text: Well its just a case of a stigma dying very slowly. You could probably date it back to the victorian period if you wanted to, where people were very prim and proper. It simple has been unacceptable in american society as far as i can think of that you could talk about a sexual activity such as masterbation. For a while this was because of a lack of information and the church influence. An act traditionally only involving one person, which is stigmatized as sinful (since most people are looking at pornography while doing it) leads to not a lot of talk about the issue. I think you find its becoming more socially acceptable but its not at yet to the degree of talking openly about sex, and it probably wont catch up anytime soon as its still a primarly solitary act.