Sampiro: I was once handed a flyer on spending by the Canadian federal prison system by someone representing a union of correctional officers. The idea was to establish that the prison system spends a lot of money on things for prisoners, but that correctional officers are paid poorly. One of the items was money spent to provide condoms to prisoners. (I suppose they would be intended for conjugal visits and consensual activity, at least in theory.) Distributing condoms to federal prisoners may seem excessively liberal to many, but it could ultimately save more tax money than it cost by reducing the incidence of STDs and unwanted pregnancies.
Another item on the flyer was funding for preoperative therapy, hormones and therapy for transsexual prisoners. These things are not covered by public health insurance here, and I have a feeling most private insurance policies don’t cover them either.
I hope the OP didn’t come off as lighthearted. If so, I apologize. This is a topic that genuinely bothers me and I find myself feeling disturbed just reading this thread. However, I’m curious, and this is the Straight Dope.
Like Guinistasia, I’m very curious as to how common it is.
Wouldn’t the best defense against a prison rape be to not poop very often and then release it all on the perpetrator? I’m pretty sure that in women’s self-defense classes they teach them to puke, pee, or crap as a good defense mechanism. This is hearsey though, as I haven’t attended
I don’t think the rapist is going to climb under the covers and snuggle with you before the act. You will probably be attacked by 2 or 3 guys, holding you down, grabbing your balls, punching you, choking you, laughing at you, maybe even pissing on you. It wouldn’t be a night you would want to remember.
I don’t think openly gay persons, or those people who claim to be gay, are treated too well in prison. Probably not something too many gay men are willing to announce it and still expect to be left alone afterwards. Maybe they could get out of being raped but I bet they’d still get beaten up, and probably more often now that everyone knows they’re gay.
alterego, as a veteran of several self-defence classes, a good, swift kick or hit in a very well-chosen place is much more effective than all the poop, pee, or excrement in the world–trust me.
They don’t teach you to do any thing like poop, or pee. I took them, too.
What they do, more than teach you any physical self-defence things, is to give you confidence. Too many women are still shy, afraid to make a scene, etc., etc. They teach you to scream, shout, yell, kick, punch. They teach you to turn and point to someone and say “You! Call 911! I’m being kidnapped!” or whatever. They teach you to give orders “Get away from me!” They teach you how to summon your air up to shout loud.
They teach you self-awareness and then they teach you the moves.
Pooping and peeing really won’t help, I don’t think - I mean, the self-defence courses are about not getting kidnapped in the first place, and it would just be in your clothes!
If the situation has reached the point where the person is being overpowered and rape is imminent, puking, peeing or pooping all over yourself seems to me a sound viable exit-strategy. It would not be 100% effective but it would definitely make the rapist think twice. I have just e-mailed a prominent women’s self-defense teacher for her opinion on the matter. If she respons i’ll let you know what she says.
I’d think it’s somewhat easy to make yourself throw up but how do people force themselves to urinate or defecate if they don’t have to go? Particularly the latter. Even if you “have” to pee, try doing it sometime in a non-bathroom type place. It’s hard to unlearn years of bladder control.
In my opinion, all that would do is get a rapist mad.
I honestly think it would just infuriate the rapist even more.
Rape isn’t always about someone forcing themselves on someone else because the victim is attractive; it’s also sometimes about power or revenge for a (perceived) slight.
Apologies if this isn’t what you were getting at, but I don’t think defecating / vomiting is a viable strategy.
