‘Stealthing’ is just wrong and in many places illegal

Ellie: “Stealthing” isn’t a common word, but it’s adding significantly to the language of far too-common sexual assault.

It describes purposeful condom removal during intercourse, when a partner’s consent has only been given for condom-protected sex.

It puts that partner at risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and pregnancy. It’s wrong, deceitful, and is increasingly being considered illegal.

This is new information to many — and was to me, too, very recently. But not knowing the law is no excuse and doesn’t absolve a perpetrator of this wilful act. It’s essential to get this information understood and widely known. “Consent” is at the crux of legal decisions regarding sexual assault.

Alexandra Brodsky, a research fellow at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C., conducted a study published by the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law last April about stealthing.

Brodsky explains, “It’s a common practice among young, sexually active people.”

In the United Kingdom, stealthing is more clearly seen as a sexual offence. The Sexual Offences Act (2003) describes someone as guilty of the offence of rape, sexual assault, and/or assault by penetration, if the partner doesn’t consent to the act or the perpetrator doesn’t reasonably believe that there was consent.

According to the news agency RTS, a Swiss criminal court ruled that if a condom was expected but not used, having intercourse without one legally constitutes sexual assault.

Stealthing isn’t currently included in Canadian law, as I found. But the emphasis on a partner’s required consent — as in agreeing to have sex only with condom protection — does invite interpretation of a crime by the courts.

In a case called R v. Hutchinson, a Supreme Court ruling in 2014, upheld the sexual assault conviction of a man who’d poked holes in a condom, though the woman hadn’t consented to unprotected sex, and she became pregnant. The case expanded the definition of “fraud” that can bring consent into question.

This is information vital for all young people, male and female alike, and even for long married or cohabiting partners. Stealthing isn’t just a buzzword. It carries the meaning of sexual control and manipulation, under growing consideration as an illegal assault.

“Spreading their seed” is not a male right, as some men have claimed on online sites. Without consent, the sex act can devastate one partner and might land the other in jail.