With this commentary, I wish to address a 2-fold issue around the topic of autoerotic asphyxiation (AeA): (i) that the historical trend towards the pathologization of kink and other forms of sexuality considered ‘Other’ is particularly salient in the case of AeA and is potentially harmful for AeA practitioners; (ii) that the medical-izing terms used to describe the phenomenon (including, precisely, “autoerotic asphyxiation”, can be seen as both cause of, and caused by, a disconnect between research on the topic and the community within which the practice exists. As a caveat, though that are references to partnered practices, I will focus on non-partnered practices in order to keep the focus on the auto- aspect of AeA. From the early 1980’s to the present, only a few studies focus on Autoerotic Asphyxiation; it is beyond the scope and ability of this commentary to include all the work conducted, but I have sought to diversify and ensure current relevance of the sources used, including one of the most recent books on the topic1 and literature reviews/epidemiological retrospectives. In this literature, and as Sauvageau2 notes, numbers are often hyperbolized (or, at best, extrapolated from 40-something year old data!), as is the case with an often-repeated, but baseless, statistic that speaks of 500-1000 deaths caused by AeA per year, in Canada.
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