Non-consensual condom removal
Non-consensual condom removal, or “stealthing”, is the practice of a man removing a condom during sexual intercourse without consent, when his sex partner has only consented to condom-protected sex.] Victims are exposed to potential sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as HIV/AIDS, or unwanted pregnancies. Such behaviour may be therefore regarded as sexual assault or rape, and sometimes as a form of reproductive coercion. As of 2020, stealthing is punishable as a form of sexual violence in some countries, such as Germany and the United Kingdom.
Purposefully damaging a condom before or during intercourse may also be referred to as stealthing, regardless of who damaged the condom.
History and practice
In an article about stealthing published in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, Alexandra Brodsky described victims’ experiences, legal implications, and legal avenues to address stealthing.[2][5][6] The term stealthing has been in use in the gay community to describe the criminal transmission of HIV since at least 2014.
Brodsky described how the practice of stealthing is discussed, described, and advocated for on various websites and forums. These forums are sometimes used to brag about committing stealthing and to share tips on how to do it. How-to guides have been posted to social media platforms like The Experience Project. The practice has also been described as “a threat to [a victim’s] bodily agency and as a dignitary harm”, and men who do this “justify their actions as a natural male instinct”. Columbia Law School professor Suzanne Goldberg says that the practice of stealthing is likely not new, but its promotion on the internet among men is new. Belgian journalist Heleen Debruyne emphasised in 2017 that the media should not refer to stealthing as a ‘new sex trend’ as if it were a harmless fad, but make clear that it is a ‘form of abuse’.
Teitelman et al. (2011) found that condom negotiation is often silenced by male partners in adolescent relationships, partially due to the woman’s fear of her partner’s response, a feeling of obligation, and a lack of knowledge or skills in negotiating condom use. To prevent this, it is important that male partners are reached with the information as to why condoms are beneficial for them as well. Forums for this outreach could include community-wide interventions fostering discussion of healthy and unhealthy relationship practices and prevention programs for HIV/AIDS and STIs. Schools can provide a safe site for prevention interventions, but high-risk adolescents who are not in school must be reached through additional means, such as in community centers or detention centers.
Statistics on the prevalence of stealthing are limited. However, a 2014 study by Kelly Cue Davis and colleagues reported that 9.0% of participants in their sample of young men reported having engaged in condom sabotage, which included non-consensual condom removal. The National Sexual Assault Hotline reports receiving calls about stealthing. A recent study from a Melbourne-based sexual health clinic asked women and men who have sex with men (MSM) attending the clinic whether they had experienced stealthing, and analysed situational factors associated with the event. 32% of women and 19% of MSM reported having ever experienced stealthing. Women who had been stealthed were more likely to be a current sex worker and MSM who had experienced stealthing were more likely to report anxiety or depression. Both female and male participants who had experienced stealthing were three times less likely to consider it to be sexual assault than participants who had not experienced it. Two other studies were recently published with U.S. samples. One study found that almost 10% of young male non-problem drinkers reported having engaged in nonconsensual condom removal since the age of 14. Men who had engaged in this behavior reported higher rates of STI diagnoses and partners with unplanned pregnancies than men who had not engaged in nonconsensual condom removal. In another study of young adult women, 12% reported that they had experienced nonconsensual condom removal by a male partner, while none of the participants reported engaging in nonconsensual condom removal themselves.
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Brianna Chesser and April Zahra (2019) stated in Current Issues in Criminal Justice: “While the majority of complainant accounts indicate that this crime is perpetrated by men, it is also possible for a female to ‘stealth’ her partner and remove the condom without her partner’s consent. It follows that both men and women can both be victims and perpetrators of stealthing.” A 2013 article in The Week speculated: “Both men and women can be perpetrators of birth control sabotage. In fact, women have often been stereotyped as purposefully trying to get pregnant against their partner’s desires as a way to ‘trap’ a man. But the issues of reproductive coercion and birth control sabotage have recently gained more attention because of a Canadian case [R v Hutchinson], in which a man poked holes in a pack of condoms so his girlfriend would get pregnant and stay with him.”
Legal issues
In her review, Brodsky called for stealthing to be legally considered as a kind of sexual assault, but also reviewed the difficulties in doing so: In all legal areas, breaking an agreement usually is not considered a crime, and that misrepresenting one’s true intentions does not make a sexual act illegal. Thus, the most successful argument for making stealthing punishable would be the inherent pregnancy and infection risk of unprotected intercourse.
Source Wikepedia
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