The Politics of Masturbation

By Alexander Talcott | Friday, March 1, 2002

Those who have tried to find a place to sit in Collis around noon know that the fireplace under the great wooden seal is usually a good bet when all else fails — the gas fire, while pathetic in comparison to what it could be were it actually real, provides a quiet atmosphere for studying or eating one's midday meal. Beware, however, if when you peer into the 'Commonground' room the lights have been dimmed and a slide projector is in operation, for some misguided senior may be showcasing pornography under the guise of a cutting-edge feminist thesis project. Such was the experience of many a hungry, innocent student or visiting passerby at a Wednesday lunch hour in the middle of February; those looking for a place to sip their smoothies or read drew back in horror at the site of enormous naked women posed in extremely compromising, lewd positions, brought to us by Kathryn Oliviero '01 in her presentation of her thesis research on the 'politics of masturbation.' What might one actually gain from such a college funded project? What great wisdom and truth has Miss Oliviero contributed to the Academy?

'My pussy is the temple of learning.' This quote from Madonna's 1992 photographic Sex book is, according to Miss Oliviero, 'cliché.' Madonna's statement may very well be cliché to those Dartmouth students able to keep up with all the racy sex lectures sponsored by the College and its Women's Resource Center.

Introduced by Hillary Miller '02, fellow Women's Resource Center intern, Olivero's lecture was a community lunch hour and Student Critical Inquiry Seminar, 'open to all to showcase work and research in a laid back setting with interested and supportive peers,' numbering fifteen to twenty in conjunction with the WRC's 3rd Annual Sex Series.

Masturbation, 'frequently discussed, roundly condemned, and widely practiced,' necessitated that Oliviero take a feminist approach. She pondered her own sexuality and surveyed people: do they masturbate, and, if so, how does it feel? She asked for stories from their childhoods. Abstinence of the practice among women surprised her. But, then again, we are in a culture dominated by a 'heterosexual ethos,' and reproductive and plumbing paradigms. There is a 'phallocentric romance, centered around the penis,' she said. 'Sex starts with erection and ends with ejaculation.' Thus, for women, masturbation is outside of the heterosexual, phallocentric, and social/companionship models. Practice of masturbation is an even more awkward part of a female identity then bisexuality. As evidence, Oliviero gave an example of a would-be uncomfortable introduction: 'Hi, I'm Katie. I'm a masturbator.'

Oliviero discussed the 'politics of masturbation and its relationship to deconstructing and potentially resignifying women's sexual agency,' focusing on performative discourses by three feminists—Betty Dodson, Annie Sprinkle, and Madonna.
Dodson wrote a 'liberating masturbation manual' and taught masturbation techniques in individual and group sessions in the 1960s.

Sprinkle, née Ellen Steinberg, was introduced as one of Oliviero's favorite speakers and performers. She is a prostitute and porn star who went on to direct more women-focused, safer sex pornographic films in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sprinkle's performing arts include onstage douches, rolling around with chocolate and sprinkles, and, according to Oliviero, 'stuffing yams up her ass.' At her performances, she has exhibited her cervix with a flashlight and magnifying class while screaming, 'Okay boys, you wanna see pussy? I'll show you pussy.' She also regularly challenged audience members to describe the color of her nipple. Sprinkle was thus transformed into a 'controlling subject and object.' In a ceremony commemorating the AIDS deaths of several of her friends, Sprinkle followed candlelighting with masturbation to the rhythm of audience members shaking rattles. Oliviero adeptly pointed out that this behavior was not consistent with the values of the contemporaneous Moral Majority and President Ronald Reagan.

Madonna simulated masturbation in a wedding dress at the first MTV Music Awards in 1984 and made a raunchy 1991 documentary, 'Truth or Dare.' Oliviero mentioned these exploits, but honed in on the diva's Sex book, full of erotic photos, testimonials, and fantasies. She finally identified a transparency of a woman, topless, straddled over a mirror reaching down her underpants that had been projected for the entire lecture as Madonna in the Sex book. After showing another image of Madonna, this time with other topless women, Oliviero said that with the book, Madonna sought to deconstruct shame, silence, and taboo. Madonna wonders in her work what others see and what it would be like if she was without pubic hair like a child to which Oliviero imputed great significance.

Oliviero wandered a little off-topic in her lecture when she began pondering modern sex icons and pornographic magazine content. Sex icons are to be youthful, she noted. Britney Spears is 20, and even the 50 year old Renee Russo looks 30. She bemoaned the excessive penetration emphasis in magazines, but confessed, 'I have a Hustler in my bag actually.'

Post-lecture audience questions ranged from the technology of masturbation to vibrators having been used for treatment of female hysteria up to fifty years ago to masturbation of the anus ('because it's so close'). All three 'really needs to be talked about more,' said Oliviero. Presumably, another seminar of these topics will follow.

The Politics of Masturbation

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