(In)visible victims: stealthing and health consequences for Brazilian women

Abstract

Stealthing refers to the practice in which a man removes a condom without the woman’s consent during sexual intercourse. This article is an investigation that portrays stealthing as an event within the broader framework of the exercise of heterosexual sexuality, intergender power relationships, and contraceptive negotiation between peers. This research aimed to highlight the web of social relationships that engender processes around unprotected sexual intercourse without mutual agreement. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten women who had been victims of stealthing. This article focuses on the sexual, reproductive, and mental health consequences of the act in their lives. The empirical material comprises ten in-depth interviews with women aged 19–58 living in Brazilian urban areas. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The complex power relationships established in the couple engender different outcomes: respondents reported a search for post-intercourse emergency contraception, stories of pregnancy, abortion, STIs, the lack of support from professionals and institutions sought, different consequences for their mental health and the challenges of debating stealthing more clearly due to its invisibility in the Brazilian context. Stealthing is a gap in the scientific, legal, and popular literature that needs to be addressed. Taking on the intergender tension on the issue of stealthing, between female autonomy and male responsibility, is a central theme for those researching gender inequality in the field of sexuality in the social sciences and health.