Someone on my FB has linked to a condom thing to put barbs into a rapist

[papercliplover]

It's called "Rapex"

www.snopes.com/photos/crime/rapex.asp

I think it's a really bad idea and am struggling to articulate properly WHY.

It doesn't stop the actual rape.

It might be a fairy story anyway.

It won't work unless you walk around with a condom up your innards 24/7.

Victim blaming and smacks of "why did you wear a short skirt" = "why didn't you have a rapex in"

I meant the condom might be a fairy story - sorry that was badly worded - snopes say it's never been heard of in production

It also means that if a rapist terrifies a woman into removing it he can argue that she consented.

Also means that the rapist could prosecute the victim for causing HIM actual bodily harm.

I think it was designed in South Africa by a woman. Rape has now been classified as a weapon of war, because in such countries it is used as a means to suppress and terrorise women and is shockingly common. It is called RapeX. Of course it is barbaric, but so is raping, often gang raping women as a means to ensure they have to become your wife without the dowry kind of payment, or as a method of warfare. It is controversial there too, but I think this helps put the device into context. If you routinely feared rape, you may feel differently about this device. We are lucky to not live with this kind of terror. Or rather, we should be outraged that this invention should have been seen as necessary in any country of the world. If you're going to be offended or uncomfortable, aim it at the rates of rape in South Africa.

I had not seen this before, but for me it's on a par with that 'rape preventing clothing' that was doing the rounds a while ago.

I can see where the idea came from, in places where systematic rape/gang rape is a method of warfare and systematic control of the population, but the idea of putting the onus on the woman to prevent rape sits very, 6very^ uneasily with me.

And as for prosecuting the victim etc, the chances of getting a South African policeman to take any kind of rape allegation seriously there as a native South African is slim to none, things are changing but only with consistent pressure from Western governments and campaigning by brave women within the country. Even if you walked in the police station with the blood running down your legs it would be pretty difficult. If you lived in a place where if you went to the police, you got laughed out of the building, what is your alternative?

ProveMe - rape as a weapof war and all the other things you have listed are indeed horrific. Feminists campaign, raise awareness, etc. Thia device relies on the fact that you are being raped to help. The rapist has to have penetrated you for it to work. Leaving aside many other concerns, that is misguided at best.

Articles about it were doing the rounds a while back - one of the main points against was that if it began to be commonly used there is always the possibility that rapists would start to use other objects first and/or not raping vaginally but other orifices iirc
Also, as mentioned up thread, it could very possibly increase the risk of further violence against the victim.

I think Empire makes a really good point, a couple of them in fact.

If the Rape-aXe became something a lot of women used to harm their attackers, because let's face it, it does fuck all to stop rape, all that would happen would be that sodomy or oral rape rates would increase. Where rape is used as a weapon of war it is often used as a form of ethnic cleansing, where the dominant group rapes women of the group they wish to eliminate in order to impregnate them and prevent them having babies with men of their own group/culture, as was seen in Rwanda and is happening in Nigeria, Syria and Iraq right now. All that would happen if women used the Rape-aXe in those cases would be the death of the woman. If she can't be impregnated, she's of no use. Except in the case of gang rape, however, the woman's chances in that scenario aren't good either, raping women to death has been a tactic of warriors for centuries.

Rape is endemic everywhere. Women don't report rape everywhere. Women are assumed to be lying everywhere. I get that SA is particularly bad, in comparison to the rest of the 'developed' world, however, for an African nation, it's not doing too bad. In certain parts of Nigeria for example, women don't report because the law says that she is to blame and this is true in many parts of Africa today.

Rape-aXe won't stop rape. It will kill women.

Well said Puffins

I heard about a necklace with a hidden camera in it the other day, not to stop rape, but to film the attacker and help secure a conviction. It probably wouldn't help at all in times of war, but could it be a useful tool in general?

I agree with everything said here - thanks all for helping me sort my thoughts out

That's ok Empire . I sort of agree and you're probably right re what a man's defence would be, but the other side of me thinks, men won't stop raping, the law isn't going to get harder on them any time soon from the sounds of it, so we do have to do what we can to try and help women get convictions. It's such a difficult subject. In an ideal world, I think women should be allowed to carry tasers or at least pepper spray, but that'll never happen because a few men might get attacked for no reason, and we can't have that...[hmmm] In fact, it would probably just mean more women would end up going to prison for trying to defend themselves.

Carrying tazers etc, also then only helps with stranger rape, or are you envisaging women carrying them on their person 24/7? So that only helps with an estimated 20% of rapes.

The only thing that will help imo education to dispel the many myths around rape and then getting men onside - so the better ones dont end up 'accidentally' (poor choice of word, but hope you can see what i mean?) raping someone due to lack of explicit, enthusiastic consent, and the bad ones are ostracised for anything they do by their peers.

Imo, is education...

Jesus Christ Empire, that's horrific and incredibly distressing that video evidence didn't help at all.

I was indeed referring to stranger rape in regards to the weapons, just because this thread was started regarding condoms, which I also imagine would only be remotely helpful (or not) in the case of stranger rape - so already had that 'type' of rape in my head when I wrote the above.

I hope education will help, but the pessimist in me thinks most men know exactly what they're doing to be honest, and would continue to defend their actions with the wisdom of "lad culture".

If we could carry pepper spray, I sure as hell know I would, but then I live in London so see all kinds of rather threatening people almost everyday. I'm only 5 foot tall and often feel vulnerable getting home after work in the winter when it's dark, so being able to defend myself would give me a little bit of security. In fact, it's not even necessarily about being attacked, it's more about helping someone feel that little bit safer.

Empire, you could get a big dog to go running with - that's what I did!!

Agree with all the above. I think all these devices are essentially trying to solve a problem that can only be solved via different penalties for rapes, different prosecutions, police interventions, govt policies etc. I believe what the device and others like the camera prove are women are trying to deal with the problem in pragmatic ways and invent a solution because all those other things are still so incredibly broken. The only real way the inventions do actually help, are by keeping the media focus on the subject. Every time one comes out, it opens up the debate again which can only be a good thing.
I only wanted to really make the point that people's fb interest in it is really just as a joke thing, like all the other horrible memes out there, which seems a bit macabre when you think this is a real problem.