While scouring the internet for information for my thesis on the rapid growth of date rape cases filed in America, I came upon this.
In areas with more lenient laws against rape, where rape is a common occurrence, this product could become very useful for defending women from a would be assailant. On the flipside, the argument could be made that this clothing would only escalate the situation further, turning a rape into a violent assault.
What is your stance on this product? Do you think it is necessary or is it an unproductive solution to this problem? Personally, I think anything you can use too prevent yourself from becoming a victim is more of an asset than a liability.
Would any of you ever wear clothing like this to make yourself feel safer?
Added by popular request: A gathering of statistics on rape in the United States of America
This doesn't help against rape because a rapist generally isn't holding a knife, is a family member, partner or ex partner and raped you because you assumed that he wasn't a rapist. If you think this helps you don't know how rape works in the western world. Maybe in South Africa though.
Not sure how this would work given how rape works. Rapists rape a person due to an extreme urge, and the rape is made possible through them obtaining a profound physical advantage over their victim. Maybe this would work if the rapist was feeling really rushed, but it wouldn't work otherwise. Hell, this is easily thwarted by being a rapist who has earned the trust of the victim and thus doesn't need to drug the victim to get her somewhere private. Should he encounter the rape-resistant underwear, he can simply force the woman to remove it before raping her. All of this is, of course, disregarding what an unstable individual may do should he have his desire to rape someone thwarted. If he gets really angry, one may be better just taking the rape, even if you've been drugged out.
On November 06 2013 10:24 mizU wrote: this isn't going to help the victim blaming mindset
Honestly, only fucking idiots adopt the victim blaming mindset. One shouldn't throw out a good idea simply because an unbelievably retarded minority has some stupid fucking view. In most of the first world, we should be past the point of victim blaming being a grave threat. We can simply wait and let the dinosaurs die off. The current generation is very progressive.
On November 06 2013 10:17 KwarK wrote: This doesn't help against rape because a rapist generally isn't holding a knife, is a family member, partner or ex partner and raped you because you assumed that he wasn't a rapist. If you think this helps you don't know how rape works in the western world. Maybe in South Africa though.
How would it even help then? I dont know, I dont see many rapists being dissuaded because the underwear is 'hard to pull off' or whatever. At most this will just encourage frustrated beatings in tandem with sexual assault.
On November 06 2013 10:24 mizU wrote: this isn't going to help the victim blaming mindset
This. There shouldn't be an emphasis on the women to defend themselves, the focus needs to be on dismantling the rape culture that makes sexual assault accepted in our society.
On November 06 2013 10:24 mizU wrote: this isn't going to help the victim blaming mindset
This. There shouldn't be an emphasis on the women to defend themselves, the focus needs to be on dismantling the rape culture that makes sexual assault accepted in our society.
Rape culture? Sexual assault accepted in our society!? The fuck? Things are pretty bad, but they aren't THAT bad. The vast majority of guys hate sexual assault and hate rape and rapists even more. Also, since when is helping women defend themselves bad? There's absolutely nothing wrong with helping them help themselves while we try and take care of the underlying problem. It's not like this is taking resources away from other efforts. Besides, whether or not "rape culture" is the issue here, causing societal changes takes time. A few decades at the minimum, probably longer considering the negative image feminists have. There'll need to be other methods to help with the rape issue while the long-term solution is put into place.
On November 06 2013 10:24 mizU wrote: this isn't going to help the victim blaming mindset
This. There shouldn't be an emphasis on the women to defend themselves, the focus needs to be on dismantling the rape culture that makes sexual assault accepted in our society.
Rape culture? Sexual assault accepted in our society!? The fuck? Things are pretty bad, but they aren't THAT bad. The vast majority of guys hate sexual assault and hate rape and rapists even more.
We are mostly talking about victim blaming, sexual objectification, and trivializing the act of rape here.
ehrm.... lol? This feels like turning rape into a murder, since the attacker will be very frustrated upon being unable to satisfy himself. I mean basically its a nice idea and it will buy time for sure, but it could also turn out to be backfiring. :o Wp though.
On November 06 2013 10:29 AnachronisticAnarchy wrote:
On November 06 2013 10:25 YoureFired wrote:
On November 06 2013 10:24 mizU wrote: this isn't going to help the victim blaming mindset
This. There shouldn't be an emphasis on the women to defend themselves, the focus needs to be on dismantling the rape culture that makes sexual assault accepted in our society.
Rape culture? Sexual assault accepted in our society!? The fuck? Things are pretty bad, but they aren't THAT bad. The vast majority of guys hate sexual assault and hate rape and rapists even more.
We are mostly talking about victim blaming, sexual objectification, and trivializing the act of rape here.
The language he used implied this was an endemic problem infesting the majority of society, even the first world. The language also implied that the root causes were far, far worse than mere sexual objectification. I am not intimately familiar with the words and phrases popular among feminists. Do they have a more... mild meaning when used in your circles?
On November 06 2013 10:17 KwarK wrote: This doesn't help against rape because a rapist generally isn't holding a knife, is a family member, partner or ex partner and raped you because you assumed that he wasn't a rapist. If you think this helps you don't know how rape works in the western world. Maybe in South Africa though.
It's one thing to say that rape happens mostly in places where women feel safe, but it's another to argue that rape prevention should focus on these situations and that other measures are useless. It's just that most women already are cautious when they're alone, with strangers, and so forth... so unless you're able to account for rapes that don't even occur due to being failed by preventive measures, there's no way to say which caution is warranted and which isn't. Of course, this doesn't even take into account how practical being cautious in a given situation is... I mean, waiting for a cab instead of walking home is a nuisance, wearing the modern equivalent of a chastity belt (sorry, but that's what this is) when you're with your partner is not merely verging on the paranoid.
On November 06 2013 10:17 KwarK wrote: This doesn't help against rape because a rapist generally isn't holding a knife, is a family member, partner or ex partner and raped you because you assumed that he wasn't a rapist. If you think this helps you don't know how rape works in the western world. Maybe in South Africa though.
Pretty much this.
A far more effective use of your time and money for the sort of rape this would help against is learning self defence or carrying weaponry. Being taught smart decision making, how to be aware of the people around you.
I can only see this being useful for date rape, for anything else a preventive measure seems like it would be much more effective. For when you know you will have your judgment impaired by clubbing or something. Even then, you should be with a buddy, keep an eye on your drink etc.
Although the idea of anti-rape products has been increasingly popular, it doesn't address the central issue of eliminating the issue of rape. When I say eliminate I don't mean completely, since that's never possible, but to hopefully drastically reduce rape crimes. The only issue I see with the product as others have pointed out is rape between individuals who know each other and rape between strangers. In the case of the former relationship, a woman would find no use to this product as they would trust their friend or family to not rape them, so I suppose this product would be geared towards the stranger to stranger encounters. In the case of this, I'd find it highly probable that the stranger would more likely have a weapon to threaten the victim. In that case the anti-rape product may be even more detrimental if they are brutally tortured/injured or even killed. Anti-rape products are definitely not a bad thing, but it doesn't solve the main problem of preventing rape in the first place.
If this makes a girl feel more secure, sure whatever, but it won't add any additional security. I still like this because if a girl would wear this and only she can unlock it there is no way she can report a false rape claim if she regrets what she did last night.
On November 06 2013 10:24 mizU wrote: this isn't going to help the victim blaming mindset
This. There shouldn't be an emphasis on the women to defend themselves, the focus needs to be on dismantling the rape culture that makes sexual assault accepted in our society.
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying; you say that the emphasis on fighting against rape should be on something else and then you suggest that this somehow justifies discounting the product entirely. Even if this product did contribute to a rape blaming mindset, which I think is a mindbogglingly ludicrous suggestion to begin with, this isn't a this or that scenario - why can't both options exist? You said "there shouldn't be an emphasis on the women to defend themselves"; I don't know what perfect world you're living in but maybe you should work to endorse all the women living in the seedy parts of the the world to move there, as they'll need to wait a long while before this rape culture dismantling project you have in mind comes into effect . Seriously, just think about what you're saying.
On the other point, if this product did contribute to such a mindset how is rape preventing underwear any different from any currently existing defense products? If a victim of rape doesn't have pepperspray on hand to ward off her attacker, we don't blame her for getting raped. I don't see how this underwear changes that qualification in any way.
On November 06 2013 10:24 mizU wrote: this isn't going to help the victim blaming mindset
This. There shouldn't be an emphasis on the women to defend themselves, the focus needs to be on dismantling the rape culture that makes sexual assault accepted in our society.
Because It's going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, women should eschew defending themselves?
EPT
