Anti-Rape Condom?
 

South Africa anti-rape condom aims to stop attacks


KLEINMOND, South Africa (Reuters) - A South African inventor unveiled a new anti-rape female condom on Wednesday that hooks onto an attacker's penis and aims to cut one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world.

"Nothing has ever been done to help a woman so that she does not get raped and I thought it was high time," Sonette Ehlers, 57, said of the "rapex", a device worn like a tampon that has sparked controversy in a country used to daily reports of violent crime.

Police statistics show more than 50,000 rapes are reported every year, while experts say the real figure could be four times that as they say most rapes of acquaintances or children are never reported.

Ehlers said the "rapex" hooks onto the rapist's skin, allowing the victim time to escape and helping to identify perpetrators.

"He will obviously be too pre-occupied at this stage," she told reporters in Kleinmond, a small holiday village about 100km (60 miles) east of Cape Town. "I promise you he is going to be too sore. He will go straight to hospital."

The device, made of latex and held firm by shafts of sharp barbs, can only be removed from the man through surgery which will alert hospital staff, and ultimately, the police, she said.

It also reduces the chances of a woman falling pregnant or contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases from the attacker by acting in the same way as a female condom.

South Africa has more people with HIV/AIDS than any other country, with one in nine of its 45 million population infected.

Ehlers, who showed off a prototype on Wednesday, said women had tried it for comfort and it had been tested on a plastic male model but not yet on a live man. Production was planned to start next year.

But the "rapex" has raised fears amongst anti-rape activists that it could escalate violence against women.

"If a victim is wearing such a device it may enrage the attacker further and possibly result in more harm being caused," said Sam Waterhouse, advocacy co-ordinator for Rape Crisis.

Other critics say the condom is mediaeval and barbaric -- an accusation Ehlers says should be directed rather at the act of rape.

"This is not about vengeance ... but the deed, that is what I hate," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050831/...NlYwMlJVRPUCUl


Interesting concept - I would have never conceived of such a thing as this! I cannot imagine that a "live" man will want to be the guineau pig for this testing! :laugh:

this toooo funny, smart tho, but too funny :lol: ~

I swear they better pay the guy who tests that something in the millions...

Its a good idea, though...

I wonder why the...
 

lack of volunteers??? They (The rapists) act man enough to violate a woman let em be man enough to quality check it cause it sure sounds like that would leave 'em with a lasting memory (And alotta pain.)

what's going on down there is enough to make you lose hope in the human race. I've seen several shows on it, it's....indescribably disgusting. a huge proportion of girl children, and some babies too, get raped. I don't know if this will help, but god I hope it does. I think that lady is somewhat right, that it could incite rage in the perp - they better make it so painful that he won't be able to think about anything else.

barbaric?? who gives a *****?? if someone rapes me, I'm all about vengeance....I guess it's better than having mr happy CUT off...which would be the alternative for me... :shrug:

So, is a woman expected to wear this all day, every day for her entire life? I mean, how can she plan for an attack?

yeah..I was kinda wondering that too...."oh mr big ugly guy...could you hold just a sec while I slip this condom in that is gonna rip you're weewee apart...this will only take...wait....just....a sec...o.k..." :laugh:

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: My thoughts exactly...

That's what I'm wondering.

It likely will never pass Constitutional muster for two reasons:

1. it is inflicting a punishment prior to conviction of a crime

2. bad women can use it to punish someone not actually raping them, e.g. a cheating husband.

Or a stubborn jar of olives.

:shocked: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I love you for that :cool:

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Please don't ever stop posting here. :)

I am soooooo envisioning a Gary Larson comic on that :eek:

The younger girls are the ones getting raped in huge numbers, because supposedly, people there think you can cure aids by sleeping with a virgin. I hope the young girls will wear them. I'm sure there won't be problems with wearing them for hours at a time. :shrug:

I'm astonished at the amount of laughing and joking in this thread.

I am neither laughing nor joking when I say that if this thing gets on the market, some nutbag will fetishize it.

I'm sure you're right. That really isn't the part of the whole point of this that I'm concentrating on, though. If you see what I mean. To me this is an extreme serious problem, a horrible epidemic.
But, yeah, I'm sure someone will.

It's the point of what the products are for. You can joke, obviously, I was just expressing my opinion. But I can't find any levity in the whole situation knowing what I know about it. That's just me, I guess. I usually go for the cheap joke, but I, personally, find it repugnant in this context. In fact, I can't separate the product from it's context here. Especially since it only has one purpose, for one huge problem, and was developed for that problem specifically.

Why not? I'm thinking it won't be that difficult. I mean, 11 year olds wear tampons. :shrug: I haven't seen the design of the thing, of course, but they've tested it, so it must be somewhat "do-able". I'm not sure about babies or very, very young children. I would think anyone 6-7 or above could wear it. But again, I haven't seen the design. :shrug:

Dunno. I'm not sure it would be painful, because I haven't seen that. And usually the area can stretch to accomodate. I don't know, honestly. Maybe I'll see if there's any more info on it. :) Oh, and yes, 11 year olds do. I was 11 :shrug: sometimes nine year olds. It's thought to be younger now because of all the hormones we pump into beef. (which we then eat). Not sure about chicken or pigs, if they get hormone shots. Ah, the circle of life, so pure and good, it warms my heart.

i'm not laughing, i 2 watched a docu about this & it was so alarming how much of this happens~ it is outa control~ it breaks your heart because it has become an epidemic just as aids has become there~ it's astonishing~

the laughing i was doing was about the device, i mean get a man where it really hurts, VERY deservingly so, that's what i call "getting down to brass tacks"~

actually your first point is inaccurate: the punishment is only inflicted at the MOMENT of the crime. INSTANT justice if you ask me.

as for cheating husbands, dont they deserve it?

EDIT: ok, I misread. I thought he meant commission not conviction

but I find it odd that the article mentions that 50,000 reports are made each year and 4 times that many are believed to occur, but no numbers on convictions? Who the hell gets convicted? I submit that the situation is out of control precisely because there are relatively few convictions.
Thus, the device identifies a crime in progress and should overwhelmingly be approved by the Government in my opinion.

I edited my other post, as you were posting yours. Does Africa use the "innocent until proven guilty" ethic that America (supposedly) uses? :shrug:

at any rate, the device is meant to be a deterrent and if no rapes occur, there is no punishment prior to conviction OR commission. simple.

I thought #2 could be an issue as well. I was also thinking that while rape is an awful act of violence, could this rape condom cause further violence? I mean, would the assailant lash out and kill the woman he was going to rape?
Will rapists merely begin sodomizing their victims instead?
It's clear that something needs to be done, and althouth this might not be it, this may be something crazy enough to draw more attention to the situation and lead to a more feasible deterrent.

and what would THAT be?
the only other thing I can think of that would *possibly* work is to make the punishment fit the crime: WHACK OFF the offending organ. I surmise it would only take the Government a short time to get the message across...

btw: in the article, the inventor stated that the rapist (after having encountered this condom) would be in too much pain, and too busy trying to get it off, to do further violence to the woman...

if you ask me, its a wonderfully thought out little thing-a-ma-jig.

I understood you.

About the product--I just don't see how there could be an issue with selling it because there's a possibility of it being used on the wrong person for the wrong reason. We sell guns here knowing that they could be used in that way. :shrug: Also, Lux had a good point about the pepper spray.

Well, naturally the inventor of the device is going to claim that it wouldn't elevate the rape into a more violent act.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...pe_condom_dc_1

The article in the link above states that anti-rape activists feel that it may cause more violence. It is a legitimate concern that can't be discounted just because the inventor says so.
Also, this device is supposed to be a deterant to rape, but wouldn't capital punishment also be a deterant, and a greater one at that, yet capital punishment was abolished in South Africa a decade ago. Many people feel that because of the nature of rape, there really aren't any deterents. It's not like other crimes that are premeditated.

http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/ASR/11No2/Schonteich.html
"It would appear that the majority of murders, rapes and assaults in South Africa (as in most countries) are not committed by calculating individuals who plan their crimes and weigh up the pros and cons of committing them. Rather, most of these crimes are committed in a moment of passion, anger, thoughtlessness, spite or drunkenness. The fear of being punished harshly if they are caught and convicted for their deeds, does little to prevent the criminal actions of such offenders".

As far as what other options there are, I certainly do not claim to know, or I wouldn't be sitting here posting this message, I'd be doing something about it. I don't feel this device would be practical, or completely effective, but as I said, it has brought national attention to the matter and that is someting in itself.

Not really. I mean some chick could trick the guy in an act of revenge. It certainly happens in regular rape cases :shrug: Note: this does not mean many rapes are valid - they most def. are - but bad people exist.

strand runs and hides from the femi-nazis

that is because you hate all men and penises and the thought of torturing them gives you glee :shrug: You also cannot fathom that some women would ever use this device in a bad way because women can never do anything wrong - it is always the fault of the penis.

It assumes a crime, which must be proven. But, you will never admit that because you hate men and all women are victims and the thought of a woman deceiving a man is foreign to you, though it surely happens :shrug:

So, a bereaved husband of a cheating wife can spray pepper spray in her vagina as an act of revenge and your okay with that - nice.

I base my comments on prior conversations with Mary where she has said she has little time for evil men, women are victims of men, etc. But, I'll let her explain herself :cool:

As for me, I think men rape women all of the time and that is a horrible act for which the men should be convicted with no exceptions. But, in the context of this device, the possibility that it could be used in a bad way by a small number of women does not make its use worthwhile. That is all I am saying.

I want to prevent those too :shrug:

I think the difference is that it's sort of like being automatically guilty. You can shoot someone, or hit them with a brick, but that's not an automatic implication that you were being raped. I think that if a man goes to the hospital because he has one of these things stuck on his penis the implication is that he was trying to rape someone, when perhaps he was under the impression that he was having consentual sex, and it could possibly be a case of the woman being malicious. If you go to the emergency room with a gunshot wound, or a concussion from a brick, they don't automatically associate that with rape.

I do not understand this device. If it can be so destructive to the penis, what is it doing while inserted in the female? I mean, it could really hurt her if something went wrong with it. I think that in theory it is a good idea but to put it to use doesn't seem feasible.

In theory, that could be true, but I'm not sure you understand the scope of this problem. I'd call it a national emergency. And I think the instances of "women seeking revenge" would be so small as to be negligible, if not nonexistent. And this place does not have a justice system like America. Or a culture like America. There is little protection at all for women here, and few resources and processes for anyone to be brought to justice. These aren't isolated cases, in fact, it is the norm.

"Two men are due to appear at a court in Johannesburg on Tuesday, accused of raping a five-month-old girl who was discovered covered in blood and in tears.

It is the latest in a series of rapes of baby girls - some of them involving children less than one year-old, which has left South Africans reeling with horror.

Every day the newspapers bring awful revelations: a nine-month-old girl gang-raped by six men; an eight-month-old raped and left by the roadside.


I don't know how to take my anger out. I don't know why he did this

Mother of abused child

Outside the central Johannesburg magistrates' court, 200 demonstrators gathered carrying banners with slogans like "child rapists are not human".

Yet many protesters seem unable to understand why the rapes are happening.

"I don't have an answer, it's inhuman, it's inhuman," one told me.

Rape statistics from South Africa are so shocking as to be almost unbelievable - women's rights activists say one South African is raped every 26 seconds.

It is the young who are particularly vulnerable, with the police saying that more teenagers are raped than any other age group.

But even in a country numbed to horrific events, these cases are bewildering to South Africans, and making them question where their society is heading.

Unearthing truth

It is hardly believable - but some think that this is not new, only that a horrible truth is finally being acknowledged

Alexandria
Township youngsters are among the most vulnerable

"Actually it's not a new phenomenon, it's been something that you hide, you regard it as an embarrassment within the family. But now people have started to talk, they've decided that they've had enough," a woman protester told me.

A typical story reveals the horror.

On a poor Johannesburg estate, a family of eight sleep in one dirty bedroom.

Last week a neighbour seized the nine year old daughter, showed her pornographic magazines and then raped and indecently assaulted her. He gave her a few coins, and said sorry.

The little girl needed extensive surgery - her mother and father are inconsolable.

"I'm very angry, I'm very angry, I don't know how to take my anger out. I don't know why he did this, he used to come here and play with my children..." said the mother.

The father said he wanted to hunt down the rapists.

"How many parents' hearts must be broken?"

He is not alone in his rage.

Last weekend in Soweto a suspected child rapist was stoned to death.

The government is appealing for calm.

Myths

It is also trying to dispel a widespread rumour - that having sex with a virgin cures Aids.

Traditional healers, or witchdoctors, are blamed for spreading this idea, and encouraging child rape.

A sociologist, Lisa Vetton, draws a parallel with Europe, when child prostitution was rampant

"At that time venereal disease like Aids today was incurable. If you had gonorrhea or syphilis you were going to die. And exactly the same myth emerged, that sex with a virgin is going to cure you - so it seems like a very old response whenever sex and death are combined. Suddenly women - girls - get attributed with magical healing powers".


We must re-educate and empower men

Politician Nomvula Mokanyane

Some demonstrators are calling for longer sentences, even castration. Others are more considered.

Local politician Nomvula Mokanyane says that under apartheid, African men were stripped of power and prestige. Now they take their revenge on women, and on tiny children.

"We must re-educate and empower men. There are those who are sick who need to be re-educated. My worry is that men's power is threatened so they use their sexual organ to inflict pain on women."

South Africa's history, its poverty and the Aids pandemic all give insights into how some men behave.

But the rape of tiny children leaves people as mystified here as they would be in any other part of the world.

There is revulsion, but there is also bewilderment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1703595.stm

I understand the scope of the problem. I am not arguing it's magnitude, but I don't feel that this device is the solution. I was also not arguing this method being used because I think there would be wide spread abuse of it. I don't really think that would be the case in South Africa as much as it would be in the United States. I was just responding to the comparison of people using a gun or a brick to prevent a rape as opposed to the anti rape condom. I believe what it said in the article I posted the link to that in the cases of crimes like rape the act is usually not premeditated, and therefor methods to deter it would not be effective. I also was reading that statistically in South Africa a large percentage of the rapes are comitted by family, or other people known to the victim.

As I've been reading this thread I've been thinking about the anti-rape condom, and how really it wouldn't deter anyone. For one thing, the rapist would have to know that the woman had the "condom" inserted. Is it not still traumatic to be penetrated? Is it not rape if the act is cut short, and the man does not ejaculate? The rape is still occuring.

I know this idea wouldn't go over well, but honestly it would be much more effective in keeping penetration from occuring and that would be to use something like a chastity belt. I know rape is so much more then the penetration, but I would think it be better to prevent the actual penetration then to just use a method that only stops it after it has been initiated already.

okay, then.

Well, as to the device bringing more violence, I believe that IF a rapist was snagged by this little gadget in the midst of a rape, his first act would be to Pull OUT and try and get the thingie off. As I understand it, it cant be removed by any means other than surgery so the rapist would be only hurting himself if he tried to remove it. Im assuming that this in itself would prevent him lashing out at the woman (who by now would be getting the heck outa Dodge if she's got half a brain) so, on the contrary, I can certainly understand the inventor's claims. The Anti Rape groups certainly havent been effective with all their speeches and candles have they?
huh.