Quarantine 
Quarantine 
means time to 
means time to 
make use of 
make use of 
our hands
our hands

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
statement

BY GRACE TUCKER, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

Wednesday, December 9, 2020 — 11 

C

an anyone else, like, not stop jerk-
ing off?”

Our respective Zoom boxes lit 

up in a staggered glow as my group of friends 
and I erupted into laughter. It was April, 
and we were enduring what would be the 
second month of a long, monotonous, 2020 
thing called quarantine. That one endearing 
question had elicited possibly the first pang 
of hysterical joy I had experienced in weeks.

My friend’s inquiry was met with the muf-

fled commentary of an agreeing crowd:

“Yeah, oh my god, I thought it was just 

me.”

“I can’t stop!”
“Yeah, what the hell, I’m doing it so much 

more often than usual.”

It turns out she wasn’t alone. 
In the months following that Zoom call, I 

continued to notice, on various forms of both 
traditional and social media, an enduring 
theme of solo sex as the favored quarantine 
activity; the premier pandemic antidote. 

Despite the arguably designated stages 

of quarantine trends, from whipped-coffee 
recipes and “Tiger King” marathons to the 
slew of controversial transitions to in-person 
schooling and University-outbreak-hysteria, 
one quarantine trend has carried consistent 
cultural relevance amid masks and mara-
thons, vacation-shaming and TikTok-mak-
ing: the “m” word.

Yes, masturbation.
I was unsurprised to find that most people 

I talked to about masturbation as the quaran-
tine pastime met me with blushed faces. The 
act carries a significant, religiously-bound 
history of stigmatization. 

In a 2020 study by Planned Parenthood, 

researchers discussed how masturbation 
as a means of self-pleasure actually carries 
historical controversy: It was once associ-
ated with “pathological origins and negative 
physical and mental health consequences,” 
including a so-called “post-masturbation 
disease” popularized by 18th-century medi-
cal practitioners. In his 1711 editions of the 
Treatise of Venereal Diseases, medical en-
trepreneur John Marten identified some 
of the symptoms of the “uncleanly” condi-
tion, which included “meager jaws and pale 
looks” and “legs without calves.”

The taboo nature of the act also carries 

a significant religious basis, specifically 
with ties to early Christian teachings. Even 
though the Bible makes no explicit refer-
ences to masturbation, the act was heav-
ily condemned by fathers of the early 
church, who considered it sinful due 
to its non-procreative nature. 

But, by the grace of some brave 

friends and an anonymous Google 
form, I was able to break through 
this sturdy, historically-con-
structed stigma against solo 
sex and hear about their expe-
riences with mid-pandemic 
masturbation. 

My friends’ Google Form 

responses seemed to echo 
what I had initially heard in 
that mid-April-Zoom-call:

Friend 1: I was so bored 

in March that I masturbated 
mindlessly all hours of the 
day. I didn’t need a reason. It 
was literally mind-numbing.

Friend 2: (During quar-

antine, I masturbated) so so 
much!!! Like I was just bored and 
horny ALL THE TIME.

Friend 3: I definitely did it way 

more out of boredom, like, I had nothing else 
to do.

Through the Statement’s annual sex sur-

vey, I was able to quantify the wave of mid-
pandemic masturbation sentiment I was 
gathering from friends. It seems as though 
we really are all making use of our hands 
while spending more time at home. 

The survey, which was sent to over 48,000 

undergraduate and graduate students at the 
University of Michigan and received over 
3,700 responses, included various questions 
on the frequency and motivations behind 
masturbation. 

Under the question, “On average, how 

often have you masturbated this semester,” 
students did, in fact, demonstrate increased 
rates of masturbation during these pandem-
ic-stricken months, when compared to sur-
vey data from the Fall 2018 Semester, which 
had around 1,700 responses. 

The number of women who masturbated 

five to six times per week nearly doubled, 
from 2.7% in 2018 to 4.4% in 2020; for wom-
en who masturbated once or twice per week 
the rates increased from 22.3% in 2018 to 
29.7% in 2020. The masturbation rates for 
men also increased in a similar manner as 
those for women.

When it came down to the reasons why 

people masturbate, 56.5% indicated “for 
pleasure,” 49.3% said for stress-relief and 
there was significant mention of boredom 
as a reason in the free-response section. 
Similarly, in the free-response section for the 
question, “How has the COVID-19 pandemic 
affected your sexual activity?” multiple peo-
ple mentioned increased masturbation as an 
effect. 

It doesn’t take an expert to deduce how 

this wave of self-pleasure during the pan-
demic came to be. The equation looks like 
this: More time at home + stressful circum-
stances + possibly less time spent with sexual 
partners = we make do with what we can do 
for ourselves, with something that’s proven 
to have multiple mental and physical health 
benefits.

Megan Fleming, a clinical 

psychologist at Cor-
nell University 
specializ-
ing in 

sex and relationships, offers a more sophis-
ticated explanation when she said, during 
times like these, “all of our nervous systems 
are on high alert for danger.”

“The good news is that masturbation 

can act as a reset button,” she said. “It tells 
your brain that things are OK, that you can 
breathe and relax.”

Masturbation holds the same position in 

public discourse that it has occupied for a 
while; it’s something we do behind closed 
doors, nothing more than a stress-reliever 
and, thus, a favorable way to pass time in 
quarantine. 

However, at the end of March, a public 

health guide issued by the New York City 
Health Department seemed to motivate 
a considerable shift in the ways we think 
about, discuss and culturally approach mas-
turbation. The department’s guide read: 
“Have sex only with people close to you. You 
are your safest sex partner. Masturbation 
will not spread COVID-19.”

No longer an idea met with blushed faces, 

the “m-word” was now formally delineated 
and even encouraged via a government-is-
sued advisory document. 

And suddenly, something once so severely 

stigmatized was catapulted into the public 
narrative. Major news sources like The New 
York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the 
Chicago Tribunewere not only reporting on 
the benefits of mid-pandemic solo sex but 
were also highlighting the booming sale of 
sex toys and increased pornography viewer-
ship that they attributed to increased rates of 
self-pleasure.

In the weeks following the New York City 

Health Department’s “Safer Sex and COV-
ID-19” guide, the Chicago Tribune published 
a piece in direct response titled, “‘Masturba-
tion will not spread COVID-19’: Solo sex is 
best option for pleasure during quarantine, 
especially if you live alone.” 

In the piece, they declared that quaran-

tine “doesn’t mean sexual pleasure is over — 
it just looks different, like engaging in more 
masturbation.”

The article went on to quote a Los 

Angeles Times report stat-

ing that there has 

been a 30% to 

100% in-

crease 

i
n 

sex toy sales since the onset of the pandemic. 
The consumers had spoken: We’re mastur-
bating more!

The New York Times joined this conversa-

tion in the following weeks with their piece 
“Sellers of Sex Toys Capitalized on All That 
Alone Time,” which highlighted the massive 
spike in sales sex toy companies were see-
ing. Among the more notable trends include 
the 200% increase in sales both We-Vibe and 
Womanizer were seen since April 2019.

All the while, Pornhub, the world’s lead-

ing free pornography site, cashed in on this 
quarantine masturbation craze with its 
launch of #StayHomeHub in March. Italian 
citizens were their initial audience as Italy 
was the first European nation to be affected 
by the virus.

A media study distributed by the U.S. 

National Library of Medicine noted Porn-
hub’s tactful offer, stating that the plat-
form, “... made headlines worldwide … 
because it gave quarantined Italians free 
premium access to the platform for one 
month. The offer was so positively re-
ceived that Pornhub immediately expand-
ed it to Spain and France and eventually 
the whole world.”

At the end of March, Pornhub nar-

rowed in on the same “You are your safest 
sex partner” narrative the New York City 
Health Department first introduced to us. 

The platform tweeted: “Stay home and 

help flatten the curve! Since COVID-19 
continues to impact us all, Pornhub has 
decided to extend Free Pornhub Premium 
worldwide until April 23rd. So enjoy, stay 
home, and stay safe … #StayHomehub.”

Over the course of a few weeks, sex toy 

sales, porn viewership and Pornhub ratings 
in particular shifted from symptoms of “sin-
ful practice” that we previously refused to 
acknowledge on mainstream platforms to 
favorable, commercialized prevention meth-
ods against COVID-19. Now, we’re not just 
masturbating behind closed doors, we’re 
masturbating and flattening the curve behind 
closed doors.

So, what kind of effect might this shift have 

on the public discourse surrounding mastur-
bation? In a post-COVID world, will news 
outlets continue to report on and distribute 
information surrounding the ways we’re 
pleasuring ourselves? Will the destigmatiza-
tion of masturbation prove to be an enduring 
cultural byproduct of the pandemic? 

Laurie Mintz, a psychologist and Univer-

sity of Florida professor, expressed in the 

same Los Angeles Times report that, yes, 

change is coming:

“People are scared,” Mintz said. 

“People are lonely, and I think there’s 
been enough talk [about the topic 
that] it’s destigmatizing sex toys 
and masturbation — finally — and 
that could be one of the very few 
positive outcomes of all this.”

In a phone interview with 

The Daily, Hollis Griffin, an as-
sociate professor in the LSA 
department of communication 
and media, felt more unsure 
about any prospective change. 

“I think it’s hard to say what 

kind of effect (increased news 
media coverage of masturbation) 
will have,” he said.

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE WEIBE