Safer sex fests in SF and beyond

Masturbate-a-Thon 2006 will be held on
Saturday, May 27th!

The Center for Sex and Culture's National Masturbation Month plans include Masturbate-a-Thon San Francisco. Founder and director Carol Queen, Ph.D. announced that the Center for Sex & Culture will hold its fifth annual fund-raising Masturbate-a-Thon on May 27, 2006, doors open at 5:00 for regular participants and at 4:00 for those attempting to set this year's time record. The event is one of many National Masturbation Month events planned around the US and Canada, including many sponsored Masturbate-a-Thons. Unlike most of the others, the CSC's Masturbate-a-Thon is a live group event at which participants will raise funds by getting others to sponsor them for each minute they masturbate. CSC will hold the event at 398 11th Street in San Francisco.

Founded by San Francisco's own women-owned, worker-owned sex toy company Good Vibrations in the wake of then-Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders' firing for stating that masturbation "is perhaps something that should be taught" about when discussing youth sexual options, National Masturbation Month seeks to raise awareness and dispel shame about this most common and natural of sexual activities. Good Vibrations and its sister sex toy stores and sex-positive nonprofits have been celebrating National Masturbation Month since 1995. Information about Good Vibrations' role in NMM will be available on GV's website, http://www.goodvibes.com, in early May. The Masturbate-a-Thon became the centerpiece of National Masturbation Month when it was added to Good Vibrations' slate of activities a few years later. GV sponsors the Masturbate-a-Thon as a private event, as most masturbation is; the Center for Sex & Culture followed the lead of a private organization in Salt Lake City in celebrating it as a group activity.

Last year's Center for Sex & Culture Masturbate-a-Thon raised close to $5000.00 from participants and their sponsors, who pledge any amount per minute to support their friends' efforts. One man and one woman participant won trophies for Longest Time Spent Masturbating (the longest spent nearly seven and a half hours), while one person was awarded Most Funds Raised (close to $1000.00) and another received the trophy for Most Orgasms (CSC director Carol Queen had predicted a woman was likely to win this particular award). A reporter from Reuters was on hand, as were representatives from several Bay Area publications. The entire event was webcast by bondage.com and so was available for interested supporters outside the region.


Who participates in a live Masturbate-a-Thon? Not surprisingly, representatives from various San Francisco sexual subcultures attend to "come for a cause"; the Center for Sex & Culture is arranging this year's co-sponsorships among gay men's clubs, erotica producers, and other sexual adventurers. Separate areas of the Masturbate-a-Thon site will be set aside for men who would prefer to masturbate together and women who want a single-sex space, with the rest of the room a mixed-gender venue. Only part of the room will be set aside for the webcast cameras, so less exhibitionistic attendees can participate somewhat more privately. Participants have also been drawn to past Masturbate-a-Thons to publicly acknowledge the importance of solo sexuality in their lives, so not everyone handing in a pledge sheet will be a committed erotic adventurer; many will never have done anything like this before. Tony, a 2004 first-time participant from Los Angeles, emailed CSC afterwards to thank them for setting up a space where he could feel comfortable and let go of the shame that had been instilled in him about masturbation. CSC director Queen comments: "People like Tony are everywhere; most of us engage in self-pleasure, but there is so little support for doing so that it can become a source of distress. This is exactly why National Masturbation Month is needed; people need to understand that self-stimulation is common, pleasurable, healthful, and nothing to worry about."

Word of the Masturbate-a-Thon has spread around the globe. We expect participants to come from as far away as Australia this year; in past years press hits have come in from South Africa, France, Brazil, Ireland, India, and elsewhere. Pledge sheets and cosponsorship links are available at the Masturbate-a-Thon's website. Participants can download a pledge sheet and begin collecting pledges right away; after the Masturbate-a-Thon they will let their pledgers know how much to remit. Pledges can be paid by check and sent to CSC; they can also be remitted via the event website. All monies raised will be used to support the Center for Sex & Culture's educational and sex-positive cultural programming. People who wish to participate but who can't find pledgers may pledge themselves at any amount plus pay a $20.00 entry fee. Pro-masturbation voyeurs may attend the Masturbate-a-Thon at $50.00, as space allows, and are encouraged to also pledge a participant of their choice. Supporters who live too far away to attend can tune in to the webcast that evening (May 27); interested parties who prefer a private Masturbate-a-Thon can download the pledge sheet, stay home and participate, and remit by mail, or they can participate in Good Vibrations's private Masturbate-a-Thon.


The site for Portland, Oregon's Masturbate-a-Thon (to be held on May 10th ) is http://www.masturbate-a-thon.org. Good Vibrations's site is http://www.goodvibes.com. Visitors to these sites and Masturbate-a-Thon participants should be 18 and over only.

The Center for Sex & Culture (CSC) received its nonprofit status in late 2002 and was declared "Best Emerging Sex Nonprofit" in the San Francisco Bay Guardian's Best of the Bay issue in June 2004. It is open by appointment and for events. (It does not yet maintain regular drop-in hours.) The Center for Sex & Culture is a volunteer organization that subsists on donations from the public, including donations of books, art, videos, archival materials, etc. CSC's mailing address (where donations can be sent) is 2215-R Market Street, #455, San Francisco, CA 94114. Website donations can be made at http://www.sexandculture.org. Telephone: (415) 255-1155