What happened?
In August, a 16-year-old girl was found unresponsive in a home on Sydney, Australia’s northern beaches. She was airlifted to the hospital, and two days later, she died. New South Wales Police have been investigating her death as the result of sexual strangulation. Sources told the ABC that she may have had a seizure following asphyxiation, and officers were told the sex was consensual.
Sexual strangulation is not a new phenomenon by any means. Not so long ago, it was considered taboo and “anti-kink” to criticize the normalization of this violence during sex. Additionally, sexual strangulation is becoming increasingly depicted in mainstream pornography.
In 2024, the Archives of Sexual Behavior published data revealing that 57% of Australians between the ages of 18 and 35 had been strangled at least once during sex, and 51% admitted to having strangled a sexual partner.
Denele Crozier, CEO of Women’s Health NSW, said that since 2023, there has been a 123% increase in women presenting with concerns of a possible brain injury linked to strangulation.
Hannah Ferguson shares her own experience of being nonconsensually strangled during sex. She says that in the moment, she froze and dissociated. Afterwards, for a long time, she felt uncertain about speaking up, feeling like she would be “prudish” and ruin the mood by calling it out.
According to consent advocate Chanel Contos, a study in the United States found that 58% of female college students had been choked during sex. Additionally, the study found that while many women enjoyed it, many others did it mostly to please their partners. So not only are women being choked without their consent, but many “consent” not because they derive pleasure from it, but because they feel pressured to do so for their partner’s pleasure.
Pornography plays a big role in the normalization of sexual strangulation, teaching young women that it is normal and that they are supposed to like it. And it teaches young men that perpetrating violence is erotic.
Australia’s government is currently considering legislation introduced in 2025 that would make it a criminal offense to possess or publish pornography depicting suffocation or strangulation.