Five Great Reads: sexual choking, smash burgers, and the women of the Carry On films

Top of the weekend to you all. This week I’ve been obsessed with Paralympic boccia and, after salivating all the way through the article below, finally trying a smash burger. I’ll report back on the latter next time. In the meantime, enjoy this week’s selection and happy footy finals time to all who celebrate.

1. Why has sexual choking become so prevalent among young people?

Why are young people risking long-term changes in the brain, miscarriage, thyroid injuries and even death by practising erotic asphyxiation? Sarah, a 34-year-old single woman who often chokes her male sexual partners, says “it’s natural for things to escalate”. James, 25, says his long-term girlfriend “enjoys the euphoria around it”.

But one NSW woman recalls meeting a man on a dating app who ignored her “safe gesture” and left her with psychological trauma.

How did we get here? Jane Hone investigates.

Survey says: Australian universities polled 4,700 people aged 18 to 35 and found 57% had been strangled during sex. More women (61%) than men (43%) reported having been strangled, along with 78% of trans or gender-diverse people.

How long will it take to read: Five minutes.

2. The secret love affair that spawned Gaia theory

James Lovelock’s Gaia theory, which posits that the Earth behaves like a giant organism that humans are interconnected and interdependent with, has inspired many of the world’s most influential climate scientists, philosophers and campaigners.

His theory was highly controversial when it saw the light of day, with his wife among the critics. “Who does he think he is?” she asked. “A second Einstein?” Her scorn was perhaps triggered by the knowledge his ideas were formulated in conjunction with another scientist, Dian Hitchcock, across years of intense collaboration – and months of hotel room trysts.

The breakup: Hitchcock recalls the end of their affair, when Lovelock closed the door of his hotel room across the corridor and never spoke to her again. “It had to end, but he could have said something … He could not possibly have been more miserable than I was.”

How long will it take to read: Nine minutes.

3. Catching up with the Carry On women

If you’ve never seen a film from the UK’s lowbrow Carry On series, here’s the sort of snappy dialogue you’ve been missing out on: whenever its female stars were handed a new script, they would scour its pages until they found a character deliver the line “Oh, what a big one”.

The franchise largely reduced women to nags, bra-burners and “crumpet”. What did the recurring actors think of their lot? Valerie Leon and Amanda Barrie – now in their 80s – have fond memories.

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“I think they’re escapism and take you back to a gentler, more fun life. We don’t live in a fun world any more.” – Valerie Leon

Unlikely fan: When Patricia Franklin shared a stage with Anthony Hopkins, he confessed to coveting a Carry On role.

How long will it take to read: Five minutes.

4. Smash burger trendsetters share their secrets

“What the hell is a smash burger,” I’ve been wondering to myself whenever I see the two words adorn a menu or shopfront. Now I know: burgers made not with standard thick patties but balls of mince that have been flattened (ie smashed) with a spatula and cooked on a furiously hot flat-plate grill.

Smash burgers are so hot right now in Sydney, London, New York and beyond. How did these slimline treats usurp multi-patty stacks as the burger du jour? Proponents argue they’re quick to make, fun to eat – and in a cossie-livs crisis, cost-effective.

What next? Plant-based burger makers have hopped on the smash burger bandwagon but vendors suggest crispy fried chicken burgers are the next big thing.

How long will it take to read: Four minutes.

5. X marks the spot where Twitter turned (more) toxic

There are few more common refrains in the newsroom than “remember when Twitter was good?” Mastodon, Bluesky and Threads have come at the king of microblogging but all have (to date) missed in their attempt to steal the crown from Elon Musk’s digital town square.

At its worst, the social media platform now known as X platforms misinformation. The keyboard warriors behind such misinformation admit the platform’s “revenue sharing” model for advertising nets them a tidy monthly sum. Says one expert of the hate filling our For You feeds: “Extreme content drives engagement.”

Thoughts on Elon Musk: “Things like free speech are instruments to Musk, rather than principles,” says Joe Mulhall, a UK campaigner against racism and fascism. “He’s a tech utopian with no attachment to democracy.”

How long will it take to read: Five minutes.

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