The Masturbate-a-thon is an event in which participants

masturbate Masturbation is the sexual stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve hands, fingers, everyday objects, sex toys such as vibrators, or combination ...

to raise money for charity and increase the public awareness and dispel the

shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...

and

taboos A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

that exist about this form of sexual activity. From 1998 to 2003, the Masturbate-a-thon raised around $25,000 for women's health initiatives and HIV prevention, education and treatment organizations, and has contributed to debates about

safer sex In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share t ...

and alternative safe methods of sexual expression. The event awards several honors for those who raise the most money as well as for multiple

orgasm Orgasm (from Greek , ; "excitement, swelling") or sexual climax is the sudden discharge of accumulated sexual excitement during the sexual response cycle, resulting in rhythmic, involuntary muscular contractions in the pelvic region chara ...

s and endurance.

History

In May 1995, San Francisco–based sex toy shop

Good Vibrations "Good Vibrations" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. It was released as a single on October 10, 1966 and was an immediate critical and commercial hit, topping record ...

declared May to be "Masturbation Month". Since then, it has encouraged people to get sponsors as a fundraiser for charities with a sex-positive focus. In 1999, the Masturbate-a-Thon was originated by the collective Open Enterprises, which operates

. The slogan "Come for a Cause" was coined by Rachel Venning, the founder of the sex toy shop Babeland, formerly Toys in Babeland, which has branches in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, and (two) in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. The Masturbate-a-Thon was built up by Good Vibrations, which encouraged other modern sex-toy businesses—such as Babeland; A Woman's Touch, in Madison, Wisconsin; Toronto's Come As You Are; and Boston's Grand Opening—to hold events coinciding with "masturbation month" (May in the United States). In that year, the first live event was held at San Francisco's Campus Theater, by the Center for Sex and Culture (CSC)'s

Carol Queen Carol Queen (born 1957) is an American author, editor, sociologist, and sexologist active in the sex-positive feminism movement. Queen is a two time Grand Marshal of San Francisco LGBTQ Pride. Queen has written on human sexuality in books such a ...

and her partner, Robert Lawrence. CSC is an education-based non-profit providing professional-level sex education. The annual events are used as a public-health-education device to increase awareness of self-pleasure as a strategy for

safer In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share t ...

and healthier sex and to de-stigmatize self-love. London hosted Europe's first "masturbate-a-thon" on 5 August 2006. It aims to remove the taboo and shame associated with masturbation. Hundreds of persons raised money for the charity

Terrence Higgins Trust Terrence Higgins Trust is a British charity that campaigns about and provides services relating to HIV and sexual health. In particular, the charity aims to end the transmission of HIV in the UK; to support and empower people living with HIV, to ...

and the sexual- and reproductive-health agency

Marie Stopes International MSI Reproductive Choices, named Marie Stopes International until November 2020, is an international non-governmental organisation providing contraception and safe abortion services in 37 countries around the world. MSI Reproductive Choices as an ...

.Masturbate-a-thon press release
(retrieved August 6, 2006) The Masturbate-a-thon, also called "Wank-a-Thon," was recorded by ZigZagProductions of London as part of an international documentary of the event. However, plans to broadcast this on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

as part of its

Wank Week Wank Week was a controversial season of television programming that was due to be broadcast in the United Kingdom by Channel 4, expected to consist of a series of three documentary programmes about masturbation. However, plans to broadcast it i ...

series were abandoned, including programming from Europe's fetish and leather week. In 2009, Masanobu Sato won the Masturbate-a-thon held by the Center of Sex and Culture in San Francisco after masturbating for nine hours and thirty-three minutes. In 2012, China's first masturbation contest was held in Shenzhen, China in observance of

World AIDS day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired imm ...

. The event's organizers explained that the contest aims to promote masturbation as the safest means of sex and as an effective means for avoiding HIV infection. Montreal's first Masturbate-a-thon (aka "Wankfest") was on 4 May 2013 and raised money for the charity Head and Hands, a youth sex education and outreach organization, and Sexploreum, an adult education group dedicated to encouraging playfulness with sexuality. Masturbate-a-thon 3 in 2014 was cancelled due to lack of registrations.

References

External links

"Unofficial" Portland Masturbate-a-thon site
(Archived on archive.org from July, 2009). {{DEFAULTSORT:Masturbate-A-Thon Masturbation Erotic events Charity events Recurring events established in 1999

History

See also

References

External links