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Stealthing: the risks of this practice in sex

Stealthing: the risks of this practice in sex

March 18, 2024

Human sexuality is varied and diverse, and currently most of the population can enjoy it to a greater or lesser extent, there are many possible ways to exercise it. However, in recent times they have appeared and become popular different sexual practices that pose a risk to health of the subjects involved, and even some that are directly sexual assault.

In this last group you will find stealthing, a worrying recent practice .

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What is stealthing?

Stealthing is a sexual practice in which one of the people involved in the relationship (usually a male) voluntarily withdraws the condom he was using in intercourse without your sexual partner finding out or giving your consent for an unprotected relationship. Both members have consented to having sex with condoms, but unilaterally one of them decides to remove the condom during intercourse. In this way, the subject's sexual freedom is being violated and put at risk.


It must be borne in mind that stealthing is a voluntary action on the part of the subject: it is not considered as such the existence of accidents such as the condom breaking or being accidentally dislodged during penetration. Nor is it if the withdrawal of the protection mechanism is something agreed by both parties.

This practice is more common in heterosexual couples , but also in same-sex couples. The subjects who carry it out often use position changes or stops in the relationship to withdraw the condom. In some cases, it has been reported that the subject has removed the condom and then has put it back, not being obvious to the victim the event.


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A high-risk practice

Stealthing poses a high risk to the person who suffers , and even for the person who practices it voluntarily. And it increases the risk of pregnancy, as well as the spread of various sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea.

This dangerous practice is becoming popular especially among the youngest despite its extreme danger, due to the transmission of information about it in social networks.

Why is it done?

Experts believe that this practice has its origin in groups that considered they had the right to expand their genes, even if their sexual partners were unaware of the fact that they ran the risk of becoming pregnant or infected by some disease .


Some of the subjects actively seek to cause a pregnancy. Other subjects carry out this practice to increase sexual pleasure. Another common reason is that the person is taken as a challenge that the couple 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 It is a form of sexual abuse : the person has agreed to maintain relationships under certain conditions that the person who carries out the stealthing fails. The victim of the abuse in question believes that he is maintaining relations with protection, which is withdrawn without his consent.

In short, it is a non-consensual sexual practice, which is punishable by law. As stated in the Spanish Penal Code, a person who without consent carries out acts that attempt against liberty or sexual indemnity will be considered responsible for sexual abuse, something that stealthing fulfills. The penalties can range from one to three years in prison or fines of between eighteen and twenty-four months. And this does not happen only in our country. For example, in states like California has been incorporated into the definition of rape .

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The need for prevention and awareness

In a large number of cases both those who practice it and those who suffer it do not come to consider that a crime is being carried out or that its action is dangerous.

Many of the cases are not reported because some of the victims ignore that it is a crime or even consider that having consented to sleep with the aggressor that practice in question is also implicitly consented. With regard to the aggressor, many do not consider themselves to be violating the law or carrying out an abuse, or they dismiss their act.

This subject must be worked on at a multidisciplinary level. In addition to working at a legal level, it is necessary to establish prevention strategies that they can avoid this kind of non-consensual practices, inform about their risks and their seriousness and raise awareness among the population in this regard.


WARNING: Stealthing Explained (March 2024).


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