Men masturbation has not always enjoyed the free and easy press it has today. The internet abounds with enlightened websites not only declaring men masturbation to be healthy, but positively encouraging exploration and experimentation with a wide and inventive catalog of men masturbation techniques. If you want to watch videos or ogle pictures of men masturbation, you can be doing so in two clicks of a masturbatory mouse.

It was very different indeed during the monkey spanking spurned days of the 1700s and 1800s. Many a prominent physicians began to believe masturbation was the reason for certain mental and physical deficiencies. Just as in earlier times people believed certain women to be witches, several intelligent scientists, philosophers, and religious leaders of the day decided that illnesses including insanity, vision and hearing problems, epilepsy, mental retardation, and general health problems were caused by that naughty lady Five Fingered Mary. In fact, over 60% of medical illnesses were blamed on men masturbation.

The fear of masturbation became so great that throughout the world, extreme preventative measures were instituted including the use of mechanical restraints, genital surgery, and rigorous physical discipline.

By the 19th century the cereal magnate John Harvey Kellogg, (that’s right, the man who brought you Corn Flakes, not  Porn Flakes) declared “sex for anything but reproduction” to be “sexual excess.” Kellogg and others began advocating routine circumcision of males as a deterrent to men masturbation.

Some of the hideous and cruel implements invented expressly to stop a session of men masturbation are still viewable in museums around the world. One such was the Bowen Device– this was a cup that was placed over the head of the penis and attached to pubic hair by chains and clips. When the wearer got an erection, the pubic hair would be plucked painfully and the wearer would be sufficiently distracted to stop thinking impure thoughts.