I'm not a lee, but with respect to male lees, I would think that communication of sexual feelings, and "evidence" of sexual arousal would be....um....."evident"?...
I suppose that would be especially true if the lee were wearing bicycle shorts.
Actually you raise a good point (no pun intended), although I can't remember that ever being a problem with me even as a young man. Mostly because I require intimacy and privacy in order to...uh...rise to any occasion. I can often feel stimulated without engaging the mechanics normally associated with full arousal. As the years have passed, my body has learned not to rush into things.
😉
When it happens without prompting and is a natural result of the persons who is doing the ticklings personality then there is no issue.
The pleasure the lee derives, while not the intent of the ler is personal, and no different then if the 'ler' happened to wear a type of outfit that pushed the 'lees' buttons just right. It's an unintentional arrousal.
There was no intent in the situation from either party regarding any sexual element.
However,
If the 'ler' starts to seek out and arrange situations where the 'ler' will tickle them to produce the arousal result without knowledge, then they are starting to treat the 'ler' as a object to use for their personal gratification. Basically making the person an unknowing sex tool.
Once you are inviting the action you have crossed a line.
You have added intent to your interaction. Thus you are now seeking a sexual goal from the other person. That's a very different thing then the one above with no intent.
One can find all sorts of issues with that action under many different morality sets, though not all. You'll need to do a check against the moral structures you hold to see if it's an issue.
Myriads
I have indeed checked and while I'm completely comfortable with this aspect of my lifestyle, it's rarely a bad idea to reexamine one's code of ethics.
I would agree that a ticklee who purposely arranges to place himself in such situations is seeking sexual stimulation, but to me the term "goal" connotes resolution and finality. Unless the ticklee is looking to achieve an orgasm as a direct result of the tickling, I wouldn't call it a "sexual goal."
As for "starting to treat the 'ler' as a object to use for their personal gratification" well that's pretty much a fact of life all around, isn't it? Vendors treat potential customers as "objects" for financial gain. When we go to a concert aren't we treating the singer or comedian as an object for gratification by entertainment? Even amongst those with whom we're closest don't we sometimes fish for compliments, reassurance, or validation?
I have literally spent my life in the pursuit of placing myself in ticklish situations, doing exactly what Myriads describes above. I've gotten quite good at instigating tickling responses from females who have no sexual interest whatsoever. Most of the women who have tickled me had no reason to believe it was sexually stimulating, although some did seem to derive the fact intuitively. Still, I never pointed a gun at anybody, nor have I blackmailed anybody. Most of the women who tickled me enjoyed doing so, just not for sexual reasons. They either thought it was funny, amusing, or both. In other words they got something out of the situation as well.
I remember at one point, I began to feel guilty that I was getting so much enjoyment out of life. I was getting tickled on a daily basis, by numerous women, with no end to it in sight. I began to feel that anything this wonderful HAD to be wrong in some way. So I stopped pursuing it altogether, and distanced myself from the ladies who were tickling me. After about three days of this, one of my co-workers, Clarice, sought me out and approached me in my solitude. She asked me what was wrong, and why I didn't want her to tickle me any more. I was taken off guard, completely unprepared for this, and my response was something like, "Er...well I...uh...that is....ahem...you see..." She then plunged into me and that was the end of my haitus from tickling. It was also the end of any doubts I had about the ethics of it.