Anti-Masturbation ‘No Nut November’ Fails, ‘Mashable’ Study Shows

The annual “No Nut November” online event which is supposedly designed to encourage people to stop masturbating, at least for the month of November, appears to have been a massive failure, according to data research by the site Mashable published on November 30—the intended final day of the self-pleasuring boycott. The “No Nut” meme, along with the similar NoFap online movement (which advocates swearing off masturbation on a permanent basis) are as much anti-porn as they are anti-masturbation, and they both are popular with far-right wing groups online. During last year’s “No Nut November,”  right-wing anti-masturbation adherents not only allegedly swore off viewing porn, they actively harassed porn performers online. But are their entreaties for men—and women—to quit masturbating and watching porn having any effect? Not according to the Mashable findings.  Consulting with the leading porn “tube” sites PornHub and xHamster, the Mashable reporters found that traffic during November either showed “no tangible effect,” or in xHamster’s case, actually jumped by 10 percent. "Trying to energize a whole population to not masturbate only results in them thinking about masturbating more," xHamster Vice President Alex Hawkins told the site, by way of explaining the leap in traffic during a month when porn fans were supposed to be abstaining from their pastime. Mashable also checked Google trending data to learn whether searches for the word “porn” showed any significant dips or rises in November. But for three straight years, Mashable found, “porn” as a Google search term held mostly steady during “No Nut November.” Mashable cautions, however, that their study is not definitive.  “Just because people are watching porn, doesn't necessarily mean they're masturbating, or orgasming for that matter,” the site wrote. “And it's entirely possible to nut without the aid of porn.” Photo via Wikimedia Commons Public Domain