Vagina Dentata to Debut in South Africa

PHOTO: Sonnet Ehlers.

According to Radio Netherlands, a South African doctor named Sonnet Ehlers is poised to distribute thousands of free anti-rape condoms to local women sometime in the next two months, before the start of the 2010 World Cup. The condom, which Ehlers calls Rape-aXe, can be inserted by a woman like a tampon; if she is then penetrated by an attacker, the condom attaches itself to his penis through “razor-sharp barbs” that don’t break the skin, but do cause excruciating pain if an attempt is made to remove the condom. The idea is that the would-be rapist will hurriedly extract himself and hie to the nearest hospital, where he will first be treated (since the barbs can only be detached by surgical means) and then arrested.

Talk about the myth of the toothed vagina coming to life. I’m all for anti-rape measures, but one has to wonder whether the safety of a woman is going to be enhanced by the act of enraging a rapist with tiny barbs sticking into his penis.

More on the Rape-aXe, which was first developed five years ago and looks almost too much like a medieval torture device to be real, here and here.