Stealthing is a new form of sexual assault and it is the act of when a man removes a condom during intercourse. This new form of sexual assault is on the rise and most women are unaware of its prevalence. A study which was published in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law stated that ‘stealthing’ is equivalent to rape and needs to be treated as such in a court of law.
The lead author of the study, Alexandra Brodsky, found online communities where men would encourage other men to engage in such atrocious behavior. It was during Alexandra’s research for her study where she uncovered an online community with both heterosexual and homosexual males who were encouraging one another to ‘spread one’s seed.’
In an article published in The Independent, an unidentified man stated that he stealthed because ‘it feels better with no condom on.’And then again during an interview on Hack, a man by the name of Brendan said that he wasn’t too concerned with the risk of spreading STI’s (Sexually Transmitted Infections.)
‘I really don’t want to get them pregnant so I definitely wouldn’t be leaving a trace. As for STIs, I don’t want to get them but I would run the risk. There’s a risk crossing the road and we all do that.’
Alexandra hopes that her research will inspire and incite new rules and laws which will include ‘stealthing’ as criminal behavior.
During an interview with The Huffington Post, Alexandra said: ‘one of my goals with the article is to propose a new statute. Also to provide a vocabulary and create ways for people to talk about what is a really common experience that just is too often dismissed as just ‘bad sex’ instead of ‘violence.’’
During Alexandra’s research, some of the women she interviewed as part of her study said that stealthing was ‘rape adjacent’ and that it was ‘a blatant violation of what we’d agree to.’ It was in May of 2017 when stealthing was deemed a sex crime and added to the definition of rape in Californian law.