Check out http://rapestop.net
It talks about Rapex, a device which a woman can insert into her vagina that will sink barbs into a mans penis if he tries to have sex with her. I think this is a terrible idea.
What if a girl wants revenge against a guy, and gets him to have sex with her while wearing a Rapex? In response to the question “Will women not use this to frame men?” they write in the FAQ:
“Of course it is possible, as everything can be abused. But there will be legal consequences."
But in response to “What about date rape?” they write:
“For the first time there is now incriminating evidence, it will no longer be your word against his!”
How can there be legal consequences for her if she has incriminating evidence against him? Not only does the man get sexually mutilated, but he will almost certainly be sent to prison (for decades and where he probably will be raped for real) and be branded a sex offender for life. Can anyone provide a good defense an innocent man could produce against such a tactic?
Not only that, but in response to the question: “Will it cause permanent damage to the rapist?” the website says:
“No, not if he gets professional help without delay.”
How do they know this? I doubt that they have done any tests, even on nonhuman animals. Removal surgery would probably not have a 100 percent success rate. And what if a doctor, who thinks that a falsely entrapped man is a rapist, decides to enact their own form of justice (or repeat crime prevention) by deeming total removal of his penis medically necessary?
On top of this, what if a woman forgets to take it out? He is seriously injured. And she might just be motivated to cry rape if this happens to avoid consequences for her forgetfulness.
How do current laws address this? I think it is illegal for me to set a bear trap in my house to stop robbers. Wouldn’t Rapex be illegal for similar reasons?
Yes, there are a lot of potential issues with the device. But, really without giving it a trial run there’s no way to know that one way or another. And if the rate of rape in South Africa drops from a million a year to 100,000 the year that it is released, personally I would say it is worth it for the price of a 50 of false claims.
If I’m the kind of person that will forcibly rape you, what kind of person am I going to be once I realize that I am badly hurt at your hands (or vagina, in this case)? I predict a lot of women penetrated, then promptly beaten to death.
Without being an actual advocate, I’m going to counter a few of your points just for the sake of this being Great Debates.
Well, men should exercise care in choosing their sexual partners.
It’s the flip side of “what if a man wants to use/abuse/harm a woman and gets her to have sex with him?” Sex has been a minefield for women for millenia. This does level the playing field a bit, although I’d rather see it leveld by reducing risk for everyone instead of incresing it.
Women have framed men for rape for a long time, this is nothing new.
In Illinois, there was a rather notorius case involving Gary Dotson and Catherine Crowell. Ms. Crowell feared she had become pregnant through sex with her boyfriend and wanted a “cover story” to “explain” her condition to relatives. She did this by framing Mr. Dotson. It turned out she wasn’t pregnant after all. That’s just one example.
So although this raises the possibility of a new means of falsely crying “rape!”, men are at risk of fale accusations and convinctions even without it.
Again, men should exercise caution in choosing their sexual partners.
He would have to prove that she deceived him with intent to cause harm.
I suppose he could poke a stick into her first to see if she’s armed - and so could any rapist concerned about such a possibility.
Can anyone provide a good defense for a girl in a date rape situation where it’s her word against his?
Again - a LOT of this problem would be solved by using care in selecting sexual partners. One night stands carry risk for anyone.
If you check out a place like BMEzine you’ll find amazing evidence on just how much piercing, slicing, and dicing the human penis can sustain and continue to operate as intended.
I don’t think removing it will be the big risk, the big risk would be infection of the wounds left by the barbs.
It’s hard to tell from the pictures on the website, but I’m guessing we’re looking at something like small fishhooks. The damage would be extremely painful but largely superficial and would leave the deeper structures of the penis unharmed.
It would be extremely unethical for any doctor to take justice into their own hands. I realize that there are some unethical doctors out there, but the vast, overwhelming majority do not let any personal feelings they may or may not have for a patient influence their decisions and actions. Doctors treat unsavory criminal types every day - our own Qadgop the Mercotan is a prison doctor and only treats criminals, some of them quite nasty people. Doctors provide medical care to terrorists, in declared war they treat enemy soldiers… the risk of this is extremely, extremely remote.
Keep in mind, too, other medical personnel will be seeing the patient and involved in his care as well. Violation of ethics on that scale would result in those same medical people acting as witnesses in a criminal trial. Not only is the possibility of such “medical justice” remote, the possibility of getting away with it is even more unlikely. Too many witnesses.
Perhaps one should check for traps before proceeding?
See the Gary Dotson/Catherine Crowell story above. I don’t see how this device puts men at any greater risk of false rape accusations than they are already.
I suspect the laws on that vary from state to state. Please check your local ordinances.
Depends on the law in the jurisdiction in which it takes places, doesn’t it?
It’s not illegal for a woman to defend herself from assault, although not all forms of defense are legal (usually defined as “excessive force”).
I would also like to point out that this won’t stop anal or oral rape, or rape with foreign objects. It addresses only a small sub-set of the problem.
Of all women raped some X percentage of them are going to afterwards be beaten to death. If the device acts as a sufficient deterant, the number of women killed due to the device could very well be worth it.
If 10% of all women raped are beaten to deah afterwards and one million are raped a year, that’s 100,000 deaths. If this device caused the rape rate to drop to 100,000 rapes per year, it’s going to be hard to reach 100,000 killings regardless of how much more it might increas the probability that you will be killed for having had it one when being raped.
Surely if its use becomes common all that will happen will be that in rapes the rapist will routinely first assault the woman with an object other than his penis.
You’ve said that repeatedly. How ? Telepathy ? If someone intends me this sort of harm, she’s hardly going to admit it. As well, it’s not just a one night stand that’s the problem; there’s nothing stopping a man’s wife of twenty years from doing the same thing if she’s angry with him.
Frankly, this device isn’t a reason for caution; it’s an argument for lifelong celibacy, or insisting that you poke a stick into a woman before you stick anything else. I’m not going to poke any body parts into anything that has the slightest possibility of barbs in it.
That will go over well with the ladies. “Pardon me dear while I poke a stick into you and probe around”.
It gives them the opportunity to do even greater damage to a man in the process.
Which makes it likely that rapists will simply switch to oral and anal rape, and the only men an risk will be the innocent. Or ram a stick or something in first, as said.
I just don’t see this thing as likely to do anything except drive wedges between the genders and hurt innocent men. Not rapists.
IIRC and IANAL, there is an “Anti-Booby Trap Law” which does not allow booby-trapping even if the victim would have been proven to have committed a crime by falling victim to the booby-trap. In other words, even if the booby trap is in a private property and a robber falls victim to it, the owner of the property would still be liable.
Wouldn’t rapex fall under the category of booby-trapping?
I believe the booby-trap law is used when a booby-trap is used in defense of property - it is generally held you may not use lethal force in defense of property. (The case I’m thinking of was where a man had set up a booby-trap using a shotgun wired to the door of an unoccupied house. A burglar who attempted to enter the house was injured and sued.) Since the device under discussion is not used for defense of property, but defense of self, I’m not sure if the booby-trap law would apply - especially since the injury inflicted would not be fatal.
I am not saying I am in favor or or against the device - I haven’t given it a lot of thought. Part of me sees a whole lot of potential for misuse. However, the part of me that was a victim of a brutal attemped rape thinks it’s a really good idea.
No, it would just shift the damage to a different body part. Then, there’s the question of impotence; most men don’t find the thought of barbs in the penis arousing. If this thing become common, I foresee an increase in oral and anal sex, and possibly in celibacy and impotence.
Something I haven’t seen addresed yet–what kind of women would wear this device? It seems to me like something that only the most paranoid women might use. I’ve lived in big cities and walked around by myself, and my preferred method of rape avoidance is to use all the common sense I’ve got and remember that the odds of being raped are against me. I’ve carried a “panic button” that makes loud noises at times, and I used to have pepper spray also. However, the idea of inserting a booby-trap device into my vagina every day is kind of creepy and “going overboard,” IMHO. It’s like buying a fully-stocked panic room for your house–how many people do that?
I doubt Rapex could be a legitimate rape deterrent, simply because the number of women who would actually use it would remain small. Does anyone disagree? Are there any Doper women out there who would seriously consider using a Rapex?
Yes, but for whom? If a woman uses the device to prevent rape, she’s not a “satisfied customer” if it ends up getting her beaten to death. I don’t know if there are studies out there about this, but I imagine that a woman who injures her rapist is more likely to suffer additional violence.