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“He Strangled Me During Sex Without Even Asking ”
Violence and words of love don’t go together
The first date had gone well. Laughter, a few drinks, that undeniable chemistry that naturally led to kissing and then to something more. Rachel, 26, hadn’t planned to sleep with him that night, but the connection seemed genuine.
Until, without warning, without any prior conversation, he placed his forearm on her neck and pressed down with all his weight.
There were no words, no request for permission. Just that brutal gesture that transformed a moment of intimacy into a nightmare of powerlessness. “I simply froze,” she confesses. “A numbness took over me and I just waited for it to end.”
Two weeks later, it happened again.
A different man, the same bewildering behavior.
As if strangling a woman during sex was as normal as changing positions. As if consent to the sexual act automatically included permission for potentially lethal practices. “You go from feeling safe to completely losing control of the situation,” Rachel reports. “His hands were around my neck, and after that I only remember dissociating until it was all over.” What followed was a year of forced celibacy, a detachment from her own body that had become a battlefield without her consent.
