RAPEX

[Elforel]

Just some interesting news i found...wondered what you think about it!

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Capote anti-viol
Afin de lutter contre le taux de viol en Afrique du Sud, l'un des plus ?lev?s au monde, Sonette Ehlers a con?u un pr?servatif f?minin dot? de milliers d'aiguilles. Rapex, bien que controvers?, devrait ?tre commercialis? en 2006 dans son pays.
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Anti-rape female condom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from Rapex)
The anti-rape female condom (also known as anti-rape condom or by its intended brand name, Rapex) is an device invented by Sonette Ehlers, a south african woman, and intended to prevent rape by hooking onto the attacker's penis, thereby hurting and disabling the attacker.

The device itself is a latex sheath held firm by shafts of sharp, inward-facing microscopic barbs that would be worn by a woman in her vagina like a tampon. Should an attacker attempt vaginal rape on a woman wearing the device, the skin on the penis would, upon penetrating the latex sheath, be hooked by the barbs, causing the attacker pain and --ideally-- giving the victim time to escape.

The device would remain attached to the attacker's body and could be removed only surgically, which would alert hospital staff and police.

Also, by acting the same way as a regular female condom, the anti-rape female condom would reduce a woman's chances of being impregnated or becoming infected with HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases by the attacker.

The device was unveiled on August 31, 2005 in South Africa, where the rape rate was extremely high as of that date, and production will start the following year if severe criticism is overcome.


Criticism
Critics, women included, have objected to Ehler's invention as "medieval" and "vengeful, horrible, and disgusting" [1] and oppose its future sale in drugstores as planned. Others fear that use of the device would enrage the attacker and further jeopardize the victim [2].

Possible background to the idea
The idea of a toothed device to protect women from rape is rooted in ancient myth (see Vagina dentata) and had already been explored in fiction (e.g., in Snow Crash, a novel by Neal Stephenson)[3] prior to Ehler's invention.

[x31eq]

It made me think of Snow Crash, but I see you've beaten me to that.

I'm sure it'll happen.

[Elforel]

well, i wrote nothing of it!
First part is from Le monde Newletter, and the second from WIKIPEDIA

[daniel]

OMG we had this SAME discussion in another forum...

I think it's quite stupid actually...

[whatis]

it's pretty horrible, but so's rape.

i don't think it'll work in practice, but it sounds pretty good in theory, in a one-sided way...

[ruth1998]

I think it sounds great. Rape is one of the worst things in the world for a woman to go thru, and the men doing so need to be stopped somehow...

That's a good point about how it might enrage the attacker, but I, being a girl, am not so sure how painful it would be. painful enough to make him lie there whimpering, or blind with rage?

I've read up in particular on the rapings in Africa. Some horrible stories. Torture with wood pegs and such. And then the whole woman circumcising... freaking ouch.

I'm all for anything that would have the rapists experience severe pain as a consequence. at the risk of sounding hateful, i will say that pain is nothing near what they deserve.

-angry lady

[blue]

Critics, women included, have objected to Ehler's invention as "medieval" and "vengeful, horrible, and disgusting"

As is rape. So, an appropriate response, really.

I'm not convinced about the practical application - people can be raped whether or not they possess vaginas, something most don't give a lot of consideration to, I'd guess. Rape is not about sex, it's about humiliating and subjugating another human being, and men do that to other men (and to children), not just to women. That makes rape a problem for everyone alive in the world as far as I'm concerned, or it should do. So how do we help to protect vulnerable males, and children, from rape? This device is of no use to them. Plus there is the inevitable fact that if women start to wear these devices, the men who attack them will simply stop using the vagina, and use the anus instead. When the object is to make yourself feel powerful by reducing another human being to a state of terror and humiliation, it doesn't matter which hole you use to accomplish it.

I can't understand why anyone would feel the need to actively oppose the sale or use of this device; that strikes me as extraordinary and sinister. It comes perilously close to the implicit suggestion that men have some sort of 'right' to rape (a belief that's more widespread in this godforsaken world than you might imagine) and that women are somehow being unfair if they fight back! Now THAT worries me a hell of a lot more than some women walking around with this device in their bodies.

If it does go on sale I'll be fascinated to hear the first reports of its effectiveness. I find the idea of a wannabe-rapist ending up in the emergency room with a bleeding dick highly amusing.

[ruth1998]

*raises and eyebrow*

very well put elizabeth. very well.

the solution to all rape of course doesn't lie in a mere device, no, no, this world and the people in it are much to screwed up for that to make too much difference. It lies oh, so much deeper, almost making it seem a helpless case, as if horrible things like rape will never lessen or stop completely. What a depressing thought.

[blue]

As long as so much of the human race is so determinedly unwilling to face and tackle these things, they will always be commonplace in the world. I think all we can do is try to find a way through it, if it has happened to us.

[Angie]

I'm not sure I understand this fully. What would stop a would-be attacker from removing it from the woman before the rape?

[RobB]

Perhaps he wouldn't know it was there until it was too late.

Knowing our silly laws in the UK,chances are the rapist would probably be able to sue the victim for GBH.

[ruth1998]

[censor] that.

makes me so blinkin' mad just thinking about it.