pornography

Growing up in a fairly (or depending upon how you look at it, unfairly) religious family, I was extremely naive about many things. One of those things was my penis. I don't remember taking note of my penis before age 14 — seriously, it was there so I could pee. Then one day, at the small private school I was attending, a new student that year (with whom I had recently made friends) made an interesting gesture with his hand in front of his groin after saying a joke.

I guess it all started when I was about 11 years old. Although I had heard of it, I wasn't masturbating then, because I thought you had to have started puberty before you could get an orgasm. So I hadn't even tried it.

I have been playing with my penis since I was a child. My mom told me not to put my hands in my pants, but she didn't tell me anything when I played with it during a bath or in my bed. My first embarrassing incident was at age 5. I stayed in a hotel with my grandmother, and I woke up with a strong erection. I grabbed it and just kept it in my right hand. Suddenly my grandmother started to get up and uncovered me, too, for a bit. She asked me what I was doing in my pajamas. I pulled out my hand and did not say anything. Fortunately she did not say anything more.

My first introduction to the wonderful world of penises and masturbation occurred when I was in 5th grade. I was toddling from my classroom out to the playground when my best friend yelled out my name. I turned around. My buddy was wearing a pair of loose-fitting sweatpants and he had a monster erection — well, monster by 5th-grade standards. "Hard as a rock!" he yelled excitedly. I smiled obliviously. What was that supposed to mean? The next morning, I asked my mom what it meant when my penis got hard. Predictably, she turned beet-red and told me to ask my father.

From the days of early childhood, I can remember innocently humping pillows or playing with myself. I had no idea what I was doing, nor did I really care. All I knew was that it felt good. In kindergarten I can remember wrestling with the other kids and how good it felt when they would get on top of me and put pressure on my penis. At one point the neighbor kids and I would get together to show each other our penises. I am not really sure why we did it; it may have been simply because we knew we were not supposed to. I believe at age 10 I noticed my first semi-erection.

My relationship with masturbation began sometime when I was about 10 or 11, although it had been developing for a while. I was in the 5th grade, and we had, after much anticipation and fear, completed the dreaded one-hour puberty class surprisingly painlessly. Though maddeningly vague and cutesy, it did, thankfully, explain to me what an erection was — a phenomenon I had experienced for years, and that I was wholly convinced was a freak mutation unique to myself.

I'm currently 22 years old and fresh out of college. Masturbation has been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember, and it still is. I'm proud of my daily habit and am open about masturbation with my friends. It wasn't always like that, though — I remember being very ashamed of it as a child. I'd like to share all the notable experiences that I've had in my life that make up my masturbation "history," as well as those events that eventually led me to the healthy views on masturbation that I have today.

I'm 35 now. I started masturbating before I'd heard about what it was, probably when I was 11. I'm not sure, maybe it was 10 — but I do remember that I was in bed in the morning before getting up for school, lying on my back and pushing my erection down between my thighs and letting it spring back up. I found that this felt really good, and I'd just lie there for several minutes, doing it over and over until the feeling got too intense and I'd stop.

As of July of this year, I am no longer a teenager. I turned 20 and left my awkward, gangly years behind me. If only I knew then what I know now, growing up would have been so much easier.

I was never told about masturbation as a child. My parents do not openly talk about such things, and I had no siblings to explain it to me. I guess I discovered masturbation at quite an early age, although at the time I didn't know what it was. I have memories of being 6 or 7 and playing with my penis under the sheets while the babysitter was downstairs. I didn't know what I was doing; all I knew was that it felt good. It didn't develop into anything more than just playing — until I reached age 12 and a friend introduced me into the world of masturbation.