Here we have a unique item (caution- possibly NSFW) that, as far as I know, is the first of its kind: an anti-rape "device" that a woman can wear to foil a would-be rapist. (Hat tip to Paul at GeekPress.) It's called a "rapex."
Note: I intentionally didn't place a picture of this device in the post--if you really want to see what it looks like, click the link to the story. Possibly not safe for work--or for your kids, for that matter.
(Keep in mind that at least 50,000 rapes occur each year in South Africa--some estimate four times that many, as "most rapes of acquaintances or children are never reported.")
A South African inventor has unveiled a new anti-rape female condom 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.
It "sparked controversy?" What the heck could anyone complain about--except the rapist?
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 preoccupied at this stage," she told reporters in Kleinmond, a small holiday village about 100 kilometres east of Cape Town. "I promise you he is going to be too sore. He will go straight to hospital."
Heh. "Preoccupied" is right. And, obviously, the minute he walks into an emergency room, he's been got.
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.
(Note: the "sharp barbs" are on the rapist's side, of course, not the woman's.)
Sounds great to me. Almost perfect, but we'll have to see how it performs in actual, um, situations first.
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.
Heh. Might have trouble finding a guy willing to test this thing, ya think? There must be some potential for real injury, but I care only for the poor testers who first must endure this...this thing, then surgery on their...um...(koff) but I'd hardly care if a rapist's tool of the trade were to be permanently damaged in a work-related accident.
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 medieval and barbaric - an accusation Ehlers says should be directed rather at the act of rape.
Good grief. What people won't complain about. We might do something barbaric to a rapist. How awful!
Well, we could just shoot him on the spot, unless you think that's too compassionate. Ok, ok, right to due process and all that, I know. (Snort.) I know that innocent men are sometimes accused. But don't expect any empathy from me for a rapist.
These "critics" are doubtless some of the same people who think that your using a gun to protect yourself will merely "enrage the attacker further and possibly result in more harm being caused," you know. Leave it to the police. They can't get there in time to help, but hey, they're the professionals.
Sheesh.
(Thanks to WizBang for the Open Post.)
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