itself, well then, hell, why not just have sex?
As long as the sex you speak of is within the bounds of holy matrimony, I would agree.
I have a question. I know growing up in Utah County, masturbation as a teen was one of the worst cultural taboos a young man could do. If his peers found out he masturbated, it could ruin his life. Was this just because I lived in a Mormon community, or is this the same throughout the US?
Having only lived in Utah and Washington state during my youth, I can only speak to that. And, from what little I heard mentioned of the subject in both places (I came of age in the late 60's and early 70's), I didn't sense much cultural difference on the matter.
Thanks, -Wade Englund-