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One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot

scientificamerican.com

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Re: One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot

#51

Post by sev »

ciupicri wrote: post #42
sev wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The latter 3 are not too interesting IMO, because porn and masturbation have been around for centuries, and whatever effects they've had have become part of society. The first one might be an interesting one to consider. Of course this is assuming children get hold of the pornography at an earlier age than they should and continuously have easy access to it. And in my opinion, the only thing that occurs is that child…

Masturbation is as at least as old as Onan[1], but I doubt porn is a few centuries old. Maybe erotica. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onan

"Depictions of a sexual nature are as old as civilization (and possibly older, in the form of venus figurines and rock art),[2] but the concept of pornography as understood today did not exist until the Victorian era(1900s)" [1]

But my idea of "pornography" was simply depictions of sexual nature (which is centuries old as stated in Wikipedia)

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography

Re: One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot

#52

Post by jules »

thebigshane wrote: post #40
btilly wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isn't actually what the author claims. Lots of other animals masturbate, and the author admits that monkeys are certainly prone to it. What he claims makes humans unusual is the we masturbate to orgasm . Incidentally you chose fairly poor examples for animal homosexuality. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals for a list of other examples you could use. For instance I prefer to cite gir…

It seems like these examples are given to "excuse" human homosexual behavior ("See! It's perfectly natural. Look at the Giraffes!"). I don't have a strong opinion about human homosexual behavior but I do think these examples are meaningless for this intention. Giraffes are probably too dumb, too horny and too indifferent to care about gender or anything. They see a sexual opportunity and they take it. I speculate tha…

If you think animals are that dumb you are mistaken. We have a cock (= adult male chicken) who is very aggressive, but only against human males. So if chickens can recognize the gender of other species, then I'm pretty sure that a giraffe can recognize the gender of one of its own species.

Re: One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot

#53

Post by jules »

mikecane wrote: post #17

>>>male university students were found to masturbate to ejaculation about every 72 hours If that stat alone had been widespread a few decades ago, it would have prevented so much angst for so many.

This number seems very high to me. Perhaps we could do a poll?

Re: One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot

#55

Post by crazydiamond »

From personal experience, I'd agree that lust requires the ability to string together thoughts. Having meditated for many years -- remaining in the present moment free of thought, ignoring any thought that comes, letting thoughts fall off as they arise -- lust / arousal are impossible (unless perhaps if one is married and does not need the mind for arousal).

Are animals able to carry on a thought process, not sure? Dogs certainly seem to be more in the present than humans.

That article links to another interesting one on asexuals.

Re: One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot

#56

Post by ciupicri »

philwelch wrote: post #47
ciupicri wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Masturbation is as at least as old as Onan[1], but I doubt porn is a few centuries old. Maybe erotica. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onan

The sin of Onan wasn't masturbation, but rather "pulling out".

You're right. My bad.

Re: One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot

#57

Post by sigzero »

btilly wrote: post #48
thebigshane wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like these examples are given to "excuse" human homosexual behavior ("See! It's perfectly natural. Look at the Giraffes!"). I don't have a strong opinion about human homosexual behavior but I do think these examples are meaningless for this intention. Giraffes are probably too dumb, too horny and too indifferent to care about gender or anything. They see a sexual opportunity and they take it. I speculate tha…

Some may do that, but I personally have no desire to excuse human homosexual behavior. If you can't accept that people have the right to do whatever they want that hurts nobody else, then I'm not going to change you. However I take great delight in correcting bigots who make the mistake of claiming that homosexuality is a perversion that is only found in humans. And somehow I never seem to find a shortage of those. A…

I would not say it is a "perversion" and I wouldn't try to use "natural" in the animal kingdom way. I would say that the male body is not made/constructed/evolved (however you want to say that) for that kind of sexual contact. In that sense it is not a "natural" act.

Re: One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot

#58

Post by sigzero »

jules wrote: post #52
thebigshane wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like these examples are given to "excuse" human homosexual behavior ("See! It's perfectly natural. Look at the Giraffes!"). I don't have a strong opinion about human homosexual behavior but I do think these examples are meaningless for this intention. Giraffes are probably too dumb, too horny and too indifferent to care about gender or anything. They see a sexual opportunity and they take it. I speculate tha…

If you think animals are that dumb you are mistaken. We have a cock (= adult male chicken) who is very aggressive, but only against human males . So if chickens can recognize the gender of other species, then I'm pretty sure that a giraffe can recognize the gender of one of its own species.

Not dumb...some animals are rather smart. I am willing to bet that humans have the most emotionally complex system though.

Re: One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot

#59

Post by jacquesm »

amirmc wrote: post #31
sev wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The latter 3 are not too interesting IMO, because porn and masturbation have been around for centuries, and whatever effects they've had have become part of society. The first one might be an interesting one to consider. Of course this is assuming children get hold of the pornography at an earlier age than they should and continuously have easy access to it. And in my opinion, the only thing that occurs is that child…

...whatever effects they've had have become part of society Your comment seems to imply that the effects are complete. I'd disagree with that. I'd say access to pornography has changed dramatically in recent years. Anyone with an internet connection can find porn in relative anonymity and I don't think we've seen the full effects of it yet. children will get desensitized to the typical types of sex early on As childr…

It's gotten to the point where the porn will find you. Try surfing intensively across a range of sites for a couple of hours without running in to porn. All it takes is one link to an expired domain.

Re: One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot

#60

Post by bad_user »

kragen wrote: post #43
bkrausz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the modern West, major studies indicate a prevalence of homosexuality of 2% to 13% of the population[1]. On any given day 4% of the population has sex[2]. That means that in order for same-gender sex to outnumber straight sex, every day between a third and all of the homosexual population would need to have sex[3]. Somehow I doubt this is the case. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality [2] http://geograph…

The thing is, these distributions are very skewed. A non-gender-or-orientation-specific given person can go for two weeks without having sex and then have sex ten or twenty times in a weekend-long speed-fueled orgy (or so the stories go), and that still averages out to 0.7 to 1.4 times a day. So it's kind of a sticky subject. It can be really hard to get your arms around all the issues. What's the relative frequency…

I don't get it ... what makes gay men be so successful in finding sex partners?
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