Masculinity, Pornography, and the History of Masturbation

This article takes as its starting point the observation that contemporary pornography is, in a significant sense, about masturbation. This connection has been largely ignored in recent research on pornography. Yet, if it is reasonable to posit that the heritage bequeathed by three centuries of concern over masturbation has not been entirely dispelled, then a question presents itself: What can an examination of the history of masturbation tell us about the digital pornography that circulates around the internet today? This article seeks to provide an answer to this question via a genealogical rereading of the history of masturbation from the perspective of the present. It suggests that the campaign against masturbation in the eighteenth- and nineteenth centuries was characterized by a heteronormative framing that situated the practice as a threat not only to the social order, but also to a natural order presumed to underlie and ground human social relations. In this context, masturbation was especially problematic for boys and men as it represented a loss of control over (their own) nature, thereby undermining their masculine status. Ultimately, the article argues that a focus on the history of masturbation allows us to appreciate the extent to which it is central to the way in which masculinity is produced via pornography.     

Nettersexuality: The Impact of Internet Pornography on Gay Male Sexual Expression and Identity

The Internet, as an integral part of global culture, has become a location offering a smorgasbord of pornographic images and films depicting multiple and fluid ways of being sexual. For males who identify as gay and/or queer, the Internet offers opportunities to explore same-sex sexualities in ways that have heretofore been challenging; thus, constructions of sexual identity can be interrogated, (re)examined, and (re)imagined. New explorations of sexualities may be the result of interface with Internet pornography, which opens spaces for not yet experienced ways of being sexual. Using qualitative methodology, this project engages the voices of three males who identify as gay and/or queer and focuses on how the Internet, particularly pornography on the Internet, impacts their sexual experiences and their sexual identities. Indeed, we argue here that the Internet does impact sexuality, and these men help to raise questions about what is possible with regard to sexuality and sexual identity.     

The Organ of Tactility: Fantasy,Image, and Male Masturbation

This article explores the interplay of fantasy and image in male solitary masturbation in the virtual age. Online pornography has drastically changed the intimate relationship between the hand and the penis. The case of a 17-year-old boy and his excessive use of Internet pornography is used to highlight pornography’s impact on a person’s well-being and neurology. A brief exploration of three histories of masturbation shows how the discourse on masturbation often serves political agendas and addresses the central role of sexual fantasy in the practice. Sexual fantasy is explored through the research of British psychoanalyst Brett Kahr. To examine the significance of the eye in pornography, philosopher Michael Taussig’s concept of “the eye as the organ of tactility” is discussed. The essay concludes by offering a framework for discerning whether masturbating to images might be disordered or not. Fantasy, which is nonvisual sexual arousal, can relieve a person from the tyranny of the eye and of compulsive masturbation.     

From Masturbation to Homosexuality: A Case of Displaced Moral Disapproval

I argue that the decline in moral disapproval of masturbation in the American religious culture over the last half-century is directly responsible for increased moral disapproval of homosexuality. Moral disapproval previously directed toward masturbators is being redirected instead toward homosexuals. Since masturbation has been practiced by the overwhelming majority of individuals who self-identify with the American religious culture, while homosexual acts have been engaged in by a significantly smaller number of individuals who self-identify with this culture, the displacement of moral disapproval from masturbatory behavior to homosexual behavior leads to the stigmatization of those who engage in homosexual behavior, and an attitude of moral superiority and personal condescension inevitably follows. Nineteenth and twentieth century writings on the perils and evils of masturbation are cited in support of this argument.     

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Problematic Internet Pornography Use: A Randomized Trial

Problematic Internet pornography use is the inability to control the use of pornography, the experience of negative cognitions or emotions regarding pornography use, and the resulting negative effects on quality of life or general functioning. This study compared a 12-session individual protocol of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for problematic Internet pornography use to a waitlist control condition with 28 adult males, all but 1 of whom were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Measures of self-reported pornography viewing, standardized measures of compulsive sexual behavior and related cognitions, and quality of life occurred at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. Results demonstrate significant between-condition reductions in pornography viewing compared to the waitlist condition (93% reduction ACT vs. 21% waitlist). When combining all participants (N = 26), a 92% reduction was seen at posttreatment and an 86% reduction at 3-month follow-up. Complete cessation was seen in 54% of participants at posttreatment and at least a 70% reduction was seen in 93% of participants. At the 3-month follow-up assessment, 35% of participants showed complete cessation, with 74% of participants showing at least 70% reduction in viewing. Treatment suggestions and future directions are discussed.     

The Role of Sexual Compulsivity,Impulsivity, and Experiential Avoidance in Internet Pornography Use

The Psychological Record - Previous research has found that a significant proportion of individuals who use Internet pornography (IP) report that their use is problematic in some area of...     

Adolescent Internet addiction: testing the association between self-esteem, the perception of Internet attributes, and preference for online social interactions

There is a general consensus that Internet addiction (IA) is mainly related to social aspects of the Web, especially among adolescents. The empirical link between poor social skills and IA is well documented; however, theoretical explanations for this relationship are less developed. One possibility is that people with poor social skills are especially prone to develop a preference for online social interaction (POSI), which, in turn, predicts problematic usage. This hypothesis has been tested for loneliness and social anxiety, but not for self-esteem (SE; one of the main antecedents of IA). Furthermore, the mediating role of the perceived relevance of some Internet features (e.g., anonymity) in the relationship between SE and POSI has never been investigated. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 257 adolescents. Using mediation analyses, we found evidence among females for the mediating role of (a) POSI in the relationship between SE and IA, and (b) the subjective relevance of some Internet features in the association between SE and POSI. No significant effects were found for males.     

From Bourdieu and Wolin, `Inside and Outside the Box': A Frame for the Special Issue

Utilizing the writings of Pierre Bourdieu and Sheldon Wolin,this paper introduces a special issue on ``Educational Rights andEntitlements.' Its purpose is to characterize and critique `the box ofliberalism' that both advances and constrains what is conceived andenacted in education. Following it are a set of significantcontributions from the sixth biennial conference of the InternationalNetwork of Philosophers of Education, August 1998, Ankara.     

The Relationship Between Sexual Compulsivity,Emotional and Spiritual Distress of Religious and Non-religious Internet Pornography Users

Journal of Religion and Health - This study sought to examine the relationship between the sexual compulsivity, emotional and spiritual distress of religious and non-religious adults who sought...     

Predicting Adolescent Drinking From Alcohol Expectancy Values: A Comparison of Additive,Interactive, and Nonlinear Models1

Additive, interactive, and nonlinear models of alcohol expectancy values were compared using survey data from 1,758 high school students. Expectancies and values independently predicted drinking in the additive model. Expectancies were more important as predictors than were values, and negative expectancies were more important than positive expectancies. Significant expectancy-value interactions also were found. Drinking was highest when positive consequences were believed to be likely and desirable and was lowest when negative consequences were believed to be likely and undesirable. Significant nonlinearities indicated that beliefs about negative consequences had greater effects at lower levels of likelihood and evaluation whereas beliefs about positive consequences had greater effects at higher levels of likelihood and evaluation. However, the interactive and nonlinear effects were small.     

Need for Meaning,Meaning Confusion,Meaning Anxiety,and Meaning Avoidance: Additional Dimensions of Meaning in Life

Two aspects of meaning in life have drawn much attention in previous research: presence of meaning and search for meaning. We proposed four additional aspects concerning individuals’ thoughts and feelings about meaning in life: need for meaning, meaning confusion, meaning avoidance, and meaning anxiety. We developed items to measure these dimensions. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the data fit the factors well. Convergent and discriminant validities of the four dimensions were demonstrated though their distinct patterns of correlations with other variables, such as personality traits, need satisfaction, personal aspirations, life satisfaction, anxiety and depression. Moreover, cluster analysis revealed that individuals could be divided into meaningful groups according to these dimensions, with each group demonstrating unique psychological features. Implications for future studies on meaning in life are discussed.     

Grief Therapy and the Reconstruction of Meaning: From Principles to Practice

Viewed from a constructivist perspective, grieving is a process of reconstructing a world of meaning that has been challenged by loss. Although most people successfully navigate bereavement and retain or return to pre-loss levels of functioning, a significant proportion struggle with protracted grief, and are unable to find meaning in the wake of an unsought transition. For these individuals, constructivist therapists have a number of strategies at their disposal that foster meaning making and help clients reestablish a coherent self-narrative that integrates the loss, while also permitting their life story to move forward along new lines. After reviewing theory and evidence that scaffolds this constructivist conceptualization, this article draws on excerpts of therapy with two bereaved clients to illustrate how narrative retelling, therapeutic writing, a focus on metaphorical language, and the use of visualization can all be viable strategies in helping individuals reconstruct meaning in the wake of bereavement.     

On Treating Things as People: Objectification,Pornography, and the History of the Vibrator

This article discusses recent feminist arguments for the possible existence of an interesting link between treating things as people (in the case of pornography) and treating people (especially women) as things. It argues, by way of a historical case study, that the connection is more complicated than these arguments have supposed. In addition, the essay suggests some possible general links between treatment of things and treatment of people.     

Beyond satisfaction: Desire, consumption, and the future of socialism

Anti-capitalist thinkers in the West have long argued that the expansion of markets creates new wants faster than it can satisfy them, and that consumption under capitalism is a form of addictive behavior. Recently, however, the relentless expansion of desire has come to be seen as a strength rather than a weakness of capitalist regimes. To understand this change socialists must consider whether there is a point to consumer spending that goes beyond satisfaction with what one gets. Freud's notion of instinctual ambivalence illuminates the ways in which spending itself is a fusion of the desires to lose and to gain. This helps to explain how the socialist distinction between satisfying and addictive consumption misses the mark. Broadening this insight, we can see that Western thought about justice, originating in Judeo-Christian theology, conceals a fundamental ambivalence about both domination and gain by suggesting that inequality (beginning with that between God and man) is justified when the dominating party loses and the gainer submits. Ironically, however, the new post-utilitarian rationale for capitalism undermines this putative justification of social inequality in consumer-oriented capitalist societies by bringing our internal ambivalence about gain and dominance to the surface. This development creates an opportunity for a new beginning in Marxian social theory. The final sections of the essay suggest that social theory has been trapped in a debate over whether predators (and their human counterparts) kill in order to eat or eat in order to kill (Marx vs. Nietzsche). To break this trap we must shift the basis of social criticism from the metaphor of predation to the metaphor of parasitism. This changes the focus of critical analysis from unmasking the predator in every situation to identifying in every social structure the mechanisms of incorporation, mutual subversion, asymmetrical exchange, and surplus-creation (as distinct from equilibrium). If neither the desire for gain nor the desire for dominance are self-explanatory, then the Marxian critique of Nietzsche and the Nietzschean critique of Marxism both have valid points. The essay concludes with reflections about the importance of addressing the post-utilitarian rationale of capitalism with the same depth and comprehensiveness that we find in Marx's critique of its utilitarian rationale.Earlier versions of this paper were delivered at a conference in memory of Prof. Gregory Vlastos, Berkeley, California (May 1–3, 1992), Jawaharlal Nehru University (November 18, 1992), Stanford University (February 26, 1993), the Western Political Science Association (March 19, 1993), the Cultural Studies Colloquium, UC Stanta Cruz (April 26, 1993), the Centre for Basic Research, Kampala, Uganda (July 28, 1993), and the Conference on Identity, Modernity and Politics, SOAS, The University of London (September 14–15, 1994). I am grateful to A. Rai, R. Bhargava, J. Seery, M. Tunick, J. O'Connor, M. Mamdani, R. Hawkinson, T. Strong, P. Euben, R. Inden, A. Montefiore, W. Brown, B. Ollman, and P. Ollman for helpful comments on particular drafts. Throughout the gestation of this paper I have been deeply indebted to M. Cunningham for his role as a developmental irritant, and to N. O. Brown for pushing me to extremes. Were it not for them this paper would have turned out differently.     

Intersubjectivity as Co-phenomenology: From the Holism of Meaning to the Being-in-the-world-with-others

I outline in this paper a pragmatical approach to meaning. Meaning is defined as a phenomenologically experienced construal. As such, it is a dynamic object whose first evidence comes from the first person rather than the third one. At the same time, the approach assumes that meaning is not an individual creation, but rather an intersubjective one. Origins of meaning are also to be founded not ‘in the head’ of a cognitive system or subject, but in the intersubjective space contingently formed between a subject (S), an other (O) and a common object (R), which they talk about. Approaching this minimal communicative situation therefore requires realizing that the phenomenological dimension is always implied in any intersubjective encounter. The observed synchronized co-feeling among subjects, upon which language comprehension takes place, I call ‘co-phenomenology’. When analyzed in this way, intersubjectivity shows at the same time its social, phenomenological and biological dimensions.