Germany is facing an alarming rise in rape cases. In just five years, the number of reported assaults has increased by 49.5%, surpassing 12,000 per year. And yet, the institutional and academic response does not point towards a serious analysis of the causes or reforms that would effectively protect women. Instead of addressing the factors driving this violence—such as massive and uncontrolled immigration—the reaction is a grotesque distraction: proposing “trap condoms” with internal spikes designed to injure the attacker’s penis.
The idea, recycled from an old South African invention called Rape-aXe, consists of a vaginal device that a woman can wear for self-defense. If she becomes a victim of rape, the device activates, inflicting pain and injuries on the attacker and also facilitating later medical identification. Sociologist Julia Wege of the Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences and physician Urs Schneider of the Fraunhofer Institute for Health Technology in Stuttgart have announced a study in which they intend to investigate technical aids against sexual violence, which includes this one.
What is presented as an innovative and empowering measure is a surrender of the state. It is the tacit admission that the streets are unsafe, that the judicial system offers no protection, that the borders are open, and that women must prepare to defend themselves alone—as if they lived in a war zone.
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