Fuck Yeah, Gender Studies!

neptunesnet:

Ok, normally I would readily co-sign on the “what a horrible system!” side of the argument, but I don’t think I can this time.

My mother used to be a corrections officer and I’ve heard countless stories from her about incarcerated men masturbating and then throwing their semen (or at least attempting to throw their semen) at the officers, in particular the female officers, when they would enter the cells for mandatory inspections, mealtime, or any other time they needed to; sometimes, these men would just throw it through the bars if they couldn’t incite any officers to come into their cells. I don’t know if these anti-masturbation prison policies originated specifically to protect female officers from this kind of treatment, but they have.

fuckyeahgenderstudies:

While you might think of masturbation as a sort of last refuge for the incarcerated—a truly inalienable freedom, given the happy proximity of the sex organs—that is not the case. In fact, a number of state prisons regard jerking off as a rule infraction. American University law professor Brenda Smith, who conducted a 50-state survey of prison masturbation policies in 2006, says restrictions are “well-entrenched” in the correctional environment. In North Carolina, for example, it is a violation to “touch the sexual or other intimate parts of oneself or another person for the purpose of sexual gratification.” Violations can lead to disciplinary segregation or the loss of “good time” credits. Tennessee forbids “[a]ny behavior intended for the sexual gratification of the subject.” Ohio prohibits “[s]eductive or obscene acts, including indecent exposure or masturbation.” Kentucky regards inmate masturbation as “[i]nappropriate sexual behavior.” In California, where some 170,000 men and women live behind bars, masturbation is permissible provided it is stopped immediately if noticed by staff, blue balls be damned. If the masturbator perseveres, even if concealed by bed sheets, he can be cited for “Intentionally Sustained Masturbation without Exposure.” These policies are part of a long correctional tradition to forbid all forms of sexual activity.

Jesus christ that’s so fucked up.

I wonder how the rules are in the UK.

Are you joking?

Some prison officers get the Miggs treatment from some prisoners and you think that justifies taking away all prisoners’ rights to their own bodies?!

It’s surely better, if that’s what one’s concerned about, to sanction those who do do a Miggs than to put in place a blanket rule about touching your own fucking body. Unless—as i suspect—that’s not really the aim of the rules and actually those kinds of rules exist to exert sadistic levels of control over people who have few rights to begin with.

It’s not even theoretically a good way to prevent prisoners having access to ejaculate to lob at people: even if, against all probability, all the inmates did stop masturbating just because they’re told they must—they’d end up having wet dreams and could collect the stuff that way. If a prisoner is intent on throwing jizz on someone, they’re going to do it whether or not they’re “allowed” to touch themselves.