Teeth Condoms Give Rapists a Bite

According to Human Rights Watch, South Africa has one the highest rates of rape in the entire world. In a 2009 report, 1 in 20 men surveyed admitted that they had raped a female in the last year. One in four of the surveyed women admitted that they had been raped. The alarming rate of sexual violence is partly attributed by how South African men view rape. A 1999 story by BBC explains it best. School aged boys see recreational gang rape as fun…not a crime. They feel that a girl really means yes…albeit while she is screaming “no.” It makes little difference what “rights” South African women have. There is no right, if those that violate the right have impunity on their side.

The rape epidemic is so bad in South Africa that women have long been using what little resources they have to prevent rape, even placing razor blades within their vaginal and anal cavities.

Dr. Sonnet Ehlers spent the last twenty years researching South African rape victims. She told CNN about a rape victim that told her, “If only I had teeth down there.” She promised that victim that she would do something to help people like her.

And, do something she did! She dreamed up Rape-aXe, a condom that the woman can insert inside herself (like a tampon would be inserted.) The condom has jagged teeth-like hooks. As a penis is inserted during a rape, the hooks latch on to the man’s penis.  The condom is now attached to the man’s penis, and those hooks are virtually impossible to get out.  Trying to remove the condom just makes it clasp down tighter. The man must see a doctor to get it removed.

Dr. Ehlers has disturbed over 30,000 free Rape aXe condoms during a trial period; after that, they will sell for between $1.50 and $2.00 each. 

It is no surprise that critics are calling Rape aXe a medieval device, enslaving women to fear, and a risk for trapped men to become violent. 

Sorry, medieval acts often require medieval interventions. If you don’t want your penis harmed, then simply don’t put it where it isn’t wanted. South African women are already enslaved to a very real fear…. rape. This condom might actually give them some liberation from that fear.  In my opinion, the only valid criticism of Rape aXe is the risk of the man becoming (more) violent when he can not remove the condom.