EDITORIAL – Anti-rape condom exposes social problems

Despite some drawbacks, the anti-rape condom has the potential to help remedy the problem of… Despite some drawbacks, the anti-rape condom has the potential to help remedy the problem of rape in South Africa, a country that has the worst rape record in the world.

On the outside, the anti-rape condom, affectionately referred to as the “penis flytrap,” is very similar to those of a standard female condom. On the inside of the condom, however, are hooks similar to that of barbed wire. This condom serves as a defense mechanism during unwanted penetration by painfully hooking the man to the condom. After that, the condom can only be surgically removed, ensuring that the rapist will be caught.

For 15 cents each, women will soon be able to purchase this condom at local supermarkets in South Africa, and it can be worn similarly to how women wear tampons. Sonette Ehlers, the inventor, foresees wearing the anti-rape condom becoming as routine as turning on one’s house alarm or electric fence. And considering the statistics on rape in South Africa, women have more than one good reason to protect themselves.

In the United States, there are 30 rapes per 100,000 people reported every year compared to South Africa’s 119 per 100,000. Considering medical reports that confirm unreported rapes, South Africa’s annual rate could be five to nine times higher than 119.

Some women’s activists have drawn comparisons between the “penis flytrap” and the chastity belt. They criticize it as regressive because it somehow makes women responsible for treating a societal and psychological problem. How convenient and unsympathetic for them. But lucky for them, they don’t live in South Africa. Nestled in their right of freedom of speech, they have no idea what it’s like to live in a place where the likelihood of a prostitute getting raped is the same as their grandmother or baby sister.

While Ehlers also goes on to say the rape trap is painful enough to disable but not to cause significant physical damage, it remains to be seen what the consequences of this will be. In a worst-case scenario, if this condom kills a man, will it be self-defense in a country where women’s rights are practically non-existent? And what happens if this condom leads to women being killed who otherwise wouldn’t be?

And then there is the bigger picture: the fact that the need for this condom is real in South Africa. But is it treating a symptom or solving the problem of rape? From our backyards, we can talk until we’re blue in the face about their corrupt government that lets rape rates rise in the face of poor investigative technology and resources.

But let’s face it, for the most part, countries in Africa are woefully poor and deep in debt. The rest of the world is asleep at the wheel as Africa is rampant with genocide, rape and the AIDS crisis. The United States thinks we can just ignore people until we have something to personally gain from coming to the rescue. But what we don’t realize is that the world is inter-connected and the butterfly effect is real. What we aren’t affected by today, we might be tomorrow. It’s high time the western world helps out the developing world to aid in rape prevention.