The Vagina that Bites

A couple of weeks ago my sister told me of an article she read. It was about condoms designed to protect against rape. As she went on to explain the article and the sharp “teeth” in the condom made to harm the attacker’s penis I could not believe it until I saw the Marie Clare article for myself.

Sure enough my sister was right.  After doing a little more research on the topic I found the Rape-aXe condom was developed by a female South African doctor, Dr. Ehlers, who witnessed the devastating effects rape has on a victim. Development of the condom took about four years but it now available to women in that region and was distributed during the World Cup in South Africa this year.

The basic idea of the condom is to stop a rape in progress (or even better, deter would-be-rapists to do not want to take their chances) by shocking the attacker with significant pain to his penis creating an opportunity for the victim to run away.  The latex condom, which a women would have already in place before she is attacked, has small hooks on the inside that become painfully attached to the penetrator’s penis. These hooks require urgent medical attention as...

Imagine a scene with two, or more, hot, sweaty men getting naked, kissing, giving each other head, and then  fucking without using a condom.  One guy might be a dirty pig bottom and only gets fucked - maybe by two, three, or more guys.  Or maybe they switch it up and take turns fucking each other.  There's not much talking - none of that "yeah, buddy, take that cock" stuff.  And there's no music. No lame house music track over the sex sounds or worse some cheesy porn muzak that is supposed to make you feel romantic. It's just fucking. Raw fucking. Grunting, moaning, sweating, skin glistening, turning red. sofly repeating "yeah, yeah, yeah" or "oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck" under the breath - the perfect soundtrack.  And then the cumshots. Some guys will pull their bare dicks out and shoot on the other guy's ass, back or face. Or he'll cum in the other guy's ass and watch as it slowly leaks out. Fantasy? Reality? Both? Does it matter?

Whatever it is, it would likely be labeled as "bareback sex" or just "barebacking". Just thinking about it gets me all hot and bothered and needing to cool off.  And, yeah, I think it can be a turn on, too, within certain contexts.  Mostly, I get upset at the linguistic and political connotations of this label more than I do about any personal or public health concerns that might arise. 

The term "bareback" came into use in the late nineties to describe men who actively sought...

This is a response to an article posted on Washington Post.com.

Pope Benedict XVI, during today's visit to Africa, announced that condoms are not the answer for containing the global HIV/AIDS crisis, particularly in Africa, and they actually make the situation worse.  It is assumed that his suggestion is similar to that of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II; to avoid risk of HIV/AIDS transmission, abstinence is offered as the best solution: “the pope said a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.”

This position is not new – it is simply a reiteration of the abstinence stance and now an explicit opposition to condoms as a strategy to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.  I must say, I am not surprised by this position, but I’m aggravated that religious dogma that has devastating effects is still being pushed around the world, particularly in areas where few alternative messages are pushed.  Beyond the rigidity of the Church’s position on condom use, I see a number of very problematic flaws with its stance.

Condoms make the situation worse:  The rationale for this statement is the assumption that condoms give a false sense of security and that they are ineffective against the transmission of...