You may be surprised to find out that May is National Masturbation Month!

The concept was started in May 1995 by Good Vibrations, the first sex-positive and women-friendly sex-toy shop in California. The focus was to raise awareness and promote masturbation as a healthy, safe and natural way to express one's sexuality, thereby removing the shame and stigma. The move was in response to the president at the time, Bill Clinton, firing the then surgeon-general Jocelyn Elders following a speech she gave at the 1994 United Nations World AIDS Day.

There's nothing wrong with lying back and feeling the good vibrations. Credit:Getty

Elders was asked by an audience member about masturbation as a way of discouraging risky sexual activity among young people. She responded "I think it is something that is part of human sexuality and a part of something that perhaps should be taught". As a result she was forced to resign from government. The people at Good Vibrations were astounded - it was one of the most sensible things they ever heard a government official say and she lost her job and also her reputation!

Since then, the Good Vibrations group has used the event as a public health education device and strategy for safer sex and alternative safe methods of sexual expression. In 1999 the Masturbate-a-thon was launched, an event where participants masturbated to raise money for charity and to increase public awareness and dispel the shame and taboos that still existed about self-pleasuring. It spread to other cities and has become a worldwide event now.