It all started with a tricky question: "I masturbate eight times per week. Am I normal?" From there, the data crunchers atFiveEightThirty sought to find out whether Brandon, age 31, was "normal" compared to the masturbation rates of his male and female peers. The results are pretty damn interesting.
What's Considered "Normal" with Masturbation?
The FiveThirtyEight team used data from the 2009 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, which garnered over 5,800 Americans from age 14 to 94.Based on that, they created this chart:
Photo source: FiveThirtyEight
It seems that most women don't masturbate more than 4 times per week, especially as they get older. Even 2-3 times per week is below the norm. Men, on the other hand, have double-digit numbers for both the 2-3-time and 4-plus sets, at least until they get to age 60.
Even so, according to these numbers, Brandon isn't "normal" when compared to his male peers. 13.5 is on the low side. ButFiveThirtyEight included this insight from professor Julia Heiman that will hopefully make Brandon — and anyone else concerned about their own masturbation habits — feel better.
"…[Being] ‘normal' depends on whether masturbating at that frequency is taking away from other aspects of your life — like your relationships or work."FiveThirtyEight also created a chart that answers, by age and sex, how many people have ever masturbated:
Photo source: FiveThirtyEight
Not only are women less likely to masturbate more than a few times a week, but they're also less likely to have tried masturbating at all.
What can we take away from all of this? According to Feministing, "[If] these numbers don't lie, you could probably stand to be getting yourself of waaaaay more often…" Here's hoping all this hard data analysis and structured charts get you in the mood!
[h/t Feministing via FiveThirtyEight]
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