NoFap

Page semi-protected
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

NoFap
Type of site
Private
Available inEnglish
URL
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedJune 20, 2011; 12 years ago (2011-06-20) (subreddit)
Current statusActive

NoFap is a website and community forum that serves as a

addiction to pornography,[a][6][7] or other compulsive sexual behaviours.[8][9] Other reasons for abstinence include religious and moral reasons, self-improvement, and physical beliefs that are not supported by medicine.[10][11][12]

The group's views and efforts to combat

medical professionals.[11][13][14] The purported science behind the group's activities is said to come from anti-porn activist Gary Wilson,[15][16] "an Oregon man with no scientific training or background, who has made a career peddling pseudoscience."[17]

As of January 6, 2024,[update] the NoFap online community had more than 350,000 registered members.[18]

Founding

NoFap was founded in June 2011 by Pittsburgh web developer Alexander Rhodes after reading a thread on Reddit about a 2003 study,[5][19] (which was retracted in 2021 due to overlap with another published article in Chinese),[20] which claimed that men who refrain from masturbation for seven days experience a 145.7% spike in testosterone levels on the seventh day. This hit the front page of a popular forum on Reddit.[5] The website states that some NoFap participants aim to "improve their interpersonal relationships", do a "challenge of willpower – to seize control of your sexuality and turn it into superpowers", but always with the goal of being able to "abstain from PMO (porn/masturbation/orgasm)."[5] The expression fap is an onomatopoeic Internet slang term for male masturbation that first appeared in the 1999 web comic Sexy Losers to indicate the sound of a male character masturbating.[5]

While the website is most commonly associated with men seeking to quit porn and reduce masturbation, there are a minority of females who are users of the website as well, who are nicknamed "Femstronauts"; Alexander Rhodes has estimated that five percent of participants are women.

subreddit forum community on Reddit. The endeavour is sometimes referred to as "fapstinence".[22][23]

NoFap.com

Users on NoFap's subreddit more than tripled in number in two years, leading Rhodes to build an off-Reddit forum at NoFap.com.[24] NoFap.com is the sister website of the Reddit-hosted NoFap community.[25]

Membership

Demographics

A 2014 internet survey found that 99% of NoFap followers are male,

interpersonal relationships.[5]

Beliefs

The advocacy of NoFap can be summarized as "90 days of abstinence from porn, masturbation, and orgasms."[11] A study of anti-porn attitudes among Polish Internet users found that "Despite the suggestive name, the official goal of the NoFap movement is not to encourage complete abstinence from masturbation, but to support internet users in the process of refraining from accessing pornographic materials and achieving various wellbeing goals related to sexual health",[34] and this understanding of NoFap's mission is also acknowledged by other critical sources.[11] After abstaining from porn and masturbation for a period of time, some of NoFap's users claim to experience various improvements in physical and mental health.[22] Some NoFap users say their brains were warped by porn, at the expense of real relationships.[32]

NoFap hosts a wide variety of different opinions on sexual health, and supports users with various goals as long as they are trying to improve their sexual health.[35]

Some of the group's beliefs cite the work of Gary Wilson, an anti-pornography activist who has no medical or scientific training. Wilson's work is

pseudoscientific.[17]

Political and religious motivation

According to various sources, the overwhelming majority of all websites and YouTube channels devoted to anti-masturbation and anti-porn addiction propaganda, channels, and websites supporting NoFap are owned by

biblical inerrantists, and also are entirely political in nature.[4][36] The NoFap community is sometimes viewed to be a part of the manosphere – online groups credited with propagating misogyny.[37][38]

Psychologists, MDs, and social scientists noticed that the traditional Christian obsession with combating sexual activities, including masturbation,[39][40][41][42][43] is unhealthy and unwholesome. This also applies to secular advocacy of anti-pornography and anti-masturbation,[44][45] including 16 US states' legislatures which have declared that pornography is a "public health crisis".[44][46]

The American Psychiatric Association had by then already dismissed such moral panic ("political stunt")[44] in DSM-5 (published in 2013),[6] and DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022, does not recognize a diagnosis of sexual addiction (which would include internet pornography viewing).[47][48][49][50] Neither ICD-10, nor ICD-11 recognize sex addiction or porn addiction as a valid diagnosis.[47][50]

Reception

Further information: Health effects of masturbation and Effects of pornography

Therapist Paula Hall for

W.K. Kellogg, who developed corn flakes as part of his anti-masturbation efforts.[12]

Research concerning NoFap forums and followers

NoFap appears to oppose science. Their website includes legal warnings that scientists are prohibited from conducting research on them, and they have threatened to sue scientists who do.[34]

A 2021 qualitative study found that NoFap's approach to pornography appears to be harmful. Specifically, the scientists studied "members of the online NoFap/PornFree self-help communities" and concluded "commitment to abstinence, framed by the notions of recovery and relapse, was found to be a major factor for maintaining distress."[53] A 2021 research article concluded with a warning, saying that "the mythical articulations that emerge from contestations over concepts like NoFap have the potential to galvanize young men into horrific, real-world violence."[4]

A 2020 study found that while NoFap claimed to be science-based, the more that NoFap followers believed that they should abstain from masturbation, the more they also reported "lower trust in science".[11] Social psychologists Taylor and Jackson, who analyzed the content of NoFap forums, concluded in their study that some NoFap participants not only rejected pornography, but also radical feminist critiques of pornography. They also stated that members of NoFap frequently utilized and redeployed familiar hegemonic masculine views (e.g. men as dominant seekers of pleasure and women as the 'natural' suppliers of this pleasure), in turn reproducing societal expectations of gendered sexual dominance and submission.[32] Another 2020 study stated that the forum represents itself as a source of medical information, which seems to discourage members from seeking actual medical advice and instead self-diagnosing.[54]

A 2020 study analysing discourse on pornography, published in the journal Social Forces, stated regarding NoFap: "These claims do not necessarily come from scientific experts. Instead, we find that newspaper articles draw from a variety of professionals who are not scientists" and that "Rhodes is quoted repeatedly reflecting that he was 'addicted to internet porn' and shares the personal consequences." They conclude "journalists and political actors are overextending scientific findings to advance their media markets and political agendas" in support of gender and sexual norms.[55]

A 2020 paper stated that NoFap appears to have been specifically targeted by far-right groups, writing, "the struggle for the 'remasculinization' of white men by overcoming porn (addiction) had to be an antisemitic one: a fight against 'Jewish pornography' and 'Jewish filth,' in which other current anti-porn actors such as NoFap should join".[56] Cultural studies scholar Simon Strick stated regarding NoFap that a "racist culture war...was already implied in the call to join the 'movement' by becoming abstinent". The chapter continues, "NoFap present themselves as a search for non-toxic and progressive gender roles, even as they partake in gendered and racialized narratives that are no less violent".[57] A paper in 2021 which analysed a large corpus of Tweets about NoFap found subject positions linked to myths including anti-feminist and anti-Semitic themes.[58]

NoFap supporters are "known for vitriolically attacking female scholars not sharing their view".[59] Sociologist Kelsy Burke stated that "Rhodes and a small staff manage NoFap.com and its brand full time".[60] She states, "There is no scientific evidence that supports the idea of these superpowers. Yet hundreds of thousands of NoFap users insist they experience them." She critiques similar gender problems in groups including NoFap, stating, "The scientific and spiritual gets muddled together as participants reinforce damaging gender stereotypes—those of hypersexual, biologically ravenous men who are simply "wired differently" than women. Women whose sexuality exists only in relation to male desire...porn addiction recovery reproduces the worst lessons of porn itself."[60] NoFap forums are described by a 2020 paper as a place where "men's sexual entitlement to women was left unquestioned".[61]

Claims of the semen retention community as well as those of the NoFap community are among the least accurate in respect to men's health.[62]

The medical orthodoxy attributes the sufferance of NoFap users to various mental disorders, rather than caused by PMO (porn, masturbation, orgasm).[63][50] Prause and Binnie note that the NoFap forums are overloaded with conspiracy theories seeking to explain this away.[50]

Journalistic descriptions of NoFap

Several journalists have criticized NoFap.[64][65][66][67] Some of them report that the forums were filled with misogyny, stating that "there is a darker side to NoFap. Among the reams of Reddit discussions and YouTube videos, a fundamentally misogynistic rhetoric regularly emerges",[66] and that "the NoFap community has become linked to wider sexism and misogyny, reducing women to sexual objects to be attained or abstained from and shaming sexually active women."[67] NoFap followers have posted videos on YouTube that regularly feature anti-homosexual and anti-woman values, such as 'stop being a little bitch' demands.[68] A New York Times story by Rob Kuznia expressed concern about white supremacists promoting the belief that pornography is a conspiracy of Judaism.[69] Scientist Shane Kraus, PhD, speaking to CNET describes there is "no scholarship" supporting the Reboot claims of NoFap.[70]

Der Spiegel reported that some NoFap adherents also belong to groups with members who have been connected to hate crimes and terrorist murders, arguing that there is a general potential for radicalization within the manosphere.[71]

NPR published an article that the NoFap forum is rife with racist, misogynistic and violent posts.[16]

Litigation

NoFap has been involved in legal actions filed or threatened by its founder, Alexander Rhodes. After threatening two scientists with litigation, the scientists published a letter defending the need to be allowed to criticize NoFap: "As [NoFap] operate in the public sphere, however, we deem it not only as legitimate but necessary to acknowledge and cite them as one prominent voice in the debate around masturbation abstinence—everything else would be an unjustifiable muting of their stand."

antisemitic groups.[73]

Similar sites

In 2017, an Independent article called "Inside the Community of Men Who Have Given Up Porn" noted that an alternative subreddit, /r/pornfree, is different from 'NoFap' as members abstain from pornography but not necessarily masturbation.[74] Another Independent article, from 2018, described /r/pornfree as less 'extreme' compared to /r/nofap.[75]

A study of NoFap reddit users found that NoFap members were most likely to also be members of TheRedPill, seduction, and similar men's rights and pick up artist Reddit groups.[76] Another study reported a similar pattern that NoFap Reddit members also were likely to be supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump.[77]

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Though the term 'addiction' is frequently used, a pornography addiction is not an addiction in the true sense of a brain disorder, and is instead more congruent with a behavioral addiction. Addiction to pornography is not recognised as a legitimate medical diagnosis.

References

  1. ^ Cowell, Tom (September 17, 2013). "No fapping, please, it's making us ill". The Telegraph. London, England: Telegraph Media Group. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2015. So why are men doing it, and what happens when they do? 'Why' can be answered two ways: some see a medical problem in chronic masturbation, others a spiritual one.
  2. ^ McMahon, Tamsin (January 20, 2014). "Will quitting porn improve your life?: A growing 'NoFap' movement of young men are saying no to porn and masturbation". Maclean's. Toronto, Canada: Rogers Media. Archived from the original on May 2, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2015. Despite the evangelical tone, NoFap is fundamentally different from traditional campaigns that view masturbation as an assault on religious values. Instead, it is developing as a secular movement popular among young men, many of whom identify as liberal and atheist. The majority of NoFap members are men in their teens and early 20s, though there are women, too, says Alexander Rhodes, the 23-year-old web developer from Pittsburgh who founded the movement two years ago. He estimates about 60 per cent are atheists; the site is also home to a fair number of Christians and some Muslims, all in broad agreement that porn is harmful.
  3. PMID 32356083
    . We recently published a paper titled 'Abstinence from Masturbation and Hypersexuality' (Zimmer & Imhoff, 2020) in which we tried to explore correlates of men's motivation to stay abstinent from masturbation. In motivating the study, we pointed to existing discourses around the topic and cited different protagonists within this debate (e.g., the Web sites 'nofap.org' and 'rebootnation.org').
  4. ^
    S2CID 236603234
    .
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Love, Dylan (November 28, 2013). "Inside NoFap, The Reddit Community For People Who Want To Be 'Masters Of Their Domain'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 9, 2019. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
  6. ^
    OCLC 612512821. Archived from the original
    on April 5, 2014.
  7. ISBN 978-1-78181-368-3
    . Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  8. ^ "NoFap". Reddit. "About community" section. Retrieved May 16, 2021. A porn addiction and compulsive sexual behavior recovery peer support forum.
  9. ^ "NoFap Website". NoFap. Second line (after slogan). Retrieved May 16, 2021. NoFap™ is a secular community-centered sexual health platform designed to help you overcome porn addiction, porn overuse, and compulsive sexual behavior. We're here to help you quit or reduce porn use, improve your relationships, and reach your sexual health goals.
  10. ^ "What to know about the possible benefits of NoFap". Medical News Today. September 29, 2020.
  11. ^
    PMID 32130561. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on May 20, 2020. As visible from zero-order correlations and multiple linear regression, motivation for abstinence was mostly associated with attitudinal correlates, specifically the perception of masturbation as unhealthy. While there were associations with hypersexuality, no significant correlation with behavioral markers such as maximum number of orgasms was found. Higher abstinence motivation was related to a higher perceived impact of masturbation, conservatism, and religiosity and to lower trust in science. We argue that research on abstinence from masturbation can enrich the understanding of whether and how average frequencies of healthy behavior are pathologized.
  12. ^ a b c d e Ley, David. "The NoFap Phenomenon". Psychology Today. Archived from the original on March 4, 2015. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  13. safer sex
    ,' masturbation remains the safest sex of all.
  14. ^ a b Galager, Sophie (August 19, 2019). "The Rise Of NoFap: Why Young Men Are Quitting Masturbation The NoFap community has grown alongside the rise in internet porn – but is it helping anyone?". HuffPost UK. Archived from the original on November 2, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  15. S2CID 225765798
    . The most influential account of the causal relationship between PMO and the emergence of masturbatory subjectivity, which I mainly refer to in the following, is given by Gary Wilson ... Nevertheless, Wilson's talk is of vital importance to NoFap.
  16. ^ a b Hagen, Lisa (February 3, 2024). "Masturbation abstinence is popular online. Doctors and therapists are worried : Consider This from NPR". NPR. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
  17. ^
    S2CID 238069109
    .
  18. ^ "NoFap®". NoFap®. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  19. ^ "TIL when men don't masturbate for 7 days their testosterone levels increase by 145.7%. • r/todayilearned". Reddit. June 21, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
  20. S2CID 245084121
    .
  21. ^ "Sticky: A (Self) Love Story: Trailer 1". Archived from the original on February 3, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  22. ^ a b Gander, Kashmira (October 5, 2016). "A man who gave up masturbation for 700 days says it gave him superpowers". The Independent. Archived from the original on July 9, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  23. ^ Treacy, Christopher John (May 24, 2017). "The Grumpy Ghey: The Fap Flap". The Public. Archived from the original on July 9, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  24. ^ Eck, Ian. "The Men Who Would Not Wank". San Francisco Magazine. Archived from the original on March 2, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  25. ^ Israelsen-Hartley, Sara. "Adolescent addiction: When pornography strikes early". Deseret News. Salt Lake City, UT. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  26. ^ "The r/NoFap Survey Results and Breakdown!". March 7, 2014.
  27. ^ a b Blair, Leonardo (December 4, 2013). "Christians Find Help for Porn, Masturbation Addiction Through 'NoFap' Community Started on Reddit by 24-Y-O Web Developer". The Christian Post. Archived from the original on September 30, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  28. ^ McMurry, Evan (March 13, 2014). "9 hilarious ways the religious right tried to eradicate masturbation". Salon.com. Archived from the original on March 25, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  29. ^ a b Hall, Lex (December 26, 2016). "Internet porn abounds but 'no fappers' rise to the occasion". The Australian. Archived from the original on November 2, 2020. Retrieved April 4, 2020.[dead link]
  30. ^ McMahon, Tamsin (January 20, 2014). "Will quitting porn improve your life?". Maclean's. Archived from the original on July 9, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  31. ^ Murphy, Jack (January 1, 2019). "NoFap: Why A Growing Number Of Males Are Refusing To Masturbate". Neon Nettle. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  32. ^
    S2CID 149306706
    .
  33. ^ Medrano, Kastalia (November 13, 2017). "Can not masturbating for a month give you 'superpowers?' The men doing No Nut November sure hope so". Newsweek. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
  34. ^ a b Gałuszka, D (2020). "Anti-porn attitudes among Polish Internet users. An initial research". Psychologia Wychowawcza.
  35. ^ Subedar, Anisa (June 24, 2017). "The online groups of men who avoid masturbation". BBC News. BBC. Archived from the original on September 24, 2017. Retrieved September 23, 2017. NoFap' is an organisation that supports its users regardless of what their goals might be as long as they're trying to improve their sexual health and live their sexual habits in a way that they want to," he says, pointing out that abstinence is not the ultimate aim of all participants. "We don't have a unified goal. Some people want to masturbate some people don't want to masturbate – it hosts a wide variety of people with different viewpoints.
  36. ^ Ley, David J. (October 27, 2018). "Is One Sexual Behavior Triggering Certain Groups?". Psychology Today. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  37. S2CID 247464779
    .
  38. ^ Oliveri, Alice (July 27, 2018). "Il marketing del rimorchio". The Vision (in Italian). Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  39. S2CID 146505567
    .
  40. S2CID 170127256
    .
  41. ISBN 978-1-4411-2160-8
    .
  42. LCCN 2002068889
    .
  43. LCCN 2002023859
    .
  44. ^
    S2CID 210121251
    .
  45. LCCN 2021013439
    .
  46. ^ Quinn, Mattie (July 17, 2019). "Is Porn a Public Health Crisis? 16 States Say Yes". Governing. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  47. ^
    ISBN 978-1-000-84578-5
    . Retrieved March 5, 2023. 'Sex addiction' is also referred to as a diagnosis or presenting problem. Sex addiction is not a diagnosis in the DSM-5-TR and identified as Compulsive Sexual Behavior in the ICD-11 rather than an issue of addiction.
  48. ISBN 978-0-89042-576-3
    . Excessive use of the Internet not involving playing of online games (e.g., excessive use of social media, such as Facebook; viewing pornography online) is not considered analogous to Internet gaming disorder, and future research on other excessive uses of the Internet would need to follow similar guidelines as suggested herein. Excessive gambling online may qualify for a separate diagnosis of gambling disorder.
  49. ISBN 978-0-89042-576-3
    . In addition to the substance-related disorders, this chapter also includes gambling disorder, reflecting evidence that gambling behaviors activate reward systems similar to those activated by drugs of abuse and that produce some behavioral symptoms that appear comparable to those produced by the substance use disorders. Other excessive behavioral patterns, such as Internet gaming (see 'Conditions for Further Study'), have also been described, but the research on these and other behavioral syndromes is less clear. Thus, groups of repetitive behaviors, sometimes termed behavioral addictions (with subcategories such as 'sex addiction,' 'exercise addiction,' and 'shopping addiction'), are not included because there is insufficient peer-reviewed evidence to establish the diagnostic criteria and course descriptions needed to identify these behaviors as mental disorders.
  50. ^
    S2CID 257172274
    .
  51. ^ Weiss, Robert (May 19, 2013). "Is 'No Fap' Movement Start of Tech Backlash?". HuffPost. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  52. ^ Harrison, Alexandra (2014). "Nudge, Don't Thrust: The Application of Behavioral Law and Economics to America's Porn Addiction". Texas Review of Law and Politics. 19: 337. Archived from the original on July 13, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
  53. PMID 34143364
    .
  54. ^ von Sydow, V (2020). "NoFap. Sexuellt frustrerade mannens räddning?: En kritisk studie om maskulinitet och mäns frivilliga avståndstagande från pornografi och masturbation i forumet Nofap. com". Center for Gender Studies. Uppsala university.
  55. ISSN 0037-7732
    .
  56. S2CID 216218638
    .
  57. OCLC 1112228506
    .
  58. ISSN 1097-184X
    .
  59. ISBN 978-0-429-53424-9. Archived
    from the original on November 2, 2020. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  60. ^ a b Burke, Kelsey (May 18, 2020). "Sinning Like a Man Evangelical porn addiction groups show the truth about men who are obsessed with quitting masturbation". Slate. Archived from the original on May 19, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  61. S2CID 225524217
    .
  62. S2CID 253707767
    .
  63. ^ Kalyani, Urja (March 3, 2023). "NoFap Forums: Study Finds Participants Facing 'Suicidal' Tendencies, Other Mental Health Problems". Medical Daily. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
  64. ^ Singal, Jesse (August 4, 2014). "Why We're Scared of Masturbation". NY Mag. Archived from the original on June 29, 2015. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  65. ^ Klee, Miles (October 24, 2019). "KANYE WEST IS A NOFAP HERO". Mel Magazine. Archived from the original on April 10, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  66. ^
    The Guardian. Archived
    from the original on September 9, 2019. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  67. ^ a b Manavis, Sarah (November 13, 2018). "No Nut November: the insidious internet challenge encouraging men not to masturbate". The New Statesman. Archived from the original on November 13, 2018. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  68. S2CID 225765798
    .
  69. ^ Kuznia, Rob (June 7, 2019). "Among Some Hate Groups, Porn Is Viewed as a Conspiracy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  70. ^ Van Boom, Daniel (December 1, 2020). "Porn addiction is ruining lives, but scientists aren't convinced it's real". CNET. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  71. ^ Rosenbach, Marcel; Müller, Ann-Katrin; Höfner, Roman; Baumgärtner, Maik; Spiegel, Der (March 10, 2021). "Hatred Against Women: The Dark World of Extremist Misogyny". DER SPIEGEL. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  72. PMID 32356083
    .
  73. ^ McDonald, Matt. "'NoFap' distance themselves from the Proud Boys". The Spectator. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  74. ^ Hosie, Rachel (May 3, 2017). "Inside the community of men who have given up porn". The Independent. Archived from the original on February 20, 2018. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  75. ^ Hosie, Rachel (August 15, 2017). "Man deletes 18 terabyte porn collection to try and end his addiction". The Independent. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  76. ^ Khan, A (2020). "Reddit Mining to Understand Gendered Movements" (PDF). EDBT/ICDT Workshops. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  77. S2CID 218502169
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NoFap&oldid=1218997185"
This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article: NoFap. Articles is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license; additional terms may apply.Privacy Policy