Australian Penthouse

INXS singer Michael Hutchence died while doing it. As did actor David Carradine. Australian Penthouse investigates the obscure, yet often deadly, practice of autoerotic asphyxia
Story: Tracey Parry

There was a time when ‘necking’ meant ‘making out’. Mention the word now, however, and some people will picture a leather belt around their neck rather than a hot-and-heavy kissing session.

When actor David Carradine was found hanging in his Bangkok hotel room closet, bound and dressed in a woman’s wig and fishnets, it ignited a firestorm of interest in the otherwise obscure practice of autoerotic asphyxia. Known colloquially as sexual hanging, breath-control play, chokey-strokey, asphyxy-wanking, scarfing, gasping, terminal sex and necking, autoerotic asphyxiophilia (or AEA) involves restricting the oxygen supply to the brain in order to heighten sexual climax.

Solo asphyxia enthusiasts use anything from ropes, leather belts, T-shirts, ties, dog chains and electrical cords to plastic bags, condoms, gasmasks, gags, wetsuits and scuba gear to suffocate themselves, often to the point of unconsciousness. Devotees of breath-control play say that they can reach a pleasurable altered state of consciousness by limiting their air supply for 60 seconds. Yet it can kill them in less than 20.

To prevent passing out completely, most asphyxy-wank aficionados rig up a ‘fail-safe’, a mechanism designed to release the pressure on the ligature around their neck when they begin to black out. Many deaths occur when this safeguard fails, but they also happen when it does not.

The danger lies more in the strangulation than the suffocation. Before they actually lose consciousness, fans of necking believe that they have several minutes to enjoy the ‘floaty’ sensation that they crave. In truth, however, hypoxyphiliacs can die randomly and rapidly. They can slowly suffocate from a lack of air to the lungs, die quickly by depriving blood to the brain via strangulation, or stop their heart from beating by stimulating the vagus nerve in the neck, dying instantaneously.

Short of death, the ‘dreamy euphoria’ that exponents experience just prior to passing out is actually the result of millions of brain cells being destroyed. Data shows that unconscious AEA victims are rarely revived, and those who are often suffer permanent and debilitating brain damage.

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, aka the ‘Shrink’s Bible’, someone who has an erotic interest in asphyxiation is classified as a ‘paraphiliac’, a person who has the need for an extreme and very dangerous stimulus in order to achieve sexual arousal or orgasm. In fact, because of its lethal nature, the practice is considered one of the most acute paraphilias.

While Australian statistics are limited, it is believed that as many as 1000 AEA-related deaths occur in America every year, equating to almost three fatalities a day. Indeed, experts believe that the true extent of the problem is far more widespread, saying that many deaths are reported as suicides, or even homicides, rather than ‘sexual misadventure’.

This is due to ignorance of the practice by authorities, and the propensity for family and friends to clean up the death scene because of the shame and embarrassment. Moreover, because of the secretive nature of the habit, it is usually only when someone dies that friends and family discover that they engaged in this highly risky ritual.

With the recent media frenzy, one could be forgiven for thinking that the proclivity for ‘terminal sex’ is a modern phenomenon. On the contrary, cases of casualties found ‘hanging with a hard-on’ have been recorded as far back as the early 1600s, when observers at public executions noted that male prisoners often had erections which remained long after death. Technically termed ‘priapism’, or terminal erection, the occurence was known in the day as ‘angel lust’, and inspired doctors to use bonds in the treatment of erectile dysfunction and impotence.

The erotic allure of the ligature was not unknown, either. Although not strictly a death at the hands of a solitary ‘asphyxy-wank’, the first fatality attributed to AEA is believed to be that of the 18th-century Czech composer, Frantisek Kotzwara. The muso paid a London prostitute two shillings to cut off his testicles. When she refused, he tied one end of a rope around the doorknob and the other around his neck, and proceeded to have sex until he was dead. Upon his odd demise, the phrase ‘Kotzwarraism’ was added to the lexicon of euphemisms for autoerotic asphyxiophilia.

While history shows that the vast majority of ‘Kotzwarraists’ are male, there have been examples involving women. Such bizarre cases would seem to indicate that only debauched deviants indulge in sexual self-strangulation, while high-profile deaths, such as those of David Carradine and Michael Hutchence, might tend to relegate it to the realm of dirty old men and decadent rock stars. The truth, however, is quite the opposite. Far from being the province of aging perverts, data shows that most people who die from erotic self-strangulation are white heterosexual males under the age of 28.

In fact, with fatalities recorded of boys as young as nine and men as old as 80, the average age of people who die from autoerotic asphyxiation is just 13. Moreover, with most young victims being described as ‘clean-living high achievers’ and older casualties classed as ‘successful, highly functioning individuals’, it could be anyone’s son, brother, father, or even grandfather, indulging in this perilous pastime of pleasure behind closed doors.

Given its often lethal consequences, what makes a bloke want to choke while he strokes? Despite the peculiar autoerotic death scenes witnessed by authorities, psychiatrists assert that most AEA victims are otherwise sane and concede that they still have little insight as to why these individuals indulge in such risky sexual behaviour.

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Pic credits: David Carradine image by Jano Rohleder, used by permission. Michael Hutchence image by Nancy J Price, used under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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