^Rape = forcible insertion of penis into vagina (at least, that is one definition). That is not "describing the act in detail," that is defining it.
For the sake of clarity, the legal definition of rape in the United States is:
Forced sexual intercourse including both psychological coercion as well as physical force. Forced sexual intercourse means vaginal, anal or oral penetration by the offender (s). This category also includes incidents where the penetration is from a foreign object such as a bottle. Includes attempted rapes, male as well as female victims, and both heterosexual and homosexual rape.
SOV, you are a good guy and you don't need to justify yourself by saying you think rape is deplorable, I know you do. And I know your comments weren't intended to make light of the situation. However, I still believe that concerns about bitter women misusing this device are ludicrous. As Rii said, it all comes down to sharp things near the penis. Iguana, reasonably pointed out that just as women have a primal fear of rape, men have a primal fear of anything bad happening to that particular bit -- certainly! However, this is a device that doesn't even penetrate the skin, that causes pain and restricts movement but apparently no permanent damage, and all the crazy ladies (or desperate women) who desire to injure or mutilate a man's genitalia could find any number of ways of doing so. Also, if the device is great for South Africa why should it invoke so much fear and concern in the hands of women in the rest of the world? Just because the statistics are a bit lower?
I hate to go all Super Feminist, but I honestly think that the concerns come down to the simple fact that this a is a defense, or weapon, or tool -- whatever one wants to call it -- that can be wielded only by a vagina. And that frightens some men terribly.
My primary concern about potential abuse of such a device is social, not immediately physical. Because the device would be primarily associated with rape, a male assaulted with one might be assumed a rapist until and unless proven innocent. As a weapon of perception - not of mutilation - it could be quite powerful.
You yourself said that thousands of women are raped each day in the United States -- compare that figure to the number of men who have their penis injured by a woman.
While I appreciate your point, the argument you make here is purely utilitarian. There are many well-considered and moral philosophies which would find this justification essentially specious.
My protests earlier were not against people questioning the device from that standpoint, but the silly remarks about it potentially making little Lorena Bobbits out of bitter housewives throughout the Western world. That implies a severe lack of perspective, as I already stated.
I don't think it does. The problems of South Africa are very remote to the United States - to any part of the first world - and, not unjustly, matter less to us than the problems within our own nation.
While what goes on in South Africa is terrible, it is outside the bounds of our sovereignty, and thus consigned to a realm of lesser concern. (I'm reminded of a comment from
The West Wing about curing a white person's impotence versus curing a black person of AIDS. It always seemed to me that the argument missed the point. The difference is between curing an
American person's impotence, versus curing a
non-American person of AIDS.)
Then there was raised the issue of male rape, which, of course, does happen and is just as awful as the rape of a woman. It is also irrelevant to this issue. We are not talking about male rape, we are talking about female rape. But since you brought up the subject, let's again try to put things into perspective: How often do you men actually fear being raped? Does the thought, "I shouldn't go there/be here because I might be raped" occur to you once every few months? Once every few weeks? Every night?
How often are you sexually assaulted, verbally or physically? Once a month? Once a week? Several times a day? Because I am verbally sexually harassed every day, as are many if not most young women in NYC. Physical harassment, as in having any part of my body grabbed (including my hair, my neck, my breasts, my buttocks, and, less intrusively but just as unwanted, my arms and legs), it averages out to about once a year. This is typical.
I would say that I'm relatively frequently subjected to unwanted touching that seems to be of a sexual nature. I've had co-workers, classmates (including a daily lab partner, until she began dating someone), superiors, subordinates, friends, etc. engage in prolonged touching or fondling of my neck, hair, chest, shoulders, back, arms, legs, and hands.
As a teenager and young adult, I was routinely the subject of comments - often while I was plainly in earshot, and sometimes directly to me - from much older women (some the mothers of classmates of mine) and persons my age, about my physical attributes, and to intensive interest and frequent propositioning by persons I knew.
Also somewhat fitting to a stereotype applied to females (I'm male), I often find that purely friendly interest in a person is mistaken for romantic interest - even if I deliberately mention my relationship status (when in a relationship) - sometimes even actually discuss my girlfriend - to make clear my lack of non-platonic interest.
Short of the following, I would say that my experience isn't terribly different from what you describe as yours, except that I've apparently been subject to more frequent unwanted touching and less frequent (and perhaps less public) verbal harassment.
I do not, however, fear rape, and that is a significant difference. I do, though, fear other, more lethal forms of violence (rape is not in itself lethal, excepting STD transmission, etc.), so I don't think that our experience in those cases, again, is terribly different. If anything, I suspect I'm more cognizant of the likelihood of death or serious injury, given that a male is more likely to be subjected to life-threatening assault by a stranger than a female is.
