I can't see this taking off. But rape in South Africa is very, very bad. It goes hand in hand with AIDS. Anything that would help is worth it.
Many of the people that are infected by AIDS go to their witch doctors to seek a cure. There is a legend, started by the witch doctors, that if you have sex with a virgin, you will be cured. These virgins usually aren't willing, and so are raped. And then the original AIDS infected man is still infected, so figures that the victim mustn't have been a virgin and looks for someone younger. And so the vicious cycle of rape and AIDS continues.
Hopefully these things help some girls. Although instead of catching AIDS, they might just get killed by the rapist instead. It is a horrible, violent world in South Africa (and sadly - one of the most beautiful countries in the world, too).
BTW - My wife is South African and got out almost 15 years ago. She still has extended family there.
The version in Snow Crash was better: it delivered a injection of total anesthesia, allowing safe escape for the victim and apprehension of the offender.
This risks getting the victim killed. It also may find its largest audience not among women freely choosing it for self-defense, but traditional fathers in some cultures forcing it on their daughters -- the same men who sometimes 'honor kill' their daughters or nieces who've had premarital sex, whether that sex was consensual or rape.
Arming women and teaching them to forcefully defend themselves significantly reduces the incidence of rape.
Women are often advised to use non-aggressive
strategies against sexual assault[3]. Research
suggests that this is a poor advice.According to one
study, women who used non-forceful verbal
strategies, e.g, crying or pleading with the assailant
were raped about 96% of the time[4].
Forceful verbal resistance, including loud screaming
was more effective than non-forceful verbal
resistance. These strategies were associated with
completion of rape from 44%-50% of the time[5].
Running works even better than verbal resistance.
Researches indicate that only 15% of women who
attempted to flee were raped[6].
Forceful physical resistance is an extremely
successful strategy. The completed rape dropped to
14% when the rapist’s attempt was met with violent
physical force. Striking was more successful than
pushing or wrestling. Physical resistance also
appeared to be more effective when assault occured
outdoor[5].
Women who used knives or guns in self-defence
were raped less than 1% of the time. Defensive use
of edged or projectile weapons reduced the rate of
injury to statistical insignificance[7].
Whether this particular strategy will be effective or not, I don't know. But I can easily imagine the class of rapists who give up when the woman merely yells at them might decide they really don't want to deal with this.
Naively, if I wanted to reduce the incidence of rape, I'd make switchblades standard issue for young girls and tell them to seriously attempt to do maximum damage when threatened.
Though it might work differently in South Africa.
*I had read this before, but had to google for the paper. It looks good to me, but I cannot vouch for its reliability.
Children can be taught to handle weapons. In Somalia, boys as young as 9 serve in militias and handle automatic rifles. That's abusive and wrong of course, but they're evidently responsible enough with them to be useful to somebody. And in Switzerland, children routinely take part in shooting competitions at 13.
And of course, kids handle kitchen knives and pocket knives from a very young age. It depends on the household, but six or eight isn't unusual; it can be as young as three in some cultures.
Even in this culture, early elementary school kids are taught serious things like when to dial 911 and when not to. Learning when to use a weapon isn't that much harder.
If rape is a serious problem, arm the dang girls. Or at a minimum teach them to fight and run.
this looks to me like one of those security things that can only work because it isn't used widely. Won't a carrot defeat this? If adoption becomes widespread, the trick will be known and therefore useless.
They may be enraged, but according to the article won't be able to walk, and therefore the victim would have a chance to escape.
Regarding infections, women walk around all the time with tampons/birth-contol devices, etc. in and infections are not a concern for most as far as I know.
Though I do agree that if it became widespread an attacker would simply check first.
You're a young 'un, I'd bet. Those of us who are of a certain age will remember the Dalkon Shield (and similar IUDs) causing severe infections and the first-generation OB tampon causing toxic shock (since it allowed longer use before replacement than previous tampon types).
Tampons are changed out relatively frequently and are not generally worn every day. Self-applied birth control devices are not generally worn all day, every day -- there is something just a little bit more predictable about opportunities for voluntary sex than there is for sexual assault.
I use NuvaRing for birth control and have been doing so for a few years now, and it's a flexible plastic ring which sits inside the vagina for three weeks at a time with no removal during that time. There are some IUDs and more that are left inserted for years. Menstrual cups, an alternative to tampons/pads, can be left in for a recommended max of 12 hours, but I'm sure there are women that use it for far longer without removal and any problems.
There was a past where IUDs and tampons (not even just high-absorbency, but the materials used for certain ones...) caused TSS and more, and the risk factor is still kinda there, but nowadays it's almost unheard of. And just keeping something in a vagina doesn't mean it's about to turn into a toxic breeding ground like it did in the past. Not that I support this condom much, but it's probably not unimaginable for a woman to keep it inserted for most of the day if she wishes to, no worries about TSS or whatever else.
I've been occasionally hearing about the invention (but never use) of this for a while now.
"It not only presents the victim with a false sense of security, but psychological trauma," said Victoria Kajja, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Uganda.
But Ehlers said that she had taken the proper research and development steps before launching the product.
"I consulted engineers, gynecologists and psychologists to help in the design and make sure it was safe," she said.
Well, yeah, but that's not what that particular criticism was about.
Ehlers also pointed out how women take extreme measures such as placing razor blades in their nether regions to prevent rape in South Africa.
...that's pretty bad. I wonder if it actually helps any?
In the AIDS capital of the world, using razor blades and causing someone to bleed all over your genitals seems like the exact opposite of what you'd want to do.
Rape-axe is inserted like a tampon and when embedded to a man the device can only be removed by a doctor.
I don't buy this at all. Doctor's aren't going to have some super secret method of Rape-axe removal, they're just going to cut the device off carefully.
From the looks of it, this will shred the inserted penis and likely cause bleeding directly into the body of the victim. As traumatic as rape is, this seems like guaranteed infection, whereas not wearing the device should give the victim at least a few seconds to attempt to fend off the attacker.
Many of the people that are infected by AIDS go to their witch doctors to seek a cure. There is a legend, started by the witch doctors, that if you have sex with a virgin, you will be cured. These virgins usually aren't willing, and so are raped. And then the original AIDS infected man is still infected, so figures that the victim mustn't have been a virgin and looks for someone younger. And so the vicious cycle of rape and AIDS continues.
Hopefully these things help some girls. Although instead of catching AIDS, they might just get killed by the rapist instead. It is a horrible, violent world in South Africa (and sadly - one of the most beautiful countries in the world, too).
BTW - My wife is South African and got out almost 15 years ago. She still has extended family there.