Only an imbecile thinks that masturbation requires mental imagery. Masturbation, on its own, is the physical act of providing tactile stimulation to one's own genitals with one's own hands or, in some cases, with other objects; it may or may not be accompanied by mental images or fantasies. Even if a person does fantasize while masturbating, the strength, impact, and exact role of the thoughts or mental images could fluctuate. Masturbation is one of the most controversial yet acceptable pleasures for men and women to indulge in--though many Christians oppose it, it remains nonsinful [1] and useful.
The subjects of a person's fantasies and mental imagery, should they choose to handle their genitals while thinking of attractive bodies, could be either fictional or real people. There is absolutely nothing sinful about constructing imaginary persons in order to arouse oneself sexually on a mental or physiological level (Deuteronomy 4:2). Evangelical Christians object to this only through illogical and legalistic means, violating the command of the Bible to not invent new moral ideas to set alongside those revealed in Scripture. This is always out of misrepresentation of what the Bible means by the word "lust." The word refers merely to coveting another person's spouse or partner (Exodus 20:17): wanting to take them from their partner for oneself, and nothing else. It does not refer to sexual attraction, sexual desire, or sexual arousal of the mind or body.
In addition to denouncing the act of masturbating to fictional entities, evangelical Christians also condemn masturbation imagery that involves people other than a person's spouse--but only out of ignorance and illogicality, not out of legitimate Biblically motivated outrage. If sexual attraction, visualizing sexual imagery, and masturbation are not sinful, then a married person masturbating to someone other than his or her spouse is not sinning simply by fantasizing about another person, as imagining the person is not the same as coveting or objectifying them. Likewise, it is not a moral abomination if an unmarried man or woman imagines real persons, married or unmarried, while masturbating. This is nonsinful for the same reasons that masturbating to imaginary figures is nonsinful.
It is not disrespectful to masturbate to thoughts of someone, and people might not be offended or uncomfortable at the thought of someone masturbating while imagining them--they might even find it encouraging, complimentary, or sexy. One person's reaction does not guarantee that another person will have the same reaction. However, simply masturbating to thoughts of a real person in no way degrades that person, since one can experience and enjoy the sexual thoughts without objectifying or lusting after him or her (they are distinct, after all). Sexualization is not objectification, and sexual feelings are not automatically lust.
People might abstain from masturbating to certain individuals in their lives out of a desire to keep interactions with them free of sexualized components. Nevertheless, one can sexually fantasize about someone and still interact with them normally, though there is nothing sinful about overtly flirtatious relationships to begin with. There will be friends and strangers of the opposite gender that many people will never have sexual feelings towards, so the idea that people masturbate to all of their opposite gender friends, acquaintances, or coworkers is asinine.
If sexual attraction, sexual thoughts, and masturbation are not sinful, then combining them cannot be sinful, whether the sexual thoughts are directed towards an actual person or not. Not everyone masturbates, and not everyone who masturbates does so to mental imagery or fantasies, whether they involve real or imagined people. But some of those who do have been deceived by theological sophists into believing that the Bible condemns something that it does not. The Bible is clear about how humans can know if something is sinful: something is sinful on the Christian worldview only if the Bible condemns it or if it follows with absolute logicality from a Biblical teaching that it must be wrong [2]. All additional or contrary moral ideas are antithetical to Christian ethics.
[1]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/07/sexual-self-stimulation.html
[2]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/07/identifying-sin.html
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