The rebuttal addressed all those points.
i was editing after you edited. and.. well.. starting from now.. unless someone edits again :redface:
alright, pretend you life in a country where over half 3/4 of the female population will be raped before they are 24 years of age. where HIV runs as high as 50% of the population. where birth control and medical care is almost non-existent.
pretend that if you are raped, if you seek medical care afterward, if you tell your family, if you seek to press changes you are shunned by your family and community. you will be abandoned by everyone you should be allowed to lean on for support.
the rape-prevention-condom will not prevent the initial assault.. but it will stop the rape on a dime. when the attacked pulls back to thrust again he's crippled. in that moment of his shock and panic you have precious seconds to escape.
with luck you prevent vaginal tears, you will prevent the asshole from ejaculating inside of you.. lessening your chance of pregnancy or infection from any one of a hundred diseases you can't get medical treatment for.
The rebuttal addressed all those points, but I'll re-post them because I feel like I'd just be re-explaining the points already made. (This rebuttal to the claims made by the promoters of Rape-Axe is from
If She Cries Out a site "Voicing the wisdom of survivors of rape and terror.")
Claim: It prevents rapes because men will avoid rape once they know some women are wearing the device. Only a few women need to use it. Just the fear that one might be bitten by it will stop attacks.
NO, because not all rapes are vaginal
NO, because one can avoid the device by raping another orafice.
NO, because rapist can insert a stick or other object to check for the presence of the device.
NO, because in South Africa, 44% of rapes are gang rapes and only the first gang member in would be affected, if at all.
Claim:It gives women a chance to escape and so shortens the rape and reduces the total damage caused by the rape.
NO, because it doesn’t take into account that rapists sometimes restrain or kidnap their victim before penetration. Escape is not an option in those circumstances.
NO, because the device can be removed with a stick. Once removed, it can be turned inside out and reinserted into the vagina with hooks facing outward.
NO, because even if the rapist does not remove the device, its presence removes fighting options from a woman. A rape doesn’t stop until the rapist leaves the scene or she escapes. A woman’s best chance of escape is her ability to adapt her defensive approach to the circumstances. If she judges that the rapist is likely to progress to murder if angered, she has NO way to stop the escalation, since she can’t very well remove the device.
NO, because it may sometimes make the rapist less able to withdraw his penis due to pain.
NO, because it doesn’t sedate and completely disable the rapist.
NO, because pain increases adrenalin and adrenalin makes the rapist faster, stronger, and more alert, thus more able to react and prevent escape attempts.
NO, because pain increases anger and anger may increase the level of violence or even motivate someone to kill in revenge.
NO, because the device only takes hold of a penis during penetration, meaning forced sexual activity has already occurred. The shortening is meaningless because the emotional trauma of forced sexual activity cannot be measured in the number or kind of acts.
Claim: It prevents infection with STDS and AIDS/HIV after rape.
NO, penetration isn’t the only AIDS vector during rape. A victim who is beaten or strangled or fights back is liable to have defensive wounds that break the skin and is liable to draw blood from her attacker. This too can result in AIDS transmission.
NO, it encourages anal rape (to avoid the device) and it won’t prevent AIDS due to anal rape.
NO, because the barbs used to cause pain can break the skin. Should the sheath tear in any way, the victim will be exposed to both blood and semen.
NO, because some rapists wear condoms simply to avoid leaving DNA evidence behind. In that case, it ruptures the condom and actually increases the possibility of penetration based infection.
NO, because rapists who rape only women are NO more likely to have HIV/AIDS then men in the general population at large.
NO, because condoms don’t prevent contact with genital warts or herpes sores
The method of choice to prevent AIDS/HIV due to rape, is a prophylactic anti-viral combination (PEP) within 72 hours after the rape. Because of the multiple possibilities for infection, even with this device, one would still need to take this treatment.
you have a chance.. a tiny moment to regain some of the power someone tired to take from you and a a chance to spare yourself some pain.
telling a woman she's only asking to be hurt more by defending herself is that same as telling her not to fight back. it's more of the same bullshit woman are fed everyday, spooned up for our own good to keep us safe. it's a lie. it's false security and it's more dangerous than most people realize.
That situation assumes one attacker who is holding a woman down. It does not account for situations where there are more than one attacker or the woman is restrained. Those women don't have "one moment" to escape. As the rebuttal stated, 44% of all rapes in South Africa are gang rapes, so it won't prevent rape in those situations. And I'm sure that men have already figured out how to remove it. I believe there's a YouTube video showing how it will latch onto a banana. So that makes bananas effective at removing Rape-Axe. I wouldn't be criticizing it if I actually thought that it would help women, but I don't think it will. I don't think it will prevent rapes and I don't think it will help victims. So what good is it?
Anyone, woman or man, in a life or death situation like that needs to be able to adjust their behavior to the situation. That has nothing to do with gender politics or "messages" about how one should behave during a rape. That is just basic survival skills. A woman has the right to use the same basic survival skills as a man. That isn't about messages about how anyone ought to behave while being raped.
Depending on the situation, it might better for a victim not to fight back, and pre-judging a victim for making a survival choice like that is just another form of "victim blaming." The rape isn't the fault of the victim. He or she is just responding as best as he/she can in order to survive the situation with as little damage to oneself as possible. I don't apply the word "should" to victims.
I am going to quote from the rest of the article on Rape-Axe because it is worth reading:
If She Cries Out said:
Ineffectiveness should not and cannot be ignored. Advocacy and fund raising for an ineffective device distracts attention and resources from proven rape prevention methods.
Advocating use of an ineffective device, reduces it to a symbol. But this isn’t any symbol. This is an invasive symbol that must be inserted into the body. Not every woman will be willing to use it. But if it is a symbol, then its absence in a woman’s body is also symbolic. The last thing women need is to be considered “asking for it” because they failed to wear a device that not only fails to prevent rape, but can in fact endanger the victim. What would someone do the first time a lawyer claimed that refusing to use the device implied willingness to have sex? And what about the woman who wears it? If
helping a rapist remove one’s jeans implies consent, why wouldn’t removing the Rape-aXe be treated the same way?
Only rapists cause rape and the best way to prevent rape is to get rapists off the streets and change social attitudes that lead to rape in the first place. Rapists in South Africa view rape as a
way to prove manhood or
a form of male bonding. Reporting and conviction rates are low.
To protect women from rape, governments must improve police statement taking, clarify the meaning of consent in rape and insure prosecutions lead to reasonable conviction rates and punishment. To protect women from rape, society must insure that women who are raped have access to immediate and comprehensive health care to treat the ill effects of rape. To protect women from rape, men must continue their efforts to
find and teach each other new non-destructive ways to define manhood.
Compact, .40 caliber for the ultimate win when one's back is against the wall - or getting out of a car...
