timelets

As sexually explicit novels and newly available pornographic moving images flourished during the Victorian Era, so did claims that masturbating drove people ill, insane, or blind.
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The wealthy class believed that the men among them were rational enough to handle this sort of material, but the rich worried that the lower classes would stop working productively if they were distracted by adult- themed material.

In 1857, England passed a law forbidding the sale and distribution of obscene materials. By the end of the century, boys or girls caught masturbating were often forced into chastity devices that prevented them from touching their own genitals or “cures” that involved electrical shock.

--- Shira Tarrant. The Pornography Industry. 2016.