Didn’t Stephenson’s dentata also have quick-acting sedatives on the pointy bits, though, to increase the woman’s chances of getting away?
Are there real-life drugs that could act sufficiently fast for that to be practical?
I’ve gotten amorous with dates who had forgotten that they were wearing a tampon until I found the strings myself. I can foresee at least one young woman, maybe a college student, “forgetting” that she has one of these in until her date or maybe a guy she consentually hooks up with at a party, starts screaming and bleeding.
It seems like a good idea in parts of Africa, but not in North America.
And I know that someone, I don’t know who, is going to disagree with me on the ‘Africa vs North America’ characterization and throw some statistics at me, but I stand by my statement.
That;'s kinda like what happened in Snow Crash…
Two problems with that: 1) Hallucinogens don’t cause people to pass out. As their name suggests, they cause people to hallucinate. 2) Virtually all hallucinogenic drugs are illegal almost everywhere.
You’re kind of missing the point. Whatever the agent is just needs to cause an immediate, overwhelming, incapacitory response in the rapist. The point is a workable device could be developed.
Then, she would have to scream rape because she might get charged for assault. Wonderful! I can see how this is sooo workable.
Gee, so could it’s mis-use. Imagine the stoner guy going to the pharmacy trying to buy these just to have access to the hallucinogenic, only to find out that the only way to get high is to acutally use it or wear it.
Lol. That’s too funny. But seriously, there are ways to minimize abuse, such as via some sort of prescription only distribution mechanism. And again, a hallucinogen doesn’t have to be the agent.
Pure capsaicin may get the point across.
Though badly written, it seems from the FAQs that the first “back stroke” after initial penetration will theoretically cause the hooks to engage, and withdrawal will leave the “Rapex” attached to the perpetrator’s penis.
Wouldn’t they need one in both their vagina and their anus?
Seems like that would hurt the woman as much as, if not more than, the guy.
OK, leaving the “rapex” device aside, what about a modern-day chastity belt? One that women put on themselves (leaving the key at home, etc., so you can’t be coerced to open it) as self-defense. Like body armor. (One would assume you’d need some idea as to your ordinary daily schedule, so you don’t have it locked in place when you need to run to the restroom.)
Granted, this could cause all sorts of personal discomfort issues (the aforementioned restroom problem) and possibly impede EMS assistance (the medical staff in the ER who cut your clothes off to treat you after a car crash will likely wish you weren’t wearing such a thing), but what would the effect be for personal assault safety? The objections to the rapex fall into a few categories:
a) it’s impractical to implement (or simply a hoax, so why discuss it at all)
b) it’s dangerous to allow any penetration at all (esp. if the device causes the rapist to BLEED into the victim)
c) it opens the victim up to assault/liability charges/suits (from the assailant, from consensual sex partners, etc.)
d) frustrating a rapist in this way will likely result in worse harm (possibly death) to the victim
So regarding a chastity belt:
a) inconvenient/uncomfortable, yes; impractical to implement, no. Such a device could easily be built, requires few moving parts, and would be an effective way to prevent penetration (of either orifice).
b) no penetration/bleeding would occur
c) no harm is done to an assailant/sex partner by this device (no more than ramming themselves into a brick wall would, anyway)
d) this is the remaining point. Seems a matter of personal choice, to me, which is worse–being raped, or being (possibly) beaten harder because you made it impossible for the rapist to complete his act. IMO, once someone has you in that sort of power, you can’t trust that they won’t kill you, anyway, so you shouldn’t make bargains like, “well, if I let him rape me, then he’ll go away and not hurt me any more”. But that’s just me. (And I’m a guy, not a girl, so I can’t presume to speak for women on this subject.) Plus, in most crimes, delaying the criminal is usually key–the longer a criminal takes to commit his crime, the greater his chance of getting caught.
I don’t know if it’s a hoax or not, but since its launch was delayed back in June of last year no news is to be found.
If such a device were to be employed, I don’t see the woman surviving the encounter. He’s already overpowered her. Now he’s pissed off. You might as well rig the device to explode for all the good it would do the woman.
All this talk about vagina dentata and armored chastity belts are bullshit non-answers to the problem of rape. Revenge fantasies, at best. Rapex can be beaten by sticking your finger in there first. A chastity belt gets beaten by a bolt cutter. Worse yet, both devices operate on the principle that the woman can not help but be raped, and can only be saved by passive devices such as these.
Why not stop the actual rape? Why don’t we address the causes of rape and stop them? Why don’t we reform the social and legal conventions that make a barbed condom an attractive alternative to going to the cops? Let’s eliminate the instability and complete lack of law that makes rape so prevalent in some parts of the third-world.
Of course, that’s hard, and may take generations to fully crack. So in the meantime, why don’t we teach women that they don’t have to prepare for rape as an inevitability? Teach them basic self-defense, including tips on personal safety. Fucking arm them, and not just in their vaginas. This has the benefit of defending against assaults other than vaginal rape by unprepared assailants, like simple muggings for example. More importantly, it sends a better message to the women about what they can do to better their lot.
Crime flows along the path of least resistance. So for every 1% more effort it might take to rape a woman, some lesser percentage of rape will occur.
I don’t disagree at all (and, obviously, this whole chastity belt thing is just a thought exercise), but the distinction between passive and active defense is the distinction between a locked door/security system on your house and a 9mm under your pillow. Both may protect vs. intruders, but some may not wish to own a gun. And there’s nothing that says you can’t have both a locked door and a gun.
It would seem to me that the whole idea hinges on the likelihood of being raped. Is the plan that you wear these 24/7 just in case you become the victim of a sexual assault at some point in your life?
If that’s the way we’re going, sign me up for a big bubble to live in for the next 50 years or so, in case anything out there might hurt me!
And, while we’re at it, why don’t we stop teaching women that the worst thing that could ever happen to them, worse than death itself, is to be raped?
I mean, I’ve been there, and granted, it ain’t fun. But it’s also not the end of the world. There’s less physical damage and risk of death with a garden variety rape than to a gunshot wound. The only reason there’s more psychological trauma to rape than to mugging is because we teach girls they’re “ruined” if they’re raped. We work them into a state of hysteria because they’ve been irreparably violated and tell them they’re going to be fucked up for years because of this. It’s total patriarchal women-as-property antiquated bullshit. It’s root is the exact same female oppression mentality which leads fathers to kill their daughters after rape because they’ve disgraced the family.
Sure, here in the good old enlightened US we don’t literally kill our daughters for having the audacity to be raped, we just ask them why they were out so late wearing a short skirt and then tell them they’ll never have normal sexual lives after this. Which all too often becomes a self-fufilling prophecy. If they like sex too much, it’s because they were raped and they’re acting out. If they don’t like sex at all, it’s because they were raped and they’re frigid as a result. If they like sex sometimes but not others, then it’s obvious how their rape has them confused. If they have normal sex drives and healthy sexual relationships, they’re obviously repressing their pain and it will come out sooner or later and ruin their lives if they don’t get help now.
What, me, bitter? Nah.
I think a locked door is an inherently different thing than a booby trap concealed in your genitals.