# Being hung and 'sporting wood'...(Not what you think.) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2000, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-hung-and-sporting-wood-not-what-you-think/40481 "2000-11-09T17:14:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Doubleclick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Doubleclick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubleclick)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-hung-and-sporting-wood-not-what-you-think/40481/1 "2000-11-09T17:14:31Z")
I was listening to Stern this morning and the gang were talking about men having an erection when being hung from the gallows. Is this true? If so, why does this happen? ---
**Author:** ![Doubleclick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Doubleclick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubleclick)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-hung-and-sporting-wood-not-what-you-think/40481/2 "2000-11-09T17:58:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doubleclick \* > \*\*I was listening to Stern this morning and the gang were talking about men having an erection when being hung from the gallows. > > Is this true? If so, why does this happen? \*\* I may need to elaborate on this a bit. Basicly, it was claimed that when the floor falls out from beneith the victim, and he is snapped to a hault from the rope, ‘the body’ get’s an erection. I hope this sheds some more light on my quesiton. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-hung-and-sporting-wood-not-what-you-think/40481/3 "2000-11-09T18:11:33Z")
I don’t really know for sure, but here’s my best guess. About a third of blood goes to the head in the circulation process. Being hung cuts off the circulation to your head, but with your heart still beating, and the blood has to go somewhere. Thus, some of the excess blood winds up in the penis. I also think that the body is liable to behave strangely in any circumstances with extreme emotions at play. My husband has gotten erections and inappropriate times, not because he’s turned on, but because he has all kinds of signals flying around, and some of them wind up down there. Fear, especially, can result in one’s whole body being tensed and ready for action. I have the same basic effect happen when I’m at extreme heights-- they freak me out, so my body freaks out too. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-hung-and-sporting-wood-not-what-you-think/40481/4 "2000-11-09T18:19:19Z")
Yes. Probably more often in cases where the hanging is badly done, and the victim strangles rather than having his neck broken. From Cecil’s article on autoerotic asphyxiation: > [@](#): > > Autoerotic asphyxiation arose out of the observation that men executed by hanging often got an erection and sometimes ejaculated. Viagra is preferable, as the experience is repeatable. ---
**Author:** ![DVous\_Means](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@DVous\_Means](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DVous_Means)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-hung-and-sporting-wood-not-what-you-think/40481/5 "2000-11-10T01:07:46Z")
The mechanism that kills people when executed by hanging is the instant snap of the spinal cord. The knot is delberately set up as high as possible in the neck to ensure that the cord is severed right at the top of the neck. There are eight spinal nerves that branch off the spinal cord in the cervical region. Of these, C1, C2 and C3 must be intact to provide autonomic control of the diaphragm, otherwise you can’t spontaneously breathe. Nervous supply to the accessory muscles of respiration come from further down the spinal cord. Hence a C1 or C2 severence is a fatal injury, unless very prompt mechanical ventilation is administered. The other problem of spinal injury is that all sympathetic nervous supply below the lesion is blocked, allowing unopposed parasympathetic action to prevail (the “default” state of the body). Hence all blood vessels below the level of the lesion instantly fully dilate and remain that way unless someone injects a drug to artificially cause constriction. An erect penis (known medically as a priapism) is a common sign of spinal injury in men. The unopposed vasodilation causes an engorgement of the penis. Hence all men who are hanged will sport wood. ---
**Author:** ![popokis5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@popokis5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/popokis5)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2000, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-hung-and-sporting-wood-not-what-you-think/40481/6 "2000-11-12T00:09:59Z")
Being hung and sporting wood…actually that’s exactly what I thought;) ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2000, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-hung-and-sporting-wood-not-what-you-think/40481/7 "2000-11-12T00:26:28Z")
Looks like Dvous pulled that one out of the oven. That was really interesting. Here’s a related question. I’ve read several accounts of people spontaneously ejaculating as a result head wounds. The only specific one I can recall enough to detail is in Vincent Buglosi’s _Helter Skelter_, which mentions an apparent suicide where a man shot himself in the head (or was shot in the head) while in bed with a Manson Family girl. Apparently, he made quite a mess. What causes this? Is it a general reaction, or a sign that a particular part of the brain is damaged? ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2000, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-hung-and-sporting-wood-not-what-you-think/40481/8 "2000-11-12T13:58:46Z")
Just FTR… If you’re dangling from a rope, you’ve been _hanged._ If you just dangle very well on you’re own, you’re _hung_. Now, back to the cadaver boners… ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2000, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-hung-and-sporting-wood-not-what-you-think/40481/9 "2000-11-12T23:27:57Z")
I remember reading about a woman who was on trial for jail escape and the murder of her jailer. She claimed she killed the man during forced oral sex. Part of her evidence was the victim’s semen, evidenced in his autopsy. The medical examiner, though, testified that ejaculation sometimes happens as a result of trauma.