10th Annual Masturbate-A-Thon
This was the 11th year of San Francisco's annual Masturbate-a-thon, a fundraiser for the nonprofit Center for Sex & Culture on Mission Street. First held in 2000, the event was created to normalize self-pleasure by bringing it out in the open. Dr. Carol Queen, one of the founders, said the goal is to make a charity masturbate-a-thon as mainstream as a walk-a-thon.That day still isn't here. But about 250 people attended the event this year at 1519 Mission Street, including both masturbators and voeyurs, some of whom had come from as far as Chicago to observe the action. Another 250 people watched the live web stream of the event over the Internet.
This year's Masturbate-a-thon was more penis-heavy than last year, so by mid-afternoon, Lady Grace, the volunteer stage manager, took off her stockings and did some pole dancing and masturbating to up the female energy. (Lady Grace is a full-time dominatrix in San Rafael.) Some of the masturbators also adjourned to the live charity porn-shoot that was going on in an adjoining room, where alt-porn actress Jolene had sex on film with her real-life boyfriend, James. It was his first time being filmed, he said. "I was really nervous." While none of the participants came close to the nonstop 9 hour 58 minute masturbation record set last year by Masanobu Sato of Japan, the event gratified the exhibitionists, who wanked away, happy as clams, in front of their audience. Other participants said this year's masturbate-a-thon was too heavy on voyeurs and live-streaming video, and that they missed the purity of the earlier years of the event, where the main focus of the event was simply the shared sexual energy of people masturbating in a room together.