Thanks to Melissa for sending this story:
(CNN) — South African Dr. Sonnet Ehlers was on call one night four decades ago when a devastated rape victim walked in. Her eyes were lifeless; she was like a breathing corpse.
“She looked at me and said, ‘If only I had teeth down there,'” recalled Ehlers, who was a 20-year-old medical researcher at the time. “I promised her I’d do something to help people like her one day.”
Forty years later, Rape-aXe was born.
Ehlers is distributing the female condoms in the various South African cities where the World Cup soccer games are taking place.
The woman inserts the latex condom like a tampon. Jagged rows of teeth-like hooks line its inside and attach on a man’s penis during penetration, Ehlers said.
Once it lodges, only a doctor can remove it — a procedure Ehlers hopes will be done with authorities on standby to make an arrest.
“It hurts, he cannot pee and walk when it’s on,” she said. “If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter… however, it doesn’t break the skin, and there’s no danger of fluid exposure.”
OK, so it does not prevent a rape. It also does nothing to make women feel safer. But it would sure help a lot with identifying and punishing rapists. And what the heck, hurt them where it, er, hurts, too.
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Wow what a great idea! Would make those men think twice! My only worry would be those countries which don’t tend to punish men for rape. Who knows, they may want to punish the women for hurting their private part or make a law against the condom!
It’s a good idea on the surface, I would just be terrified of what would happen to a women after a rapist got angry with her for using it.
Well, I’m not a guy, but my quick survey of same suggests that anyone caught with that thing on would think of one thing and one thing only, and it ain’t retaliation. Besides, rapists are dangerous beasts regardless, so what do you have to lose defending yourself? Me, if I have to go down, I’m going down fighting.
I can see this going wrong. From what I’ve heard on other discussions, gang rape is a large part of the problem. Even if this thing is painful enough to disable one man, his friends will still be out to avenge him.
I suspect that many of these will be removed not by doctors, but the guy down the pub with the kitchen knife and bottle of vodka. A risk of more serious injury, but if the alternative is jail…
I think at the very least the guy is going to take some time to panic, try to get it off, see it’s getting tighter, panic some more and all the while his victim can be making her getaway. I think it’s a great idea! The guy would have to get help which would effectively mean turning himself in.
Question though: Does this mean a woman has to put one on everyday of her life just in case she happens to get raped?
I wonder why only doctors can removed it? Can it be cut? I’m very curious to see how it works.
I suspect a woman would have toput one on everyday if she fears getting raped.
I think it can be a factor in contexts where ra*pe is an epidemic. In South Africa for example there are half a million rapes annually and almost one in four men (23.2%) admit (that’s admit) having raped. Of these men who have admitted rape over half have raped more than one person. In such a horrific context as this I would imagine this device could become a means of fighting back, and may even become a context changing deterrent.
It wouldn’t be worn nearly as frequently in other contexts, I would imagine, and may be irrelevant in many contexts. In contexts such as SA however I think it could be a very significant development.
A friend of mine posited this concept on Facebook a month or two ago and there was quite a debat about it. The thing I like about is that it might make a guy think twice about raping a woman and I think that it is possible for it to prevent rape if he thinks this will happen. If enough women are wearing this, or if men so much as THINK that women are wearing this, they are less likely to take the risk of attacking a woman in this way. That’s my theory at least.