ABC News Article
Thank you to the ABC for reporting on this story about why sexual strangulation has become a normalised practice among young people.
Alongside three young people, Maree Crabbe from the Breathless campaign was interviewed about why sexual strangulation has become commonplace. Research has found pornography to be the most significant influence shaping the increase in sexual strangulation – a once marginal practice that is now depicted in 15% of pornography scenes.
This normalisation has meant that even people who have not seen strangulation in pornography or other media are experiencing it in their sexuality.
In the ABC Radio Breakfast episode that this piece refers to, Maree spoke about the highly gendered power imbalances present in sexual strangulation. Men and boys are most commonly those who strangle and women, girls and sexual and gender minorities are most often strangled.
“Inequality is not edgy or sexy. It's not new, it's old. It's the patterns that we've tried to reject."
Maree also spoke about the limited understanding around the serious health risks that sexual strangulation poses as well as issues around consent. There is good reason to question whether free, fully informed, ongoing and revocable consent can even be provided for sexual strangulation.
You can read the full article here.
