Context:

The following informant is a 20-year-old American male student. I had a conversation with the said informant one night about masturbation. The informant heard these this story from his mother and other kids in middle school. The informant will be denoted as K and I will be C.

K: I was told if you jerk off too much you will either go blind or you will start growing hair on the palms of your hands.

C: And why does this happen do you think?

K: I heard that it is because god is cursing you for sinning.

C: Did this ever prevent you from masturbating? Like, were you ever afraid of touching yourself because of this.

K: No.

Analysis: I think it is very interesting that the two things that can happen to you are tied to the act of masturbation itself. The hairy hands stem from the touching of one’s own genitalia while become blind stems from the, I’m assuming here, the viewing of porn. I also remember hearing similar cautionary tales growing up.