Sand is right. It's one thing to look at the situation from our comfy chairs in the Western world and tisk-tisk. It would be another thing entirely to actually remedy the situation, discuss (and put into action) actual ways to empower women from less economically developed nations who face these travesties. It's going to take a lot more than just snapping our fingers and saying "Be more like us".
On the note of rape in Africa, I must wonder what everyone else here thinks of the "vagina dentata" condom, designed to snap onto a man's penis and be incapable of removal, unless assisted by a doctor, thus incriminating the rapist? As uncomfortable as I am with designating rape as inevitable and the victim's responsibility to prevent, I think it could be helpful in some ways. On the other hand, I'm worried that a more savvy rapist might test it with his fingers or another object, and become angry/violent if he discovered he had something very painful clamping to his penis. And would it be as helpful if the rapist was someone the victim knew, like her husband...? There has to be a better way to stop the rape epidemic...
11 Apr 2009, 3:44 am
