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The first known work solely about masturbation was Onania; Or, The Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution, published anonymously in 1716. The resulting snowball of medical and social horror about solo sex reached greatest mass around 1800-1880 and then slowly began to melt in reaction to medical and sociological evidence that sex with oneself does not differ in effects from sex with someone else. Yet traces of the terror remain, leading to Jocelyn Elders being fired and leading also to a lack of books about masturbation. Sexual intercourse is an exceedingly common sex act and the subject of massive numbers of books. Masturbation is equally if not more common but the subject of a mere 20-30 books since 1960 and about half of these only since 1990.
These other books about masturbation have been either scholarly, or geared to sexual enhancement (how-tos or photos), or fiction or memoir, or joke books. Rowan's Joy is different in encouraging readers to enjoy masturbation by grounding permission in scholarly sources made accessible--essentially, blending the popular and the scientific. Rowan writes as a psychiatrist and sex therapist: "This book...