Gay breath play
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Choking, even with consent, is against federal law in the United States, and many states have made choking illegal. Gender may or may not include assigned or chosen: social roles, feelings, behaviors and/or presentation or appearance.)-expansive participants were significantly more likely to have been choked than cisgender (Describes people who have a gender identity which is traditionally thought to “match” their assigned sex.
Forensic pathology literature states: “The amount of pressure on the neck that can bring about loss of consciousness is remarkably low. Every time this happens there may be damage to brain cells, and this damage can build up over time, and lead to significant problems with your brain function. "Porn stars aren't really choking each other in those films.
It can also be called breath play or erotic asphyxiation.
Why do people do it?
People generally engage in sexual choking to increase endorphins (the body’s feel-good chemicals) and to intensify orgasm. The NCSF has developed a model of consent that provides kinky sex enthusiasts with careful guidelines about how to play such potentially dangerous games, moving from the larger cultural emphasis on “no means no” to first include “safe, sane, and consensual” and then “risk-aware kink,” before eventually landing on “explicit prior permission.”
Each iteration of consent guidelines has become clearer and more direct as trial and error exposed the inadequacies of the former versions.
Explicit and Prior Permission
Another thing that distinguishes breath play from choking is the careful and consensual nature of breath play. No matter the activity, and regardless of whether you consider it part of kink or not, active, freely-given, fully informed mutual consent is one of the things that best reduces harm and decreases risks with any sexual activity, and it also happens to be something frequently absent, incomplete, or outright ignored with choking in media and IRL.
There are also a number of frameworks and guidelines that exist within and outside the kink community that can assist in ensuring safer, consensual sexual experiences, whatever the kind of sexual activity:
- Using safewords, including a safeword (A word or gesture chosen expressly for the purpose of stopping any kind of sexual activity or scene that will only be used for this purpose. ) that isn’t spoken words at all, but gestures, are one of those frameworks. Verbal cues may not always be possible or useful with some kinds of play.
Strangulation
Strangulation is often used as a synonym for choking, but it has a second meaning that is more useful for our purposes: “constriction of a body part to cut off the flow of blood or other fluid.”
In Judo, “blood chokes” are referred to as “strangleholds” or “strangles.” They may also be referred to as “sleeper holds” or “lateral vascular neck restraints” (LVNRs).
These holds seek to compress the blood vessels without compressing the airway.
Perhaps you’ve heard about sexual choking and just want to know what the deal is with it. Depictions of sex in porn and other media rarely show things like negotiation, other kinds of active consenting, aftercare, safety or communication before, during or after.
One of the things that many kinds of sexual or sexualized media – be it in porn or a billboard fragrance advertisement – tend to be terrible at is presenting any real processes of consent.
Archives of sexual behavior, 1-21.
Schori, A., Jackowski, C., & Schön, C. A. (2022). “Older individuals may have an alkylosed hyoid bond or an ossified thyroid cartilage, which renders them more brittle and susceptible to fracture.” – Emergency Medicine Reports, Volume 31, Number 17
Airway compression leads to frightening sensations of air hunger.
It may work better to use a gesture or signal to sign to a partner to stop (for any reason). Local swelling could quickly get worse, resulting in airway and/or blood vessel occlusion (potentially leading to death).
Notes on “the choking game,” aka “the fainting game”
A study by the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that since 1995 at least 82 young people have died in the US as a result of this.
Sometimes uses variations on strangulation, with hands or a ligature.
The more common variation is for the person to hyperventilate until they experience symptoms of decreased carbon dioxide levels (such as tingling in the extremities/lips, and dizziness), followed by holding their breath.
In fact, “Strangulation in any context is known to be the biggest predictor of homicide later on by that partner. Holding your own nose closed or having a partner hold your nose can also elicit similar physical feelings and still involve trust, intimacy and the feeling of a loss of control.
Learn CPR.
It’s always a good idea to know CPR, especially if you are going to engage in any kind of sexual play with risk of injury, which is most kinds!
Educators need to stop posting online that people can go to the kink communities to get classes on choking/strangulation.”
References
Herbenick, D., Fu, T. C., Patterson, C., Rosenstock Gonzalez, Y. R., Luetke, M., Svetina Valdivia, D., ... Tapping, raising a hand, holding a tennis ball and releasing it to signal to stop or any agreed upon gesture beforehand are kinds of gestures that can help to communicate limits and be recognized as a symbol to immediately stop any activity.
- RACK (Risk-Aware Consensual Kink - A framework that posits that there is always risk when engaging in activities that are commonly considered part of kink and that to engage ethically, one must be conscious of, aware of and acknowledge and account for any potential risks.)(Risk-Aware Consensual Kink) and SSC (Safe, Sane and Consensual - A framework that posits that all sexual play must 1) be based on safe activities, 2) involve all participants being of sufficiently sound mind, 3) have the full and informed consent of all participants at all times.)(Safe, Sane and Consensual)
- Aftercare can be applied to any kind of sexual activity, and we believe, should really be administered after every sexual experience.
It’s important to consider what we want to experience together, and what we think we should or shouldn’t do based on a whole host of influences: our families, friends, media of all kinds and other sources. Let’s talk about desire, consent and whether you or another person really wants to do this.
What we want to do sexually with partners, whatever our age, tends to be based in a variable mix of what we like and want for ourselves, and what our partners want for themselves.
Sexual choking
Sexual choking is where someone applies pressure to your neck that partially or completely restricts airflow or blood flow to your brain during sex. We are going to share some of the science, including some very real dangers, and offer some guidance, to help anyone make informed decisions in this arena to ensure safer, healthy, consensual and mutually-enjoyable experiences alone, or between themselves and any partners.
Recent studies have shown that sexual choking (also known as: breath play, strangulation or erotic asphyxiation), the act of blocking airways for sexual pleasure, has become more popular recently, especially among young adults (People whose age in years exceeds the legal age of majority, people considered to be adults by law, or people who a culture or individual considers to have reached an adult stage of life.). A recent study in Australiaexternal link, opens in a new tab found that out of 4702 individuals 18–35 years old, of all genders, a total of 57% reported being sexually strangled. Another study done in 2021 of 4254 randomly sampled American studentsexternal link, opens in a new tab, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, found that among those with any partnered sexual experience, 43.0% had choked a partner, 47.3% had been choked, that the mean age of first choking/being choked was about 19, and that more undergraduates than graduate students reported first choking/being choked in adolescence.
Even when the person doing it does not intend it to be abusive, surprise choking can be terrifying to experience.