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Masturbation is Fun

"It's just masturbation" or "it's masturbation" is one of the least thought through ways to dismiss something you don't like.

I've recently heard this phrase used by two different people in two different contexts to dismiss aesthetic choices they do not enjoy.

But let's think through the analogy for more than one puritanical second.

Masturbation is a pleasurable, healthy release. We know that it is, for those people that find it pleasurable, a necessity.

We also know that mutual masturbation is a healthy, pleasurable choice that all people involved when not coerced genuinely enjoy.

We also know that people enjoy watching masturbation or OnlyFans and porn wouldn't be so very popular.

So let's bring the metaphor back from our thought: in music to dismiss people playing with dynamics, feedback, improvisation and noise in an unplanned way being called masturbation does not follow.

Neither does dismissing art you do not like because you think it is low effort.

Basically, it's an easy, thought-terminating cliché that works until intellectually interrogated at all.

So the next time someone dismisses something they do not aesthetically like with "it's just masturbation:", there's a proper response:

"You mean a pleasurable performance that one or more people can engage in that you are not required to participate in nor like?"

Diagram of Argument: