Megan Maizel
Meet Jack. Jack is attracted to Jane, but during their date tonight, Jane finds Jack to be a little too commanding and controlling for her liking. She hastily tries to end their date by telling Jack she’s tired and needs to go home. As Jack walks Jane to her door, he promptly ushers himself into her house, making Jane very uncomfortable.
A couple arguments later, we find Jack and Jane upstairs in Jane’s bedroom, much to Jane’s terror. “Look, just get on the bed and shut up,” Jack says now. Not knowing what to do or how to defend herself, Jane complies, silently sobbing on her bed, dreading the next few moments of her life.
As Jack begins to rape her, Jane notes but is not concerned with a most peculiar expression on Jack’s face. He seems paralyzed, and begins to climb off her.
At this moment, it becomes apparent to Jane what had been her rapist’s grievance. As he looks down to examine himself, he has a device which has clamped onto his member, a device whose sharp plastic teeth had sunk themselves into him the minute he had started raping her.
Surprisingly, this is not a scene from a new Hostel-esque flick, but a very real, newly patented brand of condom set to go into production sometime next year. Called “Rapex” – and commonly referred to as “the anti-rape condom” – the device has been invented by a South African woman named Sonette Ehlers.
The condom is supposed to force potential sexual predators to think twice about what they do, but it really just comes off as excessively cruel.
We can’t say that Ehlers and those who helped with the production of Rapex didn’t have at least semi-good intentions, though. The condom not only attaches itself to the rapist and is unable to be removed without a surgical procedure, but it also catches any fluids that would otherwise be left inside the woman being raped. In addition to this, the blood left on the device can be used for DNA testing. On these basic levels of thinking, it’s almost a good idea.
Looking more closely at the condom, however, there are some major issues. First and foremost, we have to ask ourselves what kind of society we live in where the only way we can prevent rape is by threatening men with damaged genitalia. I would have thought we were a little more advanced than setting up barbaric bear trap-like devices to punish rapists. Though the act of rape is, in itself, utterly disgusting and barbaric, this might be taking it a little far.
Secondly, while the inventor of Rapex affirms the rapist will be temporarily paralyzed with pain after the device takes effect, leaving the woman time to escape, I think this is a little too optimistic. I, myself, can’t imagine a scene in which a man would not become extremely violent with a woman upon learning that his penis has been clamped with plastic teeth; therefore, I see a rather huge drawback to this idea.
Lastly, Rapex completely fails to address the real issue at hand. It is called the “anti-rape condom,” but does nothing to prevent rape at all. Although the man gets his “punishment,” he is still forcing himself on a woman, and that’s the bigger issue here. The trauma a woman goes through when she is raped is the most damaging aspect of the deed, and this new device cannot prevent that. It is said that with the release of Rapex, men will be more careful, but they can always just use something besides themselves to check for and remove the condom, then be on their merry way.
Rapex could be seen on shelves as early as 2007. It will likely be marketed to older single women and college females, who are frequently finding themselves alone and unprotected at nighttime. The fact that this new product is 100 percent real and supported by many women’s rights activists and rape victims is frightening. We will be seeing a lot more of Rapex in the near future, and at that time I suggest all women (and men) think very carefully about the ramifications of using it.
Megan Maizel is a sophomore philosophy and American studies major. She can be reached at mmaizel@umd.edu.
