Is “Stealthing” Sexual Aggression? Perceptions, Experiences, and Motives Within a Spanish Sample

tests for ordinal motivational scales. The results revealed a profound gender gap: women reported an exposure rate more than double that of men and were significantly more likely to classify the act unequivocally as sexual aggression. Regarding the aggressor's intent, a "hedonistic consensus" emerged, with both genders attributing the behavior to sexual pleasure. However, a critical dissonance was found regarding coercive traits; women significantly endorsed motivations related to power, control, and the manipulation of consent, whereas men minimized these factors, viewing the act through a lens of sexual entitlement rather than violence. These findings support theories of rape myth acceptance and suggest that while women decode stealthing as a threat to safety, a significant portion of men fails to recognize the inherent coercion. Implications for violence prevention emphasize the urgent need for gender-specific interventions that challenge the normalization of deceit in sexual interactions and reframe condom negotiation as a nonnegotiable component of consent.