Gentlemen, cross your legs...

In response to the outrageously high rate of sexual assaults in South Africa, a new anti-rape female condom was unveiled last August to serve as an attack dog against intruders...and it has teeth.

Inserted like a tampon, “Rapex” is a latex device that hooks on to an attacker’s penis, causing an excruciating distraction that allows the victim time to escape. And if that isn’t enough, he has to travel to a physician to have it surgically removed which, in turn, notifies police and helps identify perpetrators.

Is it God’s gift to rape prevention or a medieval torture device designed to stick it to the man? Desperate times call for desperate measures in a country where 50,000 rapes are reported annually, according to police statistics. However, anti-rape activists fear for a woman’s safety after she enrages her attacker with a painful surprise. Furthermore, gang rape, which is common in South Africa, renders the device useless to the woman, and potentially deadly.

“Many people (women) fear being raped and will resort to any method which they think may protect them,” says spokeswoman Carrie Shelver, whose organization, People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA), doesn’t support the device. “Rapex falsely places the burden of safety on women,” she says, comparing it to the turn-of-the-century chastity belt. “And it does not deal with the root causes of sexual violence in South Africa.”

According to inventor Sonette Ehlers, Rapex doesn’t cause any permanent damage to a guy’s manhood, but anti-rape activists argue it could harm his reputation, if put in the wrong hands. A vengeful woman, for instance, could seduce a man not only into a painful experience but also a false accusation of rape.

Despite the controversy over this new form of rape prevention, POWA recently learned that Rapex may be stocked in some chain pharmacies in South Africa within the next couple of months, instantly giving fearful women the power to clamp down on sexual assault.