May is National Masturbation Month! Good Vibes started this pleasure-filled celebration 29 years ago — and although masturbation is all about fun and pleasure, we started it for a very serious reason.

Because "culture war" issues are not at all new, just talking about masturbation got the Surgeon General of the US, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, fired. So, we put on our official Sexual Health & Pleasure activist hats and held a historic meeting at Good Vibrations: We declared that henceforth, starting that Spring of 1995, May would be known as National Masturbation Month. (Hey, when you can take charge of your own sexual pleasure, it's no sweat to invent a holiday.)

Since then, masturbation has become a less-taboo subject—though there is still work to be done to erase this form of sexual shame for everyone. Masturbation may be the most significant sexual building block there is, and we need to talk about all this and make masturbation completely acceptable for anyone who chooses it—and that’s what Masturbation Month has always been about!

For the full story of Dr. Elders and the start of Masturbation May, read our post by Staff Sexologist Dr. Carol Queen here.