本周热议误区：自慰真的有害健康吗？
内容总结：
近日，社交媒体上一条关于"频繁自慰会导致脑损伤、痤疮及生殖器萎缩"的AI生成内容引发广泛传播。经核查，该说法实为源自18世纪"自慰有害论"的陈旧观点，缺乏科学依据。
医学研究表明，适度自慰不仅无害，反而对身心健康具有积极意义。男性定期射精可降低前列腺癌风险，女性自慰有助于缓解心理压力、提升幸福感，且该行为普遍具有改善睡眠质量的作用。专家指出，仅当自慰行为影响到正常社交生活或形成强迫性行为模式时，才需引起关注。
历史资料显示，当前网络流传的"自慰有害"说法与1716年《手淫的滔天罪孽》及1838年《自慰致病论》等维多利亚时期出版物中的描述高度吻合。值得关注的是，即便在保守的维多利亚时代，已有性心理学家哈维洛克·艾利斯等学者通过研究证实自慰是正常健康的生理行为。
专家建议公众以科学态度看待自慰行为，摒弃历史遗留的污名化观念，同时避免过度沉迷影响日常生活。面对网络流传的健康信息，应核查其科学依据，勿被包装成现代科学的陈旧观念所误导。
中文翻译：
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今年8月25日，X平台用户@hood_grimes发布的这条推文至今已被转发近千万次（我在Snopes事实核查网站看到了这条内容）：
"该推文当前无法显示，可能正在加载或已被删除"
这条AI生成的推文配图中，身穿棒球衫的虚拟少年罗列了"频繁自慰"带来的严重健康后果，包括脑损伤、痤疮和"阴茎萎缩"。但根据我基于"所有认识的人"开展的观察研究（虽属个案但确系事实），许多健康人士都享受自慰且未出现负面生理影响。那么到底谁错了？让我们用证据说话。
自慰：友乎？敌乎？
该推文提出的具体主张均属谬误。科学研究从未证明自慰会导致背痛、降低睾酮水平或引发图片中列出的任何负面后果（第11条主观感受除外）。相反研究表明，自慰对人体具有（轻微）益处。对男性而言，高频射精（无论通过自慰还是性交）与降低前列腺癌总体风险相关；对女性来说，自慰有助于缓解"心理困扰并提升整体幸福感"；此外自慰还能帮助各性别群体改善睡眠。
公平起见，我们也审视"自慰有害论"的观点：过度自慰确实可能产生（有限）生理负面影响。比如可能导致皮肤擦伤和刺激，不过这属于常识范畴而非研究结论。自慰可能引发性快感缺失症（即在充分性刺激下无法达到高潮），但问题根源不在于频率而在于方式。研究证实，习惯性采用特殊自慰方式与性快感缺失存在关联——通俗来说，若长期依赖非常规方式获取快感，可能难以通过传统性行为达到高潮。
综合考量所有证据（即便最大限度采信"自慰有害论"），可以明确得出结论：自慰带来生理收益的可能性远大于生理危害。
何为"频繁"自慰？
自慰有益，盖棺定论？未必。自慰不会导致器官萎缩，但如同其他活动，若其开始过度占用时间、影响人际关系或成为强迫性应对机制时，则可能引发心理问题。电子游戏和健身同样遵循此理。
如果你感觉自慰正在负面影响生活，确实需要引起重视。但"有害"的定义本质是主观的，所谓"危害感"可能源自祖先性观念传承的负罪感。
维多利亚时代还魂记！
考据这条谣言的过程中，我发现棒球衫少年的所有论点都能在历史中找到雏形。如福克纳所言："过去从未消亡，甚至从未过去"，这一点在自慰恐慌（以及种族主义）中体现得淋漓尽致。剥离AI生成的外衣，这条推文简直像直接抄袭自19世纪警告"自渎危害"的医学手册。例如1716年出版的《手淫：或自我玷污的滔天罪行及其可怕后果（两性适用）》，或是1838年问世的《论手淫、自渎及自我玷污引发的疾病》。
这条谣言的11条"罪状"几乎都能在维多利亚时期反自慰文献中找到对应表述。《论手淫》中记载："我的胃部、手臂和腿部出现剧烈疼痛，有时肾脏也会作痛"；更早的文献里也有自渎者坦言："从肾脏往下部位疼痛难忍，后腰尤为严重"；当时医生如此描述自渎者："患者变得虚弱，无法维持常规体力劳动或专注学习，步履蹒跚无力，精神迟钝犹豫，活动时无精打采，回避社交互动，休息时本能地采取瘫坐或卧姿"。先辈著作唯一未提及的，就是自慰会导致阴茎萎缩——毕竟维多利亚时代的人还没愚昧到那种程度。
并非所有维多利亚人
当然存在例外。即使在维多利亚时代，性学先驱哈夫洛克·埃利斯等人就以科学视角研究性行为，其《性心理学研究》专著中整卷论证自慰是正常健康的行为。理查德·冯·克拉夫特-埃宾1886年著作《性精神病态》至今影响着现代性观念，就连神秘学家阿莱斯特·克劳利也将自慰纳入修行体系。因此当下次有人分享病毒式谣言时，请记住你正在参与一场持续三百年的文化战争——而所有酷炫的维多利亚人都是支持自慰的。选择站在埃利斯阵营而非手淫恐慌阵营吧：证据与历史都站在你这边。
英文来源：
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The below post from X user @hood_grimes has been shared almost ten million times since it appeared on August 25 (I saw it on Snopes):
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That AI-generated kid in a baseball jersey is laying out some pretty serious medical consequences of "frequent masturbation," including brain damage, acne, and "P*nis shrinkage." On the other hand, my own (admittedly anecdotal) study that includes "everyone I have ever met" suggests many healthy people enjoy masturbation with no negative physical side effects. So who's wrong this week? Let's look at the evidence.
Masturbation: friend or foe?
The specific claims made on the X post are false. There is no scientific research to support the idea that masturbation causes back pain, lowers testosterone, or has any of the negative effects listed in the meme (beyond number 11, which is subjective). Instead, research indicates masturbation is (marginally) good for you. In men, high ejaculation frequency (whether from masturbation or sex) correlates to decreased risk of total prostate cancer. For women, research suggests potential benefits of masturbation for dealing with "psychological distress and for enhancing general well-being." And masturbation seems to help everyone sleep better.
To be fair to the "masturbation is harmful" people, excessive masturbation can have (limited) negative physical effects. It could cause skin chafing and irritation, though this is more a "common sense" thing than "supported by research." Masturbation can play a role in anorgasmia (inability to achieve orgasm despite adequate sexual stimulation) but it doesn't seem to from how often you masturbate, but how you masturbate. Research supports a link between habitual, highly specific masturbation styles and anorgasmia—in layman's terms, if you do something unusual to get off by yourself, and you do it a lot, you may have trouble finishing in conventional ways with someone else.
Weighing the evidence (while giving all possible benefit of the doubt to the "masturbation can hurt you crowd") makes it very clear that masturbation is way more likely to be physically beneficial than physically harmful.
What is "frequent" masturbation, anyway?
Masturbation is awesome, case closed, right? Not totally. Masturbation isn’t going to shrink your body parts, but, like anything, it can become mentally unhealthy if it starts to take up too much of your time, gets in the way of relationships, or becomes a compulsive coping mechanism. Same rules apply to video games and working out, by the way.
If you feel masturbation is negatively affecting your life, it’s worth paying attention to, but the definition of "harmful" is subjective, and it's possible that what feels like “harm” is actually inherited guilt from what your great-great-great-grandparents thought about sex.
Victoriana re-born!
As I was researching the medical claims on this meme, it became clear that all of baseball-boy's talking points have their roots in earlier ages. Like Faulkner said, "The past is never dead. It's not even past" and nowhere is this more true than masturbation hysteria (and racism, I guess). Strip away the modern AI imagery, and this meme reads like it was lifted straight from a 19th-century medical pamphlet warning against the dangers of "self-abuse." Like this early entry in the genre: "Onania: or, the heinous sin of self-pollution and all its frightful consequences (in both sexes) considered with spiritual and physical advice to those who have already injured themselves by this abominable practice" from around 1716, or this one from 1838, "A Treatise on the Diseases produced by Onanism, Masturbation, Self-pollution."
You could take find a similar passage in Victorian anti-masturbation literature for almost all of the meme's 11 points. "I have violent pains in my stomach, arms, and legs; and sometimes in the kidneys," reports a chronic masturbator in Treatise. "I feel great pains from my kidneys downwards, and particularly in the small of my back," agrees another onanist from the earlier work. A doctor describes a self-polluter thusly: "The individual becomes feeble, is unable to labor with accustomed vigor, or to apply his mind to study; his step is tardy and weak, he is dull, irresolute, engages in his sports with less energy than usual, and avoids social intercourse; when at rest he instinctively assumes a lolling or recumbent posture."
All that's missing from the earlier works is the bit about masturbation shrinking the penis. Even the Victorians weren't that dumb.
Not all Victorians, however
There's no point without a counterpoint. Even in the Victorian age, people like pioneer sexologist Havelock Ellis took a scientific look at sex and devoted an entire volume of his Studies in the Psychology of Sex to masturbation, concluding it was normal and healthy. So did Richard von Krafft-Ebing, whose 1886 book Psychopathia Sexualis still defines how we think about sex. Even occultist Aleister Crowley made self-pleasure part of his magical practice. So the next time someone shares a viral meme, remember that you're picking sides in a 300-year-old culture war, and all the cool Victorians were pro-masturbation. Be team Ellis, not team Onanism: the evidence and history are on your side.