Attrition, tribadism & the like

... a large proportion of girls and women masturbate. So where are they all? The trope of the masturbator is present in popular and classic literature, film and music, but women seem to take a more muted approach when it comes to practising self-love.

More often than not, when women in popular culture masturbate, it is often portrayed as a symptom of their deviance. Elizabeth Banks' masturbating character in the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin is also a mildly unhinged lust-addled sex addict; Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) from Sex and the City had well documented issues with sex and men; Reese Witherspoon's character in the movie Pleasantville is the "bad girl" from the 90s corrupting her sexually innocent 60s mother, played by Joan Allen (her subsequent orgasm causes a nearby tree to catch fire); and poor Sally Draper (Kiernan Shipka) in Mad Men earns a slap from her mother before being shipped off to the psychiatrist after being caught with her hands down her pants.

She believes that beyond the culture that still views women as sexually timid, girls don't have the same opportunities as boys when it comes to comparing "technique". "For girls, things are a bit more hidden, anatomy-wise and the images we see in porn films, where they're all so neat, carries its own insecurity. A lot of women still don't even know what they look like down there."

But things are changing, Hoyle believes. "We've had women bringing in their mothers and in some cases grandmothers – a significant amount of women who've never had an orgasm. You're revealing something very intimate about yourself and that's never going to change and nor should it. But people are at least talking about it."