Human sexuality is varied and diverse, and currently most of the population can enjoy it to a greater or lesser extent, with a large number of possible ways to exercise it. However, in recent times they have appeared and become popular different sexual practices that pose a health risk of the subjects involved, and even some that are directly a sexual assault.
In this last group is stealthing, a worrying practice of recent emergence
Stealthing is a sexual practice in which one of the people involved in the relationship (usually a man) voluntarily removes the condom he was using during intercourse without your sexual partner knowing or having given consent for an unprotected relationship. Both members have consented to have sexual relations with a condom, but one of them unilaterally decides to remove the condom during intercourse. In this way, the subject’s sexual freedom is being violated and he or she is put at risk.
It must be taken into account that stealthing is a voluntary action on the part of the subject: the existence of accidents such as the condom breaking or coming off accidentally during penetration is not considered as such. Nor is it such if the withdrawal of the protection mechanism is something agreed upon by both parties.
This practice is more common in heterosexual couples, but also in same-sex couples. The subjects who carry it out usually use changes in position or stops in the relationship to remove the condom. In some cases, it has been reported that the subject has removed the condom and subsequently put it back on, although the event was not evident to the victim.
Stealthing poses a high risk for the person who suffers from it, and even for the person who practices it voluntarily. And the risk of pregnancy increases, as well as the risk of contracting various sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea.
This dangerous practice is becoming popular especially among younger people despite its extreme danger, due to the transmission of information about it on social networks.
Why is it done?
Experts consider that this practice has its origin in groups that considered they had the right to expand their genes, even though their sexual partners were unaware of the fact that were at risk of becoming pregnant or contracting a disease
Some of the subjects actively seek to cause pregnancy. Other subjects carry out this practice to increase sexual pleasure. Another common reason is that the person takes it as a challenge that the partner does not notice the removal of the condom, motivated by the risk of being discovered.
Legal consideration: stealthing as sexual assault
Although the sexual relationship itself is accepted by both parties, the practice of stealthing represents a form of sexual abuse: the person has agreed to maintain relationships under certain conditions that the person carrying out the stealthing fails to comply with. The victim of the abuse in question believes she is having protected relationships, which are withdrawn without her consent.
In short, it is a non-consensual sexual practice, which is punishable by law. As stated in the Spanish Penal Code, the person who, without consent, carries out acts that violate sexual freedom or indemnity will be considered responsible for sexual abuse, something that stealthing does. The penalties can range from one to three years in prison or fines of between eighteen and twenty-four months. And this does not only happen in our country. For example, in states like California it has been incorporated into the definition of rape
In a large number of cases, both those who practice it and those who suffer from it do not consider that a crime is being carried out or that their action is dangerous.
Many of the cases are not reported because some of the victims are unaware that it is a crime or even because they consider that by having consented to sleep with the aggressor, this practice in question is also implicitly consented to. As for the aggressor, many do not consider themselves breaking the law or carrying out abuse, or they downplay their act.
This topic must be worked on at a multidisciplinary level. In addition to working at a legal level, it is necessary to establish prevention strategies that can avoid this type of non-consensual practices, inform about their risks and their seriousness and raise awareness among the population about it.
