Rape Condoms Equipped with Teeth
By Samantha Sullivan
Staff Writer
A condom prototype known as the RapeX Anti-Rape condom was launched in Kleinmond, Cape Province, South Africa August 31, 2005. If you haven't already heard of the product, you are hearing about it now because it will hopefully be approved and released this year for a little more than the current price of a regular condom.
I say hopefully because this condom could mean that fewer survivors of rape in South Africa will be forced to accept that not only have they been raped, but they may also have HIV.
According to AOL's blog site Black Voices Blogs: AIDS 25 Years & Counting, over 5.5 million people were HIV positive in South Africa by the end of 2005, and almost 1,000 AIDS deaths [occurred] every day. This condom was invented in the hopes that those who are raped will be less likely to become pregnant by a rapist, or to contract HIV or AIDS.
The RapeX Anti-Rape condom is a device that a woman can wear whenever she feels she may need it. Sonette Ehlers, the inventor, feels that women can wear this whether she is going to a place that is unfamiliar, or she is on a blind date.
The condom itself is endowed with microscopic hooks that dig into the rapist's penis when he pulls out of the woman he is attacking. The pain that this man will suffer may then provide a window for the woman to escape from his control.
While inflicting pain on a rapist may seem like reason enough for the condom to be approved, my personal favorite attribute of the condom is that it can only be successfully removed from the male surgically. The rapist will not only suffer tremendously, but he will also be caught red-shafted, if you will. Ehlers came up with the idea from working with rape victims for over 20 years in South Africa. She got the idea from a combination of a young woman [who was] raped who said If only I had teeth down there, and hearing about a young man admitted to a hospital for getting his penis caught in his trouser zipper and the excruciating pain [it caused], AOL's site said.
While I would agree with the fabrication of this product, I can somewhat understand the complaints of those against it. Members of the AOL Black Voices Discussion Board have shown mostly acceptance of the product, but some have also expressed their concerns. A man, under the username uncontainable spirit, seems to be mainly pro-production, but he is concerned that [a] person who is pissed for some reason at a man [may use] this against him as a form of punishment.
Another user, under the screen name of Phenicks, expressed her complete approval of the anti-rape condom, saying that any rapist might deserve to feel a similar amount of pain to that of the pain they inflict on their victims. Although, she said she would prefer putting a taser gun to the rapists testicles.
Although the RapeX Anti-Rape condom is receiving mixed reviews all over the world, I believe it will be widely accepted before the end of summer. There are far more benefits than there are consequences. The promise of a life with one less burden for future South African rape victims, and those around the world, if passed, is an amazing prospect.