I picked this up from cagekitten
I was surprised at first at how fast my reaction came. I feel very strongly about this and am going to state my opinion right off the bat. I don’t like it.
This of course is going to open me up for a huge flame war and I’ll lay money where the first flames come from.
So here it is folks. The newest weapon in the war against rape:
The Anti-rape condom
I have no love of rapists and firmly believe that anyone who commits a crime that heinous should be put away with little to no chance of parole.
Quite simply, by definition Rape is a Sexually violating someone against their Will. And all joking aside I consider myself a thelemite who practices sexual magicks. In other words if there is any one single act that I must be the most tuned about it is not violating the will of another especially sexually. The idea of someone doing this absolutely sickens me. And there are issues here on a personal level that go far deeper that I will not go into, period.
Now, that being said (for what little value it will carry)
This is a weapon. Plain and simple. Like a gun, a sword, a garrote. This is a concealed item that is designed to cause damage. And we know how well everyone plays with guns. Everyone uses them for defense and hunting only, right? No one would ever use it to commit an unfair crime or worse carelessly not use it for its designed purpose.
I’m going to set up a situation. He cheated on her. She’s angry, she wants ‘vindication’ She buys one and acts coyly towards him. He gets all apologetic and she ‘forgives him’ They have make up sex. Well, no, he gets a barbed reminder of what it costs to hurt a woman. Then of course to add insult to injury she tells her friends that she bought it to protect herself from him because he might try to go after her.
Okay, some of you may be thinking, “Yeah, he had it coming.” Actually, if there’s anyone subscribed to me who feels this is fair treatment for being cheated on… Do me a favour… Unsubscribe from my journal. No offense, but judge, jury, and executioner from an unbiased source… just wrong. As despicable as you may find his act, this is not a justified punishment. On the other hand, some of you are thinking, “Gods, Andrei, you really are paranoid… No one would do this.” You know, I’ve seen nice girls get drunk off their asses and turn into the biggest, most vicious monsters in the world.” Personally, I can retell stories of the behaviour of an Aunt of mine directly to me when I was 12 because she was an alcoholic.
The truth of paranoia is that the worse thing you can imagine is something that 100 other people wouldn’t think twice about committing.
My biggest concern is that while it could help the problem, it will create a very dangerous other problem. Now, I’ve heard the argument that rape is a question of power control. The “only” solution is giving the power back to the potential victims. Power comes from education. Power comes from control. No matter how big, how angry, introducing more weapons of pain and destruction aren’t going to help. They won’t slow the attacks because the rapist doesn’t care. Once these things are known by the public, women will be manually violated by rapists to make sure they are not ‘booby trapped.’ There are far more reaching things to help this situation than making this situation more dangerous to everyone including the potential victim. Especially when the victim can be on either side of the bed.
Fghting the situation by creating more damage… that’s not an answer in my mind.
As well as this will be used, it will be abused, and people innocent or otherwise will get hurt. Through misuse, through mistake, and at worst… through intention.
I like the intent… I don’t like the execution.
But then again, many will just say I’m biased and don’t want to do what’s necessary.
Yes, I feel strongly about this.
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Maybe we should do away with kitchen knives too.
One thought that came immediately to mind…
… is that if a man is going to stick his penis into a woman, then I’d hope he would check to make sure that he trusts her not to injure him in this manner.
Re: One thought that came immediately to mind…
Firstoff, this is a fantastic arguement. It has made me think of how to respond. This whole topic does enter into a very sticky ethical world and I do appreciate being made to think over my initial gut reaction.
In a rational world around rational people I would agree with you.
The problem is that there are too many people who lack the sexual maturity to put that forethought into their sexual realtionship that people like you and I would consider commonplace and necessary.
This in turn leads me to ask. If a man does not check to make sure that he trusts a woman not to injure him with this; does he deserve it if he is not in fact raping her?
To me..
.. it seems common sense to know what you’re getting into. Literally. Yes, I do think that there are women out there, like Ms. Bobbitt, who will use devices like these to injure men without cause. And I certainly hope that malicious use of those condoms will be persecuted to the full strength of the law.
That said, I think it comes down to the man figuring out if it’s “safe” to enter a woman in an intimate fashion. If he has to stop and ask himself, “I wonder if she’s wearing one of those spiky condoms” then perhaps he should also stop and ask what he’s doing there in the first place.
Of course, this conversation would be completely different in a culture where 50,000 rapes happen each year, probably more than that due to the ones not reported. If I were a woman in living in circumstances that require me to arm my vagina with a spiked condom, then perhaps I wouldn’t be able to see both sides so clearly. Thank gods I have the luxury of not packing….
Strange but true
There was a rapist in the Berkeley, CA area who was forcing women to perform fellatio on him. He was not armed with any sort of weapon. That seemed like the most misplaced trust in the world, to me. I can only think that it must not have even occurred to these women to take a good, strong bite.
So, while I agree with your thought, truth is sometimes totally unbelievable….
Re: Strange but true
I can imagine what the rapist would say next:
“You @#%$%#$%$# @%$%$# #$%$! I’ll kill you!”
The last thing the victim ever sees is him grabbing her by the throat and choking her to death. Or the barrel of a gun or the point of the knife used to punish her for her actions.
Re: Strange but true
Well, I hear that. But I also have trouble imagining anyone who’d been bitten severely across his penis (and or scrotum) having that much presence of mind, at least for a few moments. And I hope any woman who had enough (kof) balls to do the act would be prepared to take off and run screaming.
However, I do consider your point valid. Things to think on.
Hi, I said something over on cagekitten’s lj, but I’ll post to you directly too. I do think your arguement is well thought out. My initial thought (and I am a survivor of what this device is meant to prevent) was that there could be no wrongs arising from this device. However, I will agree that there are some nasty women out there who may use it to punish a boyfriend. So, with that in mind, I will have to be won over to your arguement.
You are quite right, of course. That thing is a weapon, and a horrible one at that. I find it ironic too, because last I heard, wives in South Africa were getting brutally beaten for asking thier philaderous husbands for wearing a condom in the first place. The high HIV rate comes from a huge illegal prostitute trade and a society that allows men to do pretty much whatever they want carnally speaking. Although I daresay my info may be a tad dated, I’ve been trying (relatively unsuccessfully) not to constantly read depressing news.
If he was a gentleman….
he would have found out during foreplay that something was amiss.
Re: If he was a gentleman….
Hehehe, that was going to be my comment. This is just a guess, but I figure rapists aren’t big on foreplay. A boyfriend, even a dog of one, should be.
Aaaaaargh, I’m on the fence on this one. On the one hand, GREAT defense mechanism. On the other… yes, this could totally be misused. And, unlike with other household items that could be misused, the person admitted to the hospital with this is going to be treated like a rapist.
I just don’t know.
Well, it is developed in SOuth Africa because rape is a huge problem there and little is being done about it. I think (hope?) it isn’t something that will catch on here, I’d rather just see people take that crime more seriously.
I am minorly familiar with Thelema – so I think I can possibly read where your coming from.
I posted a possible legal question in journal where I thought there was a possibility that the ‘victim’ could argue that the woman was being overly provocative and wanted to be ‘pursued’ in that manner just so she could hurt men.
I just don’t like all the issues this would bring up. I have seen posts here saying “maybe we should just get rid of knives”. Well, that is a fundemental attitude that keeps reproducing the same rhetoric we find in today’s courts. It’s not the weapon – It’s the INTENT.
Oww.
I absolutely agree, from the point about Will all the way down to “Spikes in my WHAT??”
Superglue, maybe. But Spikes? Not in this woman’s universe!
So, it is better that thousands of women are raped in Africa than one risk one psychopathic woman damaging one idiotic man?
Of course not. Altho I can certainly follow your argument to that point. But even in SA, I suspect that anyone who gets spiked would have the same followup that ???angel??? brought up regarding my suggestion of biting the man in half — adrenaline-fueled anger resulting in more injury or death to the woman.
And I can certainly see the SA courts — which, if I recall reading correctly, are about 40 years behind us regarding blaming the victim of rape — putting the woman using the spikes in jail for damaging the man.
I honestly don’t know how to fix the problem of rape in SA. I think it is more of problem of the society for not valuing women more than cattle. It won’t stop men from raping babies because they heard that doing so will protect them from AIDS. I don’t know how to solve this problem if poverty and violations of basic human rights is the real issue.
Unless of course the inventor can come up with a device that disembowels, I doubt this thing would be much effective in stopping rape in the long term. >:D
I think if anyone knew how to fix it, they’d do it. I sure hope so. But, speaking as someone who lives in an area quietly inhabited by a lot of polygamous Mormon families, women/children as cattle is something that not even our culture has fixed.
Now, that makes even me cringe!!!
When I was studying Psychology of Human Sexuality at SFSU, we had a discussion about inventing a device very much like this, and we had the same pro/con arguments. Interesting. In the end, it was decided a better idea would be to invent a condom that would stain the penis some really obnoxious color for a few weeks.
Bad idea! The man may bleed all over the woman after he is cut off, which would give her AIDs anyway.
I was thinking this the whole time I was reading. I wonder what amount of blood loss is actually caused. I understand the desire for a device like this in an area like South Africa. I’m just not sure they thought it through all the way. The article mentions the man would be distracted so a woman can escape. Um, I’m thinking debilitated beats the hell out of distracted. Until they can make something that would lay a guy out for certain they are inviting retaliatory actions. There is good and bad to anything I guess.
She can always lie and beg him not to rape her for his sake, since she already has AIDS. If he threatens to do anything to her that would shed her blood, she could say the same thing, claiming to be only thinking of him. Would that work?
Probably not. I’ve read more than 25% of the population in that area is infected. The response to her claim could be, “So what, I have it too.”
Didn’t I read somewhere that saying you were menstruating worked significantly better as an off-putting statement than any STD? Which I find weird, but, hey — if it works…
Wouldn’t the condom hold in the blood?
Trust me: if a man’s penis is wrapped in sharp barbs, the pain would totally disengage him. A man’s genitals, much like yours, are VERY sensitive.
if a man’s penis is wrapped in sharp barbs, the pain would totally disengage him.
For a little while- but then it could also piss him off. Especially a mentally ill, violent rapist; their own pain becomes less of a priority than does getting revenge on the one who caused it. Psychotics are able to detach themselves from their pain quite well.
For a little while? You suggesting a rape victim hang around and find out what happens next? I think the idea is to let it work, get up and RUN. The initial pain should provide the time necessary.
And as for the assailant giving chase, I don’t care how psychotically insane he is: a guy with a barbed-wrapped penis, whether or not he pulls his pants back up, is NOT going to run fast.