Originating in the early 2010s, No Nut November was a concept that originated with well-meaning people who wanted to fight the negative effects of unethical Porn.

Those who observe this initiative abstain from masturbation for a month as a form of solidarity and protest.

At Q Care Plus, we specialize in Sexual Health and pride ourselves in helping people in their journey towards sexual empowerment.

Masturbation is one way for people to own their sexuality, learn more about their bodies, and continue exploring their sensuality, so we would like to propose an alternative to No Nut November.

Discouraging masturbation feeds into stigma

Masturbation is still a heavily debated sexual health practice, with many people discouraging this important aspect of sexual health.

However, 60%-80% of women and 95% of men self-report masturbation as a sexual health practice they use in their day to day lives.

Abstinence only sexual education programs in schools sometimes instill fear in any type of sexual encounter. Masturbation is rarely, if ever, discussed in a classroom, which makes many students feel like it’s wrong.

Though not always, religion can sometimes be used as a tool to stigmatize masturbation.

Encouraging people to stop masturbating, even for a short period of time, can contribute to this stigma, whether that’s the intention or not.

Positive effects of masturbation

Masturbation has many positive effects on the body, such as:

• Help prevent cervical infections and urinary tract infections for people with uteruses
• Help prevent prostate cancer
• Lower the risk of Type II Diabetes
• Serve as a form of outercourse or safer sex to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy
• Reduces the risk of depression and produces healthy endorphins
• Improves immune functioning by increasing cortisol levels, which can regulate immune functioning in small doses
• Helps people orgasm, which has an array of benefits on its own *

Alternative ways to promote ethical porn

Ethical porn is pornography that is made consensually, treats performers with respect, and pays performers and filmmakers fairly for their work.

Does abstaining from masturbation really help promote ethical porn, though? If people masturbate consistently while watching porn, perhaps an argument could be made that stopping that practice discourages unethical porn. But, when November is over, if people go back to watching unethical porn, no true impact was made.

Instead, why not find alternative ways to promote ethical porn while masturbating?

Here are some ways to do that:

• Pay for your porn. Typically, ethical porn sites have a paywall which helps ensure their actors and filmmakers are being paid fairly for their work. They also typically have a more rigorous process of making sure actors are consenting to the work.
• Try consuming Only Fans content. People on Only Fans are consenting to their work and charging what they think is fair for the work they are doing.
• Try audio porn. This growing industry is an opportunity to diversify the type of porn you’re consuming and the companies producing audio porn are doing so with consent from voice actors.

Mo’ Nut November

Masturbation is normal and healthy and you can consume porn ethically so you’re not perpetuating any harm.

We declare it’s actually Mo’ Nut November, so go enjoy all the benefits masturbation has to offer this month and all year long!

More Information

For more sexual health information or tips, visit QCarePlus.com to learn more! Our team of dedicated providers cares about your sexual health and wants to help you take your sexual health into your own hands through HIV and STI testing and PrEP!

*List adapted from PsyPost.

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