Sex trends come and go and, for the most part, they are pretty harmless. Edible underwear, for example, is not the greatest idea in the world from a practical standpoint but, every few years, companies churn out a new version of the old idea and people eat it up – literally.
But while the appeal of edible underpants can be debated, there are some trends that are more black and white. That’s the case when it comes to the newest trend on the sexual radar – Stealthing.
Simply put, the act of Stealthing involves the removal of a condom during the sex act, but without the female partner being aware of it. It was recently the focus of a research paper published in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law and has since made headlines all over the world.
The published paper focused on the legal implications of Stealthing and whether or not it could be prosecuted as a form of non-consensual sex, though even the authors were reluctant to use the word ‘rape’. Instead, they framed it as rape-adjacent since the act begins as consensual but soon turns into something the woman did not agree to.
When you look up Stealthing online, it isn’t difficult to find plenty of guys sharing their experiences, fantasies and even tips on how to remove a condom quickly and silently enough that their partner doesn’t realize it is happening.
Popular websites such as The Experience Project, Quora, and even Twitter are home to entire groups of men into what they refer to as “Stealth Sex”. They offer tips, encouragement and – every so often – an actual voice of sanity. But instances of users pointing out how misguided and potentially dangerous the practice is are few and far between.
Stealthing has now been covered by a wide range of publications, from Forbes and Huffington post to Teen Vogue. But even with all this coverage, there are still people who think it isn’t really that big of a deal – after all, sex is sex, right?
Wrong.
The act of Stealthing is about more than just doing something without your partner’s knowledge. The removal of a condom during sex or purposely sabotaging a condom exposes partners to pregnancy and the transmission of various STDs. But the recent focus on the subject could pave the way for actual legal ramifications as well.
Of course, sabotaging birth control isn’t new. There have been stories about women poking holes in condoms of skipping their birth control pills and not telling their partners as a way to get pregnant. Sometimes it was just so that a woman could have the baby she wanted or, in more sinister cases, to trap a man and trick him into marrying her. This unfair, dangerous practice was widely known about but had never been publicly discussed much less prosecuted.
The new attention condom sabotage has received as a result of the paper on Stealthing and it has become a talking point across all social media platforms. Both the straight and gay communities have a vested interest in the issue as safe sex with condoms is about more than just preventing pregnancy.
While the law will take some time to catch up in most countries, a man in Switzerland was arrested for Stealthing in January of 2017.Details about the case were kept from the public in order to protect the identity of the people involved. The case was reported in The Guardian and the only real detail was that the man received a suspended sentence and that the two had met on Tinder.
Stealthing is, no doubt, about to become a very hot topic. Both men and women have been known to engage in the act of sabotaging condoms and other forms of birth control but now people are ready to take legal action. The development of this issue proves that sex is an ever changing issue and one that sometimes brings out the worst in people.
