Friday was a Girl's Night Out, not with the usual crew, but a fresh batch.
Most of what went on I can't discuss, but I can say if you want a good Girl's Night Out be sure to schedule it for the day after a TV star dies of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Really. That is key.
I'd heard of the practice before in high school, when the coroner came and gave a slide-show. Sure. Your high school did this, right? Forensic crime scene and autopsy photos? Wasn't anyone else in Mr Steven's American Studies class at McCluer North? That slide of the baby autopsy woke me right up so I was alert for the photo of the dead teenage boy in women's lingerie hanging from a closet rod.
(Someone didn't screen the coroner's slide-show. Or perhaps this was common. My father insisted his Normandy High School gym teacher made all the boys swim naked. He was surprised to hear that was atypical.)
Anyway, I knew a little about the practice, but the details given by the media (no doubt all wrong) had the actor hanging by a cord around his neck that was also attached to his penis. "I get the oxygen deprivation," I said, "But why put a cord around your penis? The penis can't breathe. Can it?" One woman volunteered that when one starts suffocating one might lose one's erection, and that's what the second cord is for.
That was a good mechanical explanation, and I went with that.
Well! That was Friday! Now the Internet has enlightened me about this topic, thanks to this Completely NOT Work or Panera Bread Appropriate article. It's an excellent article, and not just because the author can differentiate between "hung" and "hanged." I still don't quite know what function the genital cord plays, but i get the idea it's so one's penis doesn't get to swing about free if the rest is all constrained. Oh, and though his hands were tied behind his back, he could have done that alone. We were unfairly blaming an unknown Thai prostitute.
It's a long article, but let me summarize: It sounds fun, but you might well die. The article really is illuminating, if you've ever been curious. My high-school coroner slide-show killed any curiousity for me.
Another selfless public service provided by the Queen! Don't you just love the contrast between the photo and phrases like 'the putative effects' and 'matching etiologies'?
I don't know, though - it just seems to me like an awful lot of bother to go to (even without the real possibility of a humiliating death). Maybe I'm just lazy.
Posted by: Big Dot | June 08, 2009 at 04:45 AM
It's the same reason people jump out of perfectly good airplanes.
Posted by: #0.75 | June 08, 2009 at 08:38 AM
Big Dot - That's what I think too. A lot of trouble for a more intense orgasm.
.75 - Because they can have an orgasm without touching themselves? Really?
Posted by: TheQueen | June 08, 2009 at 09:04 AM
I'll have to read up on this later, because I can't imagine how you tie your own hands behind your back. in my book, that takes it from "autoerotic" to just "erotic".
I'm all about semantics.
Posted by: Tami | June 08, 2009 at 09:58 AM
Tami - you make a loose slipknot and put your hands in it. The knot has a long tail with a loop and you slip your foot in the loop and tighten it. Just FYI.
Posted by: Thequeen | June 08, 2009 at 10:55 AM
My ex was into this and I found out by accident one day. I am open minded about stuff but this is dangerous. It was the beginning of the end of the marriage.
Posted by: Zayrina | June 08, 2009 at 04:45 PM
Zayrina - Is this the same ex who would demand you cook him dinner after you came home after a long day of work? At least he was controlling to himself. Good thing he didn't truss you up too.
Posted by: TheQueen | June 09, 2009 at 12:17 AM
A fresh GNO crew? Explain yourself, please.
Posted by: Caroline | June 09, 2009 at 07:11 PM
Um, just wondering what in hell you googled to get to that very informative article.
Posted by: gaoo | June 09, 2009 at 09:01 PM
Caroline - Thank you!
Posted by: #0.75 | June 10, 2009 at 08:23 AM
I see you didn't address my question. Hmph. I'll be offline a few days (giving birth and all), but don't think I'll let this drop.
Posted by: Caroline | June 10, 2009 at 03:51 PM
Caroline - (As written this morning before Typepad ate my comment) My and Marcia's teams.
gaoo - (Possibly the reason google ate the comment)
Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoerotic_asphyxiation
Then Here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoerotic_fatality
Then here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-bondage
Then here:
http://www.openmindmedia.com/self-bondage/
Then that article was the first one in the references.
,75 - They aren't numbered or anything...
Caroline - Honest, typepad ate my comment.
Posted by: TheQueen | June 10, 2009 at 05:44 PM
Caroline, Ellen loves us enough to assign a number to us.
Posted by: #3 | June 10, 2009 at 05:48 PM