South African doctor invents female condoms with ‘teeth’ to fight rape
I try not to get too caught up with reading the news, as it’s generally all depressing. This is horribly escapist of me, I know. But, oh well.
I’d heard about this particular little bit several months ago, while the product was still in development. I’ve always been interested in things like this. While I was still in nursing school, my plans were to either become a psychiatric nurse, or to go to work for Planned Parenthood or a similar organization. This doesn’t quite fall under the heading of “family planning” or sex education but is related in a lot of ways, so I’ve tried to keep up with the news regarding this particular item.
(You’ll likely have to read the article first before any of what I’m about to say makes any sort of sense but, it’s a short one.)
Now, even more so than I try not to get caught up with reading the news, I try not to vocalize my opinion of it all that often. Not that I don’t have opinions, everyone does, obviously. But it seems as if most people are very unwilling to agree to disagree on a lot of things. Not that I blame people, necessarily, because things like politics are very important to a lot of folks and when you feel that something is affecting your life in a very large way, it’s hard to back down from your viewpoint, or at the very least to say “You know what, you might be right” to someone who is arguing the opposite side of the fence.
I’m sure that this will be no different but as it so happens, this is something that I feel very strongly about. So here goes.
I think that this is an excellent idea for a number of reasons. In West Africa– the area known as the Congo, which as been dubbed by some as the “rape capital of the world– women are brutally raped, often by several soldiers at a time. They are often brutalized in other ways, both physically and mentally. There are stories of women being given the option to either be raped, or watch their entire families being killed. (To boot, there are stories of several cases where, after a woman has been raped, her husband leaves her because she has brought shame to her family by “engaging” in this act.) Women have been raped with objects such as weapons, which can sometimes be discharged while inside of them, obviously leaving them severely injured and potentially incapacitated for life, if it does not kill them.
So, something like a rape condom would seem like a god-send. Although the article does not specifically point out the implications in situations like this, I have no doubt it will make its way into use in this manner before long. However, as the article DOES mention, there are obvious concerns that if a rapist encounters a woman who has this anti-rape condom in place, he will simply beat or kill her instead. To a man who has no problem gang-raping a woman and then killing her entire family, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he’d have no issues with simply killing the user of this product.
I also do not think that this item is going to deter anyone from raping, at least initially. After he has experienced it, potentially. If it so happens that he is prosecuted and jailed for his actions then likely he will think twice before raping again. I just feel like at first, at least, it is not going to be an effective deterrent to any man who is bent on violating a woman in this fashion.
And lastly. This may be the controversial part of my opinion, but. I’m interested to see where this goes as far as protocol for when a man comes into a hospital to have an anti-rape condom removed. Does that mean immediate arrest and incarceration? Unfortunately, there are some women out there who use rape accusation as a weapon against men, or as a means of exacting revenge for some perceived wrong. This makes it difficult for men in this situation to make a case for themselves. Hopefully there will be something equating to due process but even then, just like it is already, it will be difficult to prove that the woman presented herself as a willing partner in the activities, only so that she could later say she had been raped.
So, yeah, anyhow. These are just a few of my thoughts on this subject. By and large I think that it’s a huge step in the right direction, on many fronts, but as it is with any development, there are drawbacks and kinks to work out. Like I said, I’m really interested to see where this goes, and potentially what new legislation it creates regarding its use.
