The Vagina that Bites

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 the attacker will not be able to urinate or walk with the hooks attached and can only be removed by a doctor. While no long-term damage is done to the attackers penis he will have small scares remaining.

While I think protecting women from rape is extremely important I still have too many questions to completely be behind this device. For instance, can the condom be removed by a knowing attacker before he penetrates the woman? Also, the device can be wore for up-to 24 hours, are they reusable after that? If not, at the cost of $2.00 - $2.50 each can women in the target regions afford the device? Will women whom use the device be at risk for later retribution from the scarred and bitter attacker, especially if she is knows her attacker personally? What are the mental health implications? Will women have to constantly think about and plan when they going to be raped, whether or not they need to wear the Rape-aXe every time they leave the house? Finally, does this still put the responsibility of preventing rape on women? Will people say “well if she did not want it she would have been wearing a Rape-aXe” much like women have be blamed for attacks because of the clothes they were wearing?

I think Dr. Ehlers intentions are admirable. I hope we see a dramatic decline of rape in the areas wear Rape-aXe has been distributed but until then I still have a lot of questions to be answered.