On the Road...Fellatio Included

Here's the bread-and-butter scenario: you're driving through wide open country with Hunky Companion who happens to be operating the machinery. He twists his fingers over the radio volume, presses his foot against the gas pedal. Tumbleweeds--cacti--what have you--speed past your window. You haven't seen a speed limit sign, a bystanding rabbit, or a refrigerated truck in what seems like hours. Hunky Companion rubs his thumb over the edge of the clutch and continues moving until he grasps your thigh. The sun begins to go down and you think, why not?

Hot enough of a subject to land 16 posts on texts from last night and tingle the editing hands of Esquire and Jezebel, what many a youth refer to as "road head" is a pervasive yet taboo(-ed) phenomenon of sexually active persons since the dawn of Ford. Nearly as golden as a threesome but as dangerous as texting while driving, road head can be perplexing, exciting, adventurous, and even empowering. On the one hand, going down on a man while he drives puts him in complete control. Hunky Companion is the manliest man possible--he's driving a car, he's got a hot woman in passenger seat, and he's--for lack of a better phrase--gettin' his dick sucked...

On the other hand, both you and Hunky Companion lose control by performing your intimate act in a public setting.

Both the gain of control and loss of control that come with the road head experience cause it to be thrilling, perhaps scary for some. If you do choose to engage in road head with someone, follow these three simple rules:
1) Don't attempt while intoxicated; bumps, potholes and other road impediments could cause injury if not anticipated.
2) Be discreet. Although there are no actual laws against receiving/giving head while operating a motor vehicle, there are laws against reckless endangerment, public acts of indecency, and in many states, oral sex itself!
3) Watch your elbows...wrists...jaw..etcetera. One foul move while concentrating on the act at hand could land your car in reverse or with the emergency break up. Getting road head may seem godly, but explaining a totaled car post-road-head is just humiliating.

Thank you, come again!

Masturbation and Self-esteem

Many of you (or few? My marketing abilities fell by the wayside on this one) may remember a survey I designed via Survey Monkey back in November. I had been brainstorming about how self-esteem affects masturbation: frequency, intensity, gain, and felt a mini-study might provide some insight. Noticing I felt turned on more frequently and more mentally engaged in personal sexual conduct when happy with my appearance and social life, I pondered if these psychological manifestations might be positively correlated.

So... I designed a pretty shitty survey. I have yet to take experimental psychology and asked what I thought *might* probe at my hypothesis. For example, my first questioned asked, "Do you genuinely like yourself?" Vague but somewhat revealing. 71% of my 50-person (facebook-induced!) data pool said "Yes, my personality and my looks." An interesting 23% said "Yes, my personality but I don't find myself attractive." We could be getting somewhere...

After having respondents rank on a scale of 1-10 their self-esteem (common answer: a high-medium 7), masturbation frequency questions revealed that 30% masturbate quite often (once per day) and another 30% masturbate a few times per week. Again, standard figures from a pool of people approximately 70% white, 98% ages 20-25.

Here I probe, "Do you ever think about yourself while masturbating?" Though this question may have nothing to do with my hypothesis (you can have high-self esteem without being incredibly narcissistic!) 41% of respondents admitted that they sometimes do. Respondents enjoyed thinking about their accomplishments, abilities, intellect, confidence, positive attitude, and success with the opposite sex.

However, the majority of frequent masturbating twenty-somethings never have thought about themselves while masturbating (54.2%.) This diversity of opinion points to a major flaw in my mini-study--lack of information. Further questions could have accessed why said respondents decidedly do not think of themselves while self-pleasuring. Is sexuality something they view more externally from themselves? Do accomplishments and confidence contribute at all to their understanding of sexuality and dominance?

One study published in the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology measuring self-efficacy as well as self-esteem in sexually active 18-year-olds (1991) concluded, "There is need for adolescents to achieve a sense of mastery and self-worth in the sexual domain." Though this outcome supports my hypothesis, it still skims the periphery of the individual's self-perception and how that is linked to perception of pleasure in a fully safe place (alone). Perhaps I'll get back to you after I read the classic Masturbation, Self Esteem and Other Variables* (1973)...Google scholar, you allude me!