Mastur Class

For some reason, plenty of supposedly sexually liberated Pinays still feel iffy when it comes to the topic of masturbation. But in this day and age, it’s high time we stopped feeling guilty and ashamed about touching ourselves. Consider this a crash course from sex therapist Rica Cruz on why giving yourself some love is completely okay.

- Angelica Gutierrez

 WHY DO YOU THINK THERE ARE WOMEN WHO ARE ALREADY PROGRESSIVE ABOUT SEX BUT STILL FEEL ASHAMED OF MASTURBATING?

Usually, if you talk to girls who have premarital sex but are not really sexually liberated, their reason for having premarital sex is to satisfy [their boyfriends]. Which isn’t the best disposition when it comes to having sex, right? ‘Cause you should own it! You should have sex because sex feels good. But their reason is “I don’t want him to leave me.” That’s why when you ask them if they masturbate, they can’t, because they still have that guilt. I did a study on this, and Filipinos have high levels of sex guilt. But if you look at it very closely, it’s not actually sex guilt, because we don’t have guilt. We have shame.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO?