The Solitary Virtue
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solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
The Solitary Virtue
@solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
80 followers 190 following 40 posts
Old books had a lot to say about masturbation, and most of it was terrible. I find the worst of it and post it here.

There will never be porn on this account.
#historyofsex
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solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
Bonus: the list of illustrations.

(Apollo?)
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS In half-tone APOLLO THE MALE SEXUAL ORGANS THE FEMALE SEXUAL ORGANS DIAGRAM OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ACT In the text CONTRACEPTIVE APPLIANCES TYPES OF VAGINAL PESSARIES METHOD OF INSERTING VAGINAL DIAPHRAGM METHODS OF CONTRACEPTION
December 14, 2024 at 2:05 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
"Immunisation by Semen, Heat to Testicles, X-rays"

Did you know people used X-rays for contraception? Because I didn't.

5/5
Part III SEXUAL HYGIENE 20. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SEX Puberty— The Male Sexual Organs— Seminal Emissions— The Female Sexual Organs— Ovulation— Menstruation— Sexual Union— Fertilization— Pregnancy— Childbirth— Predetermition of Sex— Heredity. 21. THE SEXUAL ACT . The Reproductive Processes— The Artistry and Technique of Coitus— Frequency of Coitus. 22. PERSONAL PREVENTION OF VENEREAL DISEASE Cause of Venereal Diseases— Methods of Prevention— Early Symptoms— Technique of Personal Prophylaxis. 23. MODERN METHODS OF CONTRACEPTION . Definition of Birth Control and Contraception— Physiological Methods, Abstinence, Safe Period, Lactation, Special Methods of Coitus— Biological Methods, Immunization by Semen, Heat to Testicles, X-rays— Mechanical Methods: Condom, Pessaries, Tampon and Sponges— Technique of Pessary and Tampon Contraception— Chemical Contraception, Principles and Methods— Combined Methods— Summary. APPENDIX: COMPOSITION OF PROPRIETARY CONTRACEPTIVES GLOSSARY
December 14, 2024 at 2:04 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
"The Artistry of Love" is a fine phrase.

4/5
13. YOUTH AND MASTURBATION . Definition— Sequelae— Mutual Masturbation— True Significance— Morality— Mastery of Masturbation 14. THE SEXUAL TRENDS OF ADOLESCENCE . Masturbation — Homosexuality — Bisexuality— Fixation of Developmental Trends— Sex Adjustment. 15. SEX AND ITS MASTERY . Libido— Repression and Sublimation — Continence and Health— The Power of Religion. 16. SEX EXPRESSION BEFORE MARRIAGE Erotic Relief: Auto-erotism, Bisexuality, Homosexuality, Heterosexuality— Maturity and Sex Indulgence— Sex Difficulties of Adolescence. 17. PREPARATION FOR MARRIAGE . Christian Ideals— Love, Knowledge and Health— Medical Examination before Marriage. 18. POTENCY AND FRIGIDITY Potency — Fertility — Frigidity — Maladjustments of Marriage. 19. SEXUAL HARMONY IN MARRIAGE . Coitus, an Expression of Love— Conjugal Adjustment— The Artistry of Love— Happiness in Marriage.
December 14, 2024 at 2:02 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
How to tell you're in the early twentieth century: there's always a chapter on eugenics. 😟

3/5
Part I SEXUAL ETHICS 1. THE MODERN ATTITUDE TO SEX Science and Truth— The Bogey of Sex— Repression and Personality— Attitudes in Sex Education— Our Sry at Morals— Sex and Obscenity— The Need for Tolerance. 2. SEX THROUGH THE AGES Primitive Man in Love and Faith— Phallic Worship— Taboo— Sex Mythology— The Sex Act and Childbirth— Sex and Science— Sex and Christianity. 3. SEX IN ANCIENT GREECE Hedonism— Love and Marriage in Ancient Greece— Pederasty and its Place in Greek Education— Male Homosexuality— Female Homosexuality— Masturbation— Prostitution — Sexual Customs: Infibulation, Love Potions, Nakedness. 4. PARENTS AND SEX INITIATION The Mystery of the Adolescence of Christ— Modern Tendencies in Sex Education— The Passing of Prudery— Need for a Sane Attitude towards Sex.
December 14, 2024 at 2:02 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
"The Mystery of the Adolescence of Christ" is a rather unconventional way to begin the sex education chapter.

2/5
Part I SEXUAL ETHICS 1. THE MODERN ATTITUDE TO SEX Science and Truth— The Bogey of Sex— Repression and Personality— Attitudes in Sex Education— Our Sry at Morals— Sex and Obscenity— The Need for Tolerance. 2. SEX THROUGH THE AGES Primitive Man in Love and Faith— Phallic Worship— Taboo— Sex Mythology— The Sex Act and Childbirth— Sex and Science— Sex and Christianity. 3. SEX IN ANCIENT GREECE Hedonism— Love and Marriage in Ancient Greece— Pederasty and its Place in Greek Education— Male Homosexuality— Female Homosexuality— Masturbation— Prostitution — Sexual Customs: Infibulation, Love Potions, Nakedness. 4. PARENTS AND SEX INITIATION The Mystery of the Adolescence of Christ— Modern Tendencies in Sex Education— The Passing of Prudery— Need for a Sane Attitude towards Sex.
December 14, 2024 at 2:01 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
Three references at once. We love to see it.
December 14, 2024 at 1:59 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
This. There needs to be an "…or for any other reason" clause, otherwise you're always going to get That One Guy who can stick around like cold sores.
December 14, 2024 at 1:57 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
*taking notes, firing up Google Scholar*
December 14, 2024 at 1:50 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
Glad it wasn't just me thinking that
December 14, 2024 at 1:50 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
So did people read it and then shrug it off as "medical people are out of touch"?
December 14, 2024 at 1:41 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
Thank you: I'll look it up.
December 14, 2024 at 1:40 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
This boils down to "masturbation might have got this child pregnant, although tbh if she was masturbating she was probably having sex too."

3/3 #histsex
Indeed, the egg appears to have a certain capacity for unorganized development without impregnation, and certain diseases, as chronic inflammation of the ovaries, or long-continued sexual excitement, coupled with inability of the ovary to expel the matured egg, may sometimes result in such development. Thus various foetus-like growths have been observed in the ovaries of persons who never knew sexual intercourse, even in those of children. Hufeland mentions the case of a young girl who died at the age of thirteen years in consequence of self-abuse, practiced from her infancy, and in whose left ovary was found a sac containing hair, bones and teeth. It would appear that the parts so produced were those in which the nerve supply is least, which seems to corroborate the statement that the male. seminal animalcula is alone the germ of the nervous system. It must be said, however, that many physiologists deny the possibility of even the development above mentioned, without impregnation by the male semen, and, where such growths appear, insist that intercourse with a male of some kind has been had. And reason and analogy seem to be on their side, while the lascivious and morbid sexual passion of the Masturbating girl of even the tender age of thirteen years would leave her open to the suspicions those physiologists entertain.
December 4, 2024 at 3:30 AM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
The chapter on castration claims that "some nations accomplished [castration] by putting the person who was to be eunuchized through a course of persistent virility-destroying Onanism, or masturbation."

2/3
The purpose was usually accomplished by the removal of the testicles only, though some nations, the Chinese for example, make a clean sweep of testicles, scrotum and penis. Sometimes nothing was removed, but the Vas Deferens was severed, or tied by a strangulating cord so as to prevent the passage of semen from the testicles, and in some cases the organs were merely tightly bandaged, and kept so until they atrophied or shrunk away into worthlessness. Some nations accomplished the same result by putting the person who was to be eunuchized through a course of persistent virility-destroying Onanism, or masturbation.
December 4, 2024 at 3:29 AM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
That young lady deserves some kind of enterprise award.

5/6
In women solitary self-abuse may be vaginal or clitorian. In the former case the finger, a candle, carrot, needle-box or other cylindrical object serves the purpose. Here again, ingenuity designs cunning means. A peeled banana is a curious but apt artifice, being soft, round, pointed and slippery. A young girl confessed to using a rubber tube tied at each end and made large and elastic by being filled with water. This girl had contaminated a whole school, first by initiating the individual by lending one of these articles to her with liberal instructions and selling it if it was liked. The clitoris, analogue of the penis, and endowed with even more susceptibility, naturally attracts the greatest attention in self-abuse. The woman has only to stroke and tickle it gently with the finger, or rub it between the thumb and finger to excite the sexual spasm.
November 27, 2024 at 9:18 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
Trachea: well, if it's getting thrown away anyway…

The other person sounds like he's living in a sitcom.

4/6
Queer expedients are made known to us in practice ; thus, one of my young patients, son of a butcher, used the œsophagus or trachea of slaughtered animals, while another wound elastic page cord around the penis, another used a flexible coiled spring, one end being fastened to a large iron ring which was immovably tied close to the body, surrounding the root of the penis and the scrotum, the other end being made fast to a cord, which was, in turn, tied fast to some object; by an up and down movement of the body this artificial vagina determined an ejaculation similar to the natural act. This latter method dispensed with the hand, and introduces to our notice other solitary man-made methods, such as friction of the penis between the body and mattresses. One little patient had bored a hole in a partition and used this as an excitant. He was discovered by getting caught in the hole, necessitating a little carpentering for his relief, which was accomplished much more easily than in the more common cases of a metal ring which necessitates more severe remedies for immediate and safe relief.
November 27, 2024 at 9:15 PM
solitaryvirtue.bsky.social
Apparently some people use egg white!

3/6
Methods of Abuse. — Masturbation or manustupration is the most common form of solitary vice. In man the penis is rubbed between the fingers until it enters erection and by a to and fro motion, the skin being held between the thumb and finger, the prepuce slipping over the glans, an ejaculation is produced. The penis may be rolled between the two hands or excited by surrounding it with the fore-finger and thumb, making a ring or constriction, the remaining fingers grasping the organ loosely thus forming a sort of artificial vagina. The hand in this case is often lubricated with soap, or oil, or white of egg to reduce unpleasant friction and increase the pleasure.
November 27, 2024 at 9:14 PM