History Main / SelfAbuse

-->'''Sims''': Yup! That’s why I want it all up here. (Points into his head)over.

* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry6ShapeUpOrSlipOut'': Larry's attempt at beating off is this, as he possesses no self-control and goes blind from it, naturally resulting in a game

* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry6ShapeUpOrSlipOut'': Larry's attempt at beating off is this, as he possesses no self-control and goes blind from it, naturally resulting in a game over.

* Another Catholic school movie, ''Film/HeavenHelpUs'', features a compulsive masturbator who's also pallid, twitchy and socially awkward.

* In ''Film/TheLoveGuru'', the protagonist is told by his severely crosseyed teacher that if he masturbates, it will make him crosseyed.

* A school psychologist in the 1960's film ''Literature/UpTheDownStaircase'' has a troubled male student written down as having "latent homosexuality" caused by this and an overbearing mother.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheGoodies'', Graeme is training rabbits in preparation of sending them into space.

* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'': Torso's psychotic nature is further emphasized when he reveals in his diary to have [[spoiler:masturbated while thinking about his scarred torso. He gets off to the idea of cutting off Mutsuki's limbs and keeping him as a lover]].

Mostly a DiscreditedTrope. While certain Jewish and Christian groups still do frown on male masturbation because of the story of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onan Onan]] in the Old Testament, [[note]]Though he [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer didn't actually masturbate with his own hands]], but instead avoided ejaculating inside Tamar while they had sex; whatever the interpretation, it's generally agreed upon that Onan was struck down because procreational sex is considered SeriousBusiness, at least at the time the Bible was written.[[/note]] the idea that masturbation could cause actual, physical harm came from UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain and the Second Great Awakening in the US. These were the days of MoralGuardians like U.S. postmaster Anthony Comstock and Boy Scouts founder Lord Baden-Powell, who believed that children indulging in "Secret Practices" would waste away their youth and vigor, and scores of ministers whose most lasting innovations in hygiene turned out to be [[http://www.snopes.com/food/origins/grahamcrackers.asp Graham crackers]] and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. All those old wives' tales and warnings have been turned on their ear in recent years. In fact, it has gone the other way to a certain degree with medical studies suggesting that masturbation for men could lower their risk for testicular cancer.

Not to be [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant confused with]] SelfHarm.

Mostly a DiscreditedTrope. While certain Jewish and Christian groups still do frown on male masturbation because of the story of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onan Onan]] in the Old Testament, [[note]]Though he [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer didn't actually masturbate with his own hands]], but instead avoided ejaculating inside Tamar while they had sex; whatever the interpretation, it's generally agreed upon that Onan was struck down because procreational sex is considered SeriousBusiness, at least at the time the Bible was written.[[/note]] the idea that masturbation could cause actual, physical harm came from UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain and the Second Great Awakening in the US. These were the days of MoralGuardians like U.S. postmaster Anthony Comstock and Boy Scouts founder Lord Baden-Powell, who believed that children indulging in "Secret Practices" would waste away their youth and vigor, and scores of ministers whose most lasting innovations in hygiene turned out to be [[http://www.snopes.com/food/origins/grahamcrackers.asp Graham crackers]] and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. All those old wives' tales and warnings have been turned on their ear in recent years.

Mostly a DiscreditedTrope. While certain Jewish and Christian groups still do frown on male masturbation because of the story of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onan Onan]] in the Old Testament, [[note]]Though he [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer didn't actually masturbate with his own hands]], but instead avoided ejaculating inside Tamar while they had sex; whatever the interpretation, it's generally agreed upon that Onan was struck down because procreational sex is considered SeriousBusiness.[[/note]] the idea that masturbation could cause actual, physical harm came from UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain and the Second Great Awakening in the US. These were the days of MoralGuardians like U.S. postmaster Anthony Comstock and Boy Scouts founder Lord Baden-Powell, who believed that children indulging in "Secret Practices" would waste away their youth and vigor, and scores of ministers whose most lasting innovations in hygiene turned out to be [[http://www.snopes.com/food/origins/grahamcrackers.asp Graham crackers]] and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. All those old wives' tales and warnings have been turned on their ear in recent years.

Mostly a DiscreditedTrope. While certain Jewish and Christian groups still do frown on male masturbation because of the story of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onan Onan]] in the Old Testament, the idea that masturbation could cause actual, physical harm came from UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain and the Second Great Awakening in the US. These were the days of MoralGuardians like U.S. postmaster Anthony Comstock and Boy Scouts founder Lord Baden-Powell, who believed that children indulging in "Secret Practices" would waste away their youth and vigor, and scores of ministers whose most lasting innovations in hygiene turned out to be [[http://www.snopes.com/food/origins/grahamcrackers.asp Graham crackers]] and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. All those old wives' tales and warnings have been turned on their ear in recent years.

* From ''Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space''.

* A mock advertisement in ''[[Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainProton Captain Proton]] and the Planet of Lesbians'' promotes Kellogg's Corn Flakes as stopping boys from masturbating so they'll grow up tall and handsome like Captain Proton.[[note]]It also serves as a HistoricalInJoke since that's what Kellogg's Corn Flakes were initially created to stop masturbation.[[/note]]

* A school psychologist in the 1960's film ''Literature/UpTheDownStaircase'' has a troubled male student as having "latent homosexuality" caused by this and an overbearing mother.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[That's what you get for not listening to your mother.]]]]

[[ADateWithRosiePalms Masturbation]] portrayed as being bad for you, possibly making you go blind[[note]]There is some slight truth to this, as both ocular humor and ejaculate contain zinc, thus chronic masturbation could, in extreme cases, lead to a zinc deficiency that could harm the eyes. Nobody's known to have actually gone blind from it, though. Alternative "scientific" explanation: Semen contains an enzyme called hyaluronidase, and certain cells in the eye contain hyaluronic acid, the chemical hyaluronidase catalyses. Sounds unhealthy when colliding. [[/note]], go deaf, or grow hair on your palms.

Mostly a DiscreditedTrope we have [[SocietyMarchesOn outgrown]]. While certain Jewish and Christian groups still do frown on male masturbation because of the story of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onan Onan]] in the Old Testament, the idea that masturbation could cause actual, physical harm came from UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain and the Second Great Awakening in the US. These were the days of MoralGuardians like U.S. postmaster Anthony Comstock and Boy Scouts founder Lord Baden-Powell, who believed that children indulging in "Secret Practices" would waste away their youth and vigor, and scores of ministers whose most lasting innovations in hygiene turned out to be [[http://www.snopes.com/food/origins/grahamcrackers.asp Graham crackers]] and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. All those old wives' tales and warnings have been turned on their ear in recent years.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry6ShapeUpOrSlipOut https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/selfabuselarry6.png]]]]

* A mock advertisement in ''[[Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainProton Captain Proton]] and the Planet of Lesbians'' promotes Kellogg's Corn Flakes as stopping boys from masturbating so they'll grow up tall and handsome like Captain Proton.

* Bakura in ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' gets afflicted with "the deadliest of all British diseases": Wanker's Cramp. In the closing credits of that episode we get the sage advice "Avoid Wanker's Cramp! Know your limits!"

* In ''Film/SaintRalph'', the characters literally refer to it as "self abuse," a reflection of the 1950's Catholic school setting. However, since the title character is 14, the concept that it's bad for him does not stop him.

* Comedian Adam Ferarra claims to have renounced his Catholic faith at 14 years old for this reason.

(as priest) "No, my child! You must repent!"\\

(as priest) "If you keep doing it you'll go blind!"\\

* Doctor Crombie, eponymous character in Graham Greene's short story, expounds that cancer is a result of masturbation... More accurately, he claims it is a cause of "playing with oneself", the euphemism giving rise to humour. The central theme of the story is to demonstrate the folly of conflating correlation and causation: "Almost one hundred per cent of those who died of cancer had practised sex".

* On ''Series/AdamRuinsEverything'', Adam explains that this idea that masturbation is evil is what popularized the practice of (non-medical and non-religious) circumcision, mostly in the US. This was popularized back in the Victorian Era by doctors and non-doctors, including the inventor of corn flakes: it was thought that by paring away the foreskin, it would reduce a boy's sex drive and urge to masturbate, or at the very least make it unpleasant. Oh, and it wasn't just done to ''boys'', either. Many girls were also given clitoridectomies, or had their clitorises ''deliberately'' burned with acid for the same reason. (Sometimes under the guise of treatment for or prevention of [[HystericalWoman hysteria]].)

-->"Oh Mrs Palm and your five lovely daughters\\

* The "Mike's Left Hand" strips of ''Webcomic/SexyLosers'' are based on a RunningGag about a guy who's addicted to masturbation to the point of a {{Fetish}} -- he apparently can't get off any other way. He does it in all kinda of inappropriate situations and even passes up opportunities for actual sex in favour of it. A YetAnotherChristmasCarol parody strip has him warned that his death will be masturbation-related... somehow.

* Inverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MissionHill'', where Kevin gets caught masturbating and tries to destroy the evidence, resulting in the store burning down and the kids who caught him being charged with arson. At the last minute Kevin comes forward and, when everyone else is mocking and taunting him, Andy steps forward and calls them all down for it because not only do they all do it to, but Kevin actually had the courage to come forward and admit it in front of an entire court room.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' episode "God's Chef" Orel is told that masturbation is one of the worst sins he could commit, since he's wasting his sperm. This leads to the plot of the episode, in which Orel concludes the only way to masturbate and still go to heaven is to become God's chef. [[spoiler: He ends up impregnating the entire neighborhood with a pastry bag filled with his sperm.]]

Another supposed result of masturbation was that it would make you go mad, though there was at least some reason for thinking this; asylum doctors would notice that many mentally disturbed people masturbated a lot, and reasonably ([[FalseCause though]] [[ScienceMarchesOn incorrectly]]), concluded that the madness was caused by masturbation.

* In Literature/TheBible, Onan (in Genesis 38) was told to--in accordance with the duty of levirate marriage--have a child with Tamar, [[RomancingTheWidow the wife of his dead brother Er]]. He didn't want to give her a child that would not be considered truly his, so he practiced coitus interruptus (apparently without telling Tamar what he was planning). God was displeased and struck Onan down. While ostensibly only about Onan's refusal to get Tamar pregnant, traditionally this story has been interpreted about coitus interruptus in general and masturbation by extension (the idea that it's abhorrent to ejaculate anywhere but into your wife's body).

* Sylvester Graham (Presbyterian) and John Harvey Kellogg (Seventh-Day Adventist) both developed health foods - graham crackers and cornflakes respectively - that they believed suppressed 'carnal urges'. They also advocated male circumcision not to adhere to religious traditions but instead to, well, you know. And they even suggested ''chemically mutilating a woman's clitoris to achieve the same effect in women''. Thankfully, only the comparatively less destructive act of secular male circumcision survived their era, but now it's something fathers have continually had done to their newborn sons just because it's been done for generations and no one seems to remember why. [[CaptainObvious And no, obviously it does nothing to stop masturbation.]]

* Sylvester Graham (Presbyterian) and John Harvey Kellogg (Seventh-Day Adventist) both developed health foods - graham crackers and cornflakes respectively - that they believed suppressed 'carnal urges'.

* In Literature/TheBible, Onan (in Genesis 38) was told to--in accordance with the duty of levirate marriage--have a child with Tamar, [[RomancingTheWidow the wife of his dead brother Er]]. He didn't want to give her a child that would not be considered truly his, so he practiced coitus interruptus (apparently without telling Tamar what he was planning). God was displeased and struck Onan down. While ostensibly only about Onan's refusal to get Tamar pregnant, traditionally this story has been interpreted about coitus interruptus in general and masturbation by extension.