May Is Masturbation Month: Here’s a Self-Serve Playlist
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Lots of good things happen in May. 25 years ago, I was born in May. This year, A-Camp is in May. And May also happens to be that most special time of the year, International Masturbation Month. It started out as National Masturbation Month in 1995 when US Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders spake a sentiment that rained conservative wrath down upon her: that discussion of masturbation has a place in sexual education curricula (hint: it does). She was fired for speaking the truth too loudly. Good Vibrations, that paragon of sex toy retail and sex education, basically was like no fucking way, let’s make a month out of this to talk about masturbation because clearly this large group of puritans needs it, and here we are today.
If you hadn’t guessed already, masturbation is one of my favorite things to talk about. And it’s something we need to talk about – the guilt complex around prioritizing pleasure gets deconstructed when we talk about (and practice) self-love and self-pleasure.
I’m choosing to kick off Masturbation Month with something pretty tame, something to warm us up, something that so many people seem to have so many feelings about one way or another.
Your Masturbation Playlist.
There are elements of this playlist that are totally from my own mindbrain/playlist/sexy time (P!nk, Massive Attack) and there are elements that are crowdsourced from the team (how the fuck have I not touched myself to Erykah Badu?!). I also aimed to vary the tempo as much as I could without being so jarring that I throw you out of your zone. So go forth and do two things: 1. talk about the songs you touch yourself to and 2. touch yourself. You are helping to bust down the patriarchy.
Autostraddle’s Official Masturbation Month Playlist
Teardrop – Massive Attack
Emerald Eyes – Von Iva
Both Hands – Ani Difranco
Layla (Unplugged) – Eric Clapton
Oops (Oh My) – Tweet, featuring Missy Elliot
On & On – Erykah Badu
Touch of My Hand – Britney Spears
Fingers – P!nk
Glory Box – Portishead
All Is Full Of Love – Björk
White – Frank Ocean, John Mayer
Woman – Rhye
Breathe Me – Sia
Explode – Uh Huh Her
Want to suggest a playlist theme? Hit Crystal up on Formspring and someone from the team will make it for you, if you’re lucky.