Here Are Some Spicy Stats on Aussie Masturbation Habits

Wanking. Jerking off. Mazzing. Flicking the bean. However you want to refer to it, masturbation is something a lot of people think about (and enjoy). And even moreso right now because on July 13 in Australia, it’s Equal Masturbation Day – a date that highlights the pleasure gap between men and women when it comes to masturbating.

N.B. Apologies for the binary language, this survey only appears to have looked at folks who identified as men and women here. 

At present, according to a Womanizer survey that considered the habits of 1,494 Aussies, there is a gap of 53 per cent between men and women in 2023, up from 43 per cent in 2022. When looking at the reason behind this, Womanizer and its sex and relationship expert, Christine Rafe, both point to stigma and shame as a barrier to pleasure for many women still.

Interestingly, the survey showed that in a number of countries around the world, this masturbation gap between men and women has increased. Womanizer surveyed 14,816 participants from 11 countries in total, and the trends were consistent across the board.

How often do we masturbate?

One thing that really captured our attention in this report is the stats on how often Aussies like to engage in a little solo play. And according to Womanizer’s survey, folks are masturbating more in 2023.

On average, the survey showed that women masturbated 85 times (they counted?!) in the past year, which was up from 79 in the 2022 report. Men took some time out to masturbate 181 times in the past year (again, they apparently took the time to count), which was up from 139 times in 2022.

Seeing as the regularity of these masturbation habits has increased in the last year, according to Womanizer data at least, it makes sense that we look at libido. The survey asked participants to rate their libido a number out of 10, and, on average, women in 2023 gave their sex drives 5.73/10 while men ranked theirs 6.8/10.

What this highlights is that although the degree to which men and women masturbate is considerably different, their libidos are really quite comparable. So, why the masturbation gap?

Rafe explained that “Although pleasure and masturbation for women is being more publicly spoken about and promoted as part of healthy human functioning, we can’t deny the impact of a lifetime of social and cultural conditioning that stigmatises and shames women for having a sexual desire and masturbating”.

“In practice, I continue to see negative beliefs about masturbation and pleasure for women as the biggest influencer in their sexual desire and willingness/interest in masturbation and sex with other(s). There is still a lot more that needs to be done to educate women on pleasure anatomy, promote desire as healthy, and encourage self-exploration through masturbation as part of self-awareness,” she said in a statement.

Rafe also suggested that gender roles, and a lack of available time, could play a part in how often women masturbate.

“In heterosexual relationships, women continue to take on the majority of household responsibilities and act as the primary caregivers for children, despite most also working in paid employment. This results in a disparity of available time to prioritise pleasure and self-care (which includes masturbation) for many women,” she continued.

If you’d like to boost your self-pleasure sessions, allow us to help with some sexpert-supplied tips (offered for Equal Masturbation Day a few years back) here. You can also check out the answers to some common questions here. And a few more tips on how to masturbate better here.