Ladies, you should probably masturbate more

Women. It’s time for your semi-regularly scheduled reminder that masturbating is fun and healthy and will not, in fact, cause hairy palms or whatever the hell the anti-sex brigade is claiming these days. Because if these numbers don’t lie, you could probably stand to be getting yourself off waaaaay more often…

chart of masturbation rates by gender and age

The data was complied by FiveThirtyEight from the most recent National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior. (h/t Io9)

Maya DusenberyMaya can’t remember the last time she found herself in such a small minority.

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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