Fun fact: choking during sex is the second most common cause of stroke in women under 40. Source.
When you cut off blood supply to the brain you start damaging it real fast. There are studies measuring blood biomarkers of neural injury and inflammation in women who report being chocked during sex and it’s clear that choking causes brain damage. According do experts there’s no safe way to do it. It’s just another disturbing, violent trend popularized by porn.
Why does it have to be about violence and porn? Talk about the dangers all you want but that shit just genuinely feels like crack. You get flooded with brain chemicals that feel euphoric. Focus on the important bits about the risks rather than applying stupid moral judgements.
I’m not disagreeing that it’s dangerous, I’m saying the moralizing is unnecessary and pointless when it has real, addictive effects to focus on instead.
The euphoria is from the hypoxia, I think. In which case, a similar high could be had by scheduling sexy times in an oxygen tent mountain climbers and endurance athletes use for training.
It has nothing to do with euphoria. From the source:
In 2021, a research team led by Debby Herbenick, provost professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health, interviewed 24 women aged 18 to 33 in depth about their experiences of strangulation during sex. Although, for most, their first experience had involved no prior discussion – including one who was having sex for the first time – the majority now viewed it as “routine and regular”. All believed it was safe, despite experiencing many physical reactions, including coughing, gasping, difficulty swallowing and breathing and vision changes. Some said they accepted being choked for their partner’s pleasure, even though they didn’t personally find it arousing. Others did enjoy it and sought it out as “adventurous” and “exciting”.
The paper notes that historically, autoerotic asphyxiation is rare among women and adds, “It is curious how sexual asphyxiation, which has long been described as predominantly engaged in by/for men’s arousal, has become so frequently enacted by men on women partners.”
Bows makes the same point. “What’s not being talked about is that this is happening overwhelmingly to women by men. If you accept what people will argue – that this is an activity that’s enjoyed because it’s ‘sensual’ – then why aren’t men the recipients more often? To me, it’s just another way we’ve culturally legitimised men harming women.”
It just keeps going like that. It’s really wroth reading.
I’d be interested to know the source on this, because I know plenty men who are into this. Even in the paragraph prior it states, “sexual asphyxiation, which has long been described as predominantly engaged in by/for men’s arousal.”
That said, full consent and knowledge about the potential long-term physical harm are absolutely critical
It says “The paper notes that historically, autoerotic asphyxiation is rare among women”. So it seams to suggest that before choking your partner became common it was mostly men to chocked themselves while masturbating. Now it’s mostly men that choke women. It doesn’t say it doesn’t happen to men, just that women were not into it before and now it happens to them more.
This is such a crazy extrapolation to me, especially as someone who has had a girlfriend die from (EXTREMELY STUPIDLY) doing unsupervised breath play on herself.
In 2021, a research team led by Debby Herbenick, provost professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health, interviewed 24 women aged 18 to 33 in depth about their experiences of strangulation during sex. Although, for most, their first experience had involved no prior discussion – including one who was having sex for the first time – the majority now viewed it as “routine and regular”. All believed it was safe, despite experiencing many physical reactions, including coughing, gasping, difficulty swallowing and breathing and vision changes. Some said they accepted being choked for their partner’s pleasure, even though they didn’t personally find it arousing. Others did enjoy it and sought it out as “adventurous” and “exciting”.
The paper notes that historically, autoerotic asphyxiation is rare among women and adds, “It is curious how sexual asphyxiation, which has long been described as predominantly engaged in by/for men’s arousal, has become so frequently enacted by men on women partners.”
Bows makes the same point. “What’s not being talked about is that this is happening overwhelmingly to women by men. If you accept what people will argue – that this is an activity that’s enjoyed because it’s ‘sensual’ – then why aren’t men the recipients more often? To me, it’s just another way we’ve culturally legitimised men harming women.”
Uh, I mean the source can say what it says, but I’d say about 75% of my sexual partners have asked me to choke them and most cited the sensation as the reason they liked it. I’ve heard the terms “sprinkles”, “tinglies”, “sparkles”, “fireworks”, etc.
Maybe this is a case of selection bias since I tend to have sex with kinkier women, but it explicitly had everything to do with the euphoria most of the times I was asked to do it. I never suggested it myself, and yet it is by far the most common thing I’ve been asked to do in bed.
Claiming that it’s “just another way we’ve culturally legitimized men harming women”, and not something that a surprisingly large number of women actively enjoy and seek out seems a bit… infantalizing of women.
Though not broadly different from other State and Territory laws the legal firms advice that is linked in the article relates to NSW law and does not indicate that all sexual strangulation is unlawful.
Your claim, and the articles claim, regarding the legality of sexual strangulation is untrue on the grounds that sexual strangulation may be performed in a way that is consensual, does not result in harm, loss of consciousness or death.
It is not explicitly illegal according to Federal, State or Territory law.
While the sexual practice was often consensual, Douglas said: “You can’t consent to death or really serious harm under Australian law … there’s that line that is very clearly drawn in strangulation law – and assault law more generally.”
Theoretically, if the stranglee never gets injured, and they don’t tell anyone, then you might not get in trouble. However, since it has such a high injury rate, if they end up in hospital, you might face criminal charges. Even if they have a therapist and say that they are choked during sex, then it’s a mandatory reporting thing at that level too. Just don’t choke people lol it’s extremely dangerous and legally risky
Just don’t choke people lol it’s extremely dangerous and legally risky
Advocating for abstinence is a losing strategy as noted in the article.
I’m not interested in sexual choking, though I do choke people out occasionally in martial arts training, I was interested only in the claim regarding legality.
maybe some people like having their brain shut off somewhat, and that’s actually the entire point? maybe not everyone likes being hyper-aware of everything all the time?
Liking it doesn’t take away the risk. There’s a lot of things we do in life that have risk, but we still do them for various reasons.
By all means, enjoy the thrill! But educate yourself and be aware that there is no completely safe way to choke or be choked. And of course always get consent.
From what I’m reading there’s no “risk” involved: it’s just harmful. Risk implies it can be done without any harm, but harm is more likely than not. Smoking cigarettes isn’t risky behaviour it’s harmful behaviour.
A couple of reasons. First, from a submissive perspective, it’s a really vulnerable point of the body that can be used to wrest away control. You don’t even need to choke for that feeling. If you don’t understand why the feeling of helplessness can be sexy, you just won’t get this one. Second, there’s a chemical induced euphoria that happens during the act of choking and explodes immediately after that, at least for me, is comparable to an orgasm but NOT an orgasm. It’s especially potent the moment you stop throttling the blood flow to your brain.
The thing is, choking isn’t about cutting off the air flow. Doing that by hand sucks so bad and HURTS. The pleasure comes from pressure on the artery and it happens quick.
Within kink it you aren’t learning the basics of the risks of something before doing it you aren’t following either of the dominant models of how to properly engage. Safe Sane and Consensual demands you learn enough to confirm something is safe (most people consider choking incompatible with this model). Meanwhile Risk Aware Consensual Kink demands you make yourself aware of the risks before consenting.
I get wanting to turn your brain off. I love subspace in part because it shuts my brain off. But going into something in kink without doing your due diligence is how you risk getting seriously injured. I play with fire and electricity, but consider choking too dangerous for me.
If I found out someone who told me they had plenty of experience bottoming for electricity (and thus I didn’t give the safety spiel) didn’t understand that it can fuck with implanted electronics and can be fatal to people with pacemakers (very basic safety knowledge for estim), it’s unlikely they’d ever be able to convince me to play with them again. I’d just consider them to be too reckless.
BDSM is dangerous at times. It’s fun as all hell, I fucking love it, but it has dangers. You need to use your brain first so you can decide how you’re comfortable turning it off.
It’s like any other risky behavior - there’s still a risk, but ultimately it’s up to you if you want to risk death in pursuit of orgasm.
Haha people get so pissy about reality - I’m a domme and engage in some choking, but have strict rules around it. It is silly to pretend there’s 0 risk to choking. Be informed and get consent.
Fun fact: choking during sex is the second most common cause of stroke in women under 40. Source.
When you cut off blood supply to the brain you start damaging it real fast. There are studies measuring blood biomarkers of neural injury and inflammation in women who report being chocked during sex and it’s clear that choking causes brain damage. According do experts there’s no safe way to do it. It’s just another disturbing, violent trend popularized by porn.
Blaming sexual violence on porn seems the same kind of cheap virtue-signalling as blaming gun violence on video games.
Being choked feels good. Your partner sometimes asks you to choke them, sometimes in the heat of the action.
The most important thing is that there really is no safe way to do it, and it should be never done. Upvoted your post for visibility. For the sceptics, here is an article (in German) about one medical doctor accidentally killing another during sex.
Thankfully my wife is over 40, so it looks like we dodged that bullet.
Why does it have to be about violence and porn? Talk about the dangers all you want but that shit just genuinely feels like crack. You get flooded with brain chemicals that feel euphoric. Focus on the important bits about the risks rather than applying stupid moral judgements.
Ok but you do realize how comparing it to crack is not helping here right
Like I’m more than happy to also warn people to stay tf away from crack lol
I’m not disagreeing that it’s dangerous, I’m saying the moralizing is unnecessary and pointless when it has real, addictive effects to focus on instead.
Thank you for speaking up and posting this source. I know you and I haven’t historically gotten on well, but I fully agree with you here.
Mfw I browse the fediverse daily and am aware of some of the conflict that has gone down between y’all. I am on Lemmy too much lmao
The euphoria is from the hypoxia, I think. In which case, a similar high could be had by scheduling sexy times in an oxygen tent mountain climbers and endurance athletes use for training.
It has nothing to do with euphoria. From the source:
In 2021, a research team led by Debby Herbenick, provost professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health, interviewed 24 women aged 18 to 33 in depth about their experiences of strangulation during sex. Although, for most, their first experience had involved no prior discussion – including one who was having sex for the first time – the majority now viewed it as “routine and regular”. All believed it was safe, despite experiencing many physical reactions, including coughing, gasping, difficulty swallowing and breathing and vision changes. Some said they accepted being choked for their partner’s pleasure, even though they didn’t personally find it arousing. Others did enjoy it and sought it out as “adventurous” and “exciting”.
The paper notes that historically, autoerotic asphyxiation is rare among women and adds, “It is curious how sexual asphyxiation, which has long been described as predominantly engaged in by/for men’s arousal, has become so frequently enacted by men on women partners.”
Bows makes the same point. “What’s not being talked about is that this is happening overwhelmingly to women by men. If you accept what people will argue – that this is an activity that’s enjoyed because it’s ‘sensual’ – then why aren’t men the recipients more often? To me, it’s just another way we’ve culturally legitimised men harming women.”
It just keeps going like that. It’s really wroth reading.
I’d be interested to know the source on this, because I know plenty men who are into this. Even in the paragraph prior it states, “sexual asphyxiation, which has long been described as predominantly engaged in by/for men’s arousal.”
That said, full consent and knowledge about the potential long-term physical harm are absolutely critical
It says “The paper notes that historically, autoerotic asphyxiation is rare among women”. So it seams to suggest that before choking your partner became common it was mostly men to chocked themselves while masturbating. Now it’s mostly men that choke women. It doesn’t say it doesn’t happen to men, just that women were not into it before and now it happens to them more.
idk if you were trying to be funny or not, but it is driving me INSANE:
choking*
idk if you were trying to be funny or not, but:
You’re*
Yaruoe’''e*
It’s a little funny when people correct others spelling mistakes in the same thread where they also have made spelling mistakes, that’s all haha
Fixed 😅
It’s a very poorly written paper that is using generalizations without a proper source or study group.
A sample size of 24 to make these broad assumptions is frankly ridiculous
deleted by creator
This is such a crazy extrapolation to me, especially as someone who has had a girlfriend die from (EXTREMELY STUPIDLY) doing unsupervised breath play on herself.
So this one case proves that women did it as often as men? Ok…
The study didn’t test that men did it more or not. They just asserted it without data to back it up
I’m not sure which study you’re talking about but I guess the article states it as a fact because it’s a well known… fact. What I found in 5 minutes:
Study from Australia: less 10% of autoerotic neck compression deaths were women.
Study from Italy: 10% of deaths were women
Study from US: men consistently exhibited higher mortality rates than women
Here is the Guardian article that ExLisper already linked.
Here is the paper that the Guardian references.
I get what your saying, but I think a lot of women do enjoy it for MANY different reasons, most unhealthy. I am one who enjoys it, so there is that-
No one is saying that there’s no women that enjoy choking. I still wouldn’t say it’s a lot of women.
I don’t understand why you’re quoting the same thing to me that I responded to?
I put the links under the quote to both the article and the original paper.
You asked for the sources.
Uh, I mean the source can say what it says, but I’d say about 75% of my sexual partners have asked me to choke them and most cited the sensation as the reason they liked it. I’ve heard the terms “sprinkles”, “tinglies”, “sparkles”, “fireworks”, etc.
Maybe this is a case of selection bias since I tend to have sex with kinkier women, but it explicitly had everything to do with the euphoria most of the times I was asked to do it. I never suggested it myself, and yet it is by far the most common thing I’ve been asked to do in bed.
Claiming that it’s “just another way we’ve culturally legitimized men harming women”, and not something that a surprisingly large number of women actively enjoy and seek out seems a bit… infantalizing of women.
Reminder that any sexual choking is now illegal in Australia
I can’t find a source that verifies your claim.
You might be thinking of the ban on strangulation in porn that was passed in the UK recently?
Basically, you cannot consent to it; even if sober, or you sign a waiver.
Though not broadly different from other State and Territory laws the legal firms advice that is linked in the article relates to NSW law and does not indicate that all sexual strangulation is unlawful.
Your claim, and the articles claim, regarding the legality of sexual strangulation is untrue on the grounds that sexual strangulation may be performed in a way that is consensual, does not result in harm, loss of consciousness or death.
It is not explicitly illegal according to Federal, State or Territory law.
Here’s another one:
Theoretically, if the stranglee never gets injured, and they don’t tell anyone, then you might not get in trouble. However, since it has such a high injury rate, if they end up in hospital, you might face criminal charges. Even if they have a therapist and say that they are choked during sex, then it’s a mandatory reporting thing at that level too. Just don’t choke people lol it’s extremely dangerous and legally risky
Advocating for abstinence is a losing strategy as noted in the article.
I’m not interested in sexual choking, though I do choke people out occasionally in martial arts training, I was interested only in the claim regarding legality.
maybe some people like having their brain shut off somewhat, and that’s actually the entire point? maybe not everyone likes being hyper-aware of everything all the time?
Liking it doesn’t take away the risk. There’s a lot of things we do in life that have risk, but we still do them for various reasons.
By all means, enjoy the thrill! But educate yourself and be aware that there is no completely safe way to choke or be choked. And of course always get consent.
From what I’m reading there’s no “risk” involved: it’s just harmful. Risk implies it can be done without any harm, but harm is more likely than not. Smoking cigarettes isn’t risky behaviour it’s harmful behaviour.
I believe their question was WHY do people enjoy it. Which I’m also curious about.
A couple of reasons. First, from a submissive perspective, it’s a really vulnerable point of the body that can be used to wrest away control. You don’t even need to choke for that feeling. If you don’t understand why the feeling of helplessness can be sexy, you just won’t get this one. Second, there’s a chemical induced euphoria that happens during the act of choking and explodes immediately after that, at least for me, is comparable to an orgasm but NOT an orgasm. It’s especially potent the moment you stop throttling the blood flow to your brain.
The thing is, choking isn’t about cutting off the air flow. Doing that by hand sucks so bad and HURTS. The pleasure comes from pressure on the artery and it happens quick.
Interesting. Thank you, that was very informative!
My comment still stands. Some people like it, whether it’s because of porn or not, but it’s really important to know that it is never safe to do.
I don’t think people do. The behaviour probably stems from a desire/need to satisfy their partner. Pavlovian conditioning probably plays a role too.
Within kink it you aren’t learning the basics of the risks of something before doing it you aren’t following either of the dominant models of how to properly engage. Safe Sane and Consensual demands you learn enough to confirm something is safe (most people consider choking incompatible with this model). Meanwhile Risk Aware Consensual Kink demands you make yourself aware of the risks before consenting.
I get wanting to turn your brain off. I love subspace in part because it shuts my brain off. But going into something in kink without doing your due diligence is how you risk getting seriously injured. I play with fire and electricity, but consider choking too dangerous for me.
If I found out someone who told me they had plenty of experience bottoming for electricity (and thus I didn’t give the safety spiel) didn’t understand that it can fuck with implanted electronics and can be fatal to people with pacemakers (very basic safety knowledge for estim), it’s unlikely they’d ever be able to convince me to play with them again. I’d just consider them to be too reckless.
BDSM is dangerous at times. It’s fun as all hell, I fucking love it, but it has dangers. You need to use your brain first so you can decide how you’re comfortable turning it off.
Yeah if you’re actually choking your partner you’re doing it wrong
Lightly squeezing someone’s throat during sex is choking only in name. You’re not supposed to full on choke them out.
OK but what if I really like being choked a little
Not that I’m under 40. Or a woman.
It’s like any other risky behavior - there’s still a risk, but ultimately it’s up to you if you want to risk death in pursuit of orgasm.
Haha people get so pissy about reality - I’m a domme and engage in some choking, but have strict rules around it. It is silly to pretend there’s 0 risk to choking. Be informed and get consent.
Just a little throat clenching, not enough to get fuzzy, just enough to make breathing a bit harder, and to remind me that I’m her property
Edit: misread!
It’s still risky, but you do you.
JFC, what kind of porn are you people watching?
Read to source. Choking became mainstream in porn.
That was a horrifying read. I had no idea. Thank you for the context.