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Masturbation

Both men and women of all ages masturbate, with men masturbating more than women, and younger people masturbating more than older people. The average age that individuals first begin masturbating also varies by gender. The average man first masturbates at 13.45 years and the average woman begins at 12.75 years, which roughly correlates with the same life stage as the onset of puberty.4

Men and Masturbation5

For men under the age of fifty-nine, more than 60 percent practiced solo masturbation in the past ninety days.6 That number remained roughly 50 percent for men ages fifty-nine to sixty-nine.7 Solo masturbation rates were highest among men between the ages of twenty-five to thirty-nine, with single men in a dating relationship reporting 95.5 percent, and 80 percent for all unmarried men in the past ninety days.8 More than 30 percent of men ages forty-nine and under solo masturbated on average more than two times per week in the past year.9 The lowest solo masturbation rate is among men more than seventy years of age, who reported nearly 27 percent in the past ninety days.10 As compared to solo masturbation, masturbation with a sexual partner was less common in the past ninety days, with less than a 50 percent occurrence in all age groups.11

Women and Masturbation12

More than half of women ages eighteen to forty-nine reported solo masturbation during the previous ninety days, with rates being highest among those ages twenty-five to twenty-nine.13 Relatively frequent solo masturbation (a few times each month or more) was reported by up to 48 percent of women ages eighteen to thirty-nine, but this frequency of masturbation was progressively less common in older age groups.14 Solo masturbation rates for all women under the age of sixty were not affected by being in a dating or marital relationship, as masturbation rates were the same whether or not women were having regular sex.15 Women ages sixty to sixty-nine in a dating or marital relationship were significantly less likely to be solo masturbating, and roughly one-third of all women ages sixty to sixty-nine reported recent solo masturbation.16 Among women ages seventy or older, more than half not in a dating or marital relationship solo masturbated compared with only 12 percent of married women.17

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Being masturbated by a partner was most common among women ages twenty-five to twenty-nine.18 Across all age groups, women in a dating or marital relationship were far more likely to engage in partnered masturbation than nonpartnered women.19 Partnered masturbation was most common among women ages twenty-five to twenty-nine and thirty to thirty-nine who were single and dating.20

Question 1: Is it lawful?

The Bible does not forbid masturbation. Some Christians wish that it did. Unable to find any verses that condemn masturbation, they have used the story of Onan in Genesis 38:6–10 as their proof text. But the story of Onan says nothing of masturbation. Instead, the story is about a man who died leaving his wife a childless widow. The dead man’s brother was then expected to marry his widowed sister-in-law, have normal sexual relations with her, and enable her to have children. Although Onan was happy to have sex with his sister-in-law, he would pull out of her to ejaculate on the ground rather than obey God and become a father. His sin was not masturbation but wanting to have sex with a vulnerable sister-in-law without being in any way obligated or committed to her. So he practiced coitus interruptus, pulling out of Tamar at the moment of ejaculation in an effort not to impregnate her. Onan’s sin was disobeying God and dishonoring Tamar by having sex without wanting to be obligated to her in any way or care for her, or, as Genesis 38:8 says, “raise up an heir to [his] brother.”

The only possible mention of masturbation in the Bible is of a wife in Song of Songs 2:6, saying of her husband, “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.” One Bible commentary