semen

I kind of feel like the guy in Castaway — you know, he painted a smile and two dots on a volleyball for a friend. Well, I was circumcised, so, erect, there's that smile looking at me. My Wilson to bat around and make me smile through the years. There's been a few tears, too. But when I think about it, it's been me and Wilson through everything. The way I look at it, when I ejaculate, that's Wilson speaking. He's spoken to a few people, but mostly to me.

My individual discovery of masturbation has been an absolute godsend to me. I come from a great family — very Irish Catholic, and not very talkative on the sexual front, but nevertheless a terrific family. However, a lot of things — in fact, 99.9% of the things I know about sex — came from my own "research," if you will. That research started with surreptitiously sneaking Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler magazines into my house, reading them in the bathroom or bedroom, and masturbating like a maniac.

I am 20 years old, and it has been a long journey to be as comfortable with masturbation as I am now. My life and masturbation crossed paths when I was 12. My mother had dropped off some books, about all the changes to expect in my body, STDs, and all that fun stuff. I was reading them thoroughly, always hiding because I didn't want her to know I was reading them.

I can't remember a time when I did not play with my penis. It always felt good when it was erect and the skin tight. At age 7 or 8, a playmate joined me in this activity, but we did not do it to each other. Puberty came at about age 13 — pubic hair appeared and my penis began to enlarge. I heard boys in the playground talk about "coming," and I asked them about it and told them I had never done that. They said just to "keep on" doing it when I was playing with my penis and that I would get there.

I have had a larger-than-average penis all my life. This factor contributed greatly to my starting to masturbate. I was obsessed with penises, from the 6th grade on, I found they could "get big." This amazing quality was mind-boggling to me. I had a lot of friends, and during that time we had a lot of sleepovers. As most boys this age, we were just learning about sex and what our penises actually did. I began my masturbation career at one of these sleepovers. A group of my friends, 10 of us, were talking about girls and how sometimes when we thought of them, our penises became larger.

I'm a 22-year-old from California working in the porn industry part time. Now, you're probably wondering what a porn stud is doing masturbating. The short answer would be "practice." The long answer would be that my masturbation life started with watching porn, and has brought me full circle.

Masturbation — what a wonderful thing! I probably started masturbating late in life. I was 15 the first time I did it. I had experimented quite a bit with girls by that age, feeling their breasts and and even masturbating them, although not to climax I don't believe. I always got erections during this petting phase but never thought about masturbating.

My story is somewhat different because I did not ejaculate by hand until I was nearly 18. I was raised in an extremely sexually repressive home. My mother did not believe in sex for pleasure and rarely engaged in it. Sex was never discussed at our house, and neither my 3 older brothers nor I ever received any sex instruction at home.

I am a 53-year-old man living in the U.K. I have been a regular (perhaps even a compulsive) masturbator all my life. However, I have also had a continual struggle to reconcile my feelings of guilt, the condemnation of my church, and the disinformation from my guardians with the pleasure I have derived from this universal activity.

Where I live, sex education is very lacking. They only tell you the raw basics: Man and woman get together, and sperm is transferred from male to female (somehow), and that's basically it. Nothing about how the whole erection thing happens, nothing about pleasuring yourself, or anything remotely close.