Anti-Rape underwear

[Thaluikhain]

By and large, most of us live in a society that can be considered rather safe, and unless you go around feeling unsafe for some reason, you shouldn't go acting on paranoia.

Er...in most western nations, something like 1 in 6 women will be raped during their lifetimes.

Women who go to college in the US have a 1 in 4 chance of being raped while they are there.

 

[Athinira]

By and large, most of us live in a society that can be considered rather safe, and unless you go around feeling unsafe for some reason, you shouldn't go acting on paranoia.

Er...in most western nations, something like 1 in 6 women will be raped during their lifetimes.

Women who go to college in the US have a 1 in 4 chance of being raped while they are there.

And most of those accounts of rape actually happen indoors (some even happen between girlfriend/boyfriend or married couples), and many are also against kids (who is not gonna by wearing clothes like this).

This is clearly a product meant to prevent/discourage outdoor rape by single stranger, which IS a rare occurrence. Against rape by acquaintance, group rape etc. it's sadly likely to have a very limited effect

Edit: also consider, as you said, that this rate is 'lifetime' rates. By the same standard, these clothes should also be worn on a lifetime basis (which they obviously aren't gonna be). Some rape happens by house intruders, and most women aren't likely to wear this in their house (if they are even wearing anything at that point) etc. It's an ample comparison, but it's not really valid when you examine it closely. Let's just say that rape isn't a common occurrence in the instances where women would be wearing these clothes if they purchased them.

 

[Thaluikhain]

And most of those accounts of rape actually happen indoors (some even happen between girlfriend/boyfriend or married couples), and many are also against kids (who is not gonna by wearing clothes like this).

This is clearly a product meant to prevent/discourage outdoor rape by single stranger, which IS a rare occurrence. Against rape by acquaintance, group rape etc. it's sadly likely to have a very limited effect

Oh, certainly, the vast majority of rapes are by friends and family in places otherwise considered safe.

I was just challenging the idea that society was safe, though I seem to have misunderstood you on that.

 

[Athinira]

And most of those accounts of rape actually happen indoors (some even happen between girlfriend/boyfriend or married couples), and many are also against kids (who is not gonna by wearing clothes like this).

This is clearly a product meant to prevent/discourage outdoor rape by single stranger, which IS a rare occurrence. Against rape by acquaintance, group rape etc. it's sadly likely to have a very limited effect

Oh, certainly, the vast majority of rapes are by friends and family in places otherwise considered safe.

I was just challenging the idea that society was safe, though I seem to have misunderstood you on that.

Yes, we're probably likely to be the victim of crime in our life, but not necessarily dangerous crime. My sister once had her phone stolen by a guy who just reached into her bag, took the phone and ran off before she could react. Scary perhaps, but not something i would consider dangerous.

So yes, as a person you are of course unlikely to go through an entire lifetime without something happening to you. In that sense, we don't live in a safe society, but considering general 'safety' for our health and physical/mental wellbeing, most of us are, by and large, gonna be relatively safe most of the time

 

[lacktheknack]

Any enterprising rapist would immediately pull out a pocket knife.

And, "cut-proof" or not, you REALLY don't want a knife down there. D:

Also, I'm really depressed that this product was not only seen as needed by the developers, but it reached its goal. D:

 

[Andalusa]

This seems to run very closely to the line of society teaching us "Don't get raped" rather than "Don't rape"
And it doesn't matter if the attack committed by someone the girl knows or by a stranger, it's an opportunistic, generally unprovoked attack to instil a sense of control for the attacker. It's not just about sex. Just like anorexia is about self control, not about losing weight. If a man just wants sexual pleasure, he could watch some porn and have a wank.
Whether or not these "Anti-rape" underwear exist, rape is a bad thing, shouldn't happen but, unfortunately, does.

 

[Thaluikhain]

And it doesn't matter if the attack committed by someone the girl knows or by a stranger, it's an opportunistic, generally unprovoked attack to instil a sense of control for the attacker. It's not just about sex. Just like anorexia is about self control, not about losing weight. If a man just wants sexual pleasure, he could watch some porn and have a wank.

Over simplification, there, rapes happen for a variety of reasons. A lot of the time, a rapist won't consider themselves to be one, they feel entitled to doing it for some reason.

 

[Dragonlayer]

I've got a better Anti-Rape underwear solution.

Only change your underwear once a month. Shit's nasty.

Coat yourself in a highly inflammable gel that ignites on contact with other people: Scorched Earth policy!

 

[tangoprime]

Am I the only one that thinks these are going to completely not work for the intended purpose, but end up being fetishwear for people who would otherwise be wearing some kind of chastity device? Because I'm calling it now, that's totally what's going to happen.

 

[chadachada123]

I'd rather encourage someone to gain the arms and skills necessary to fight back than to solely focus on slowing down the assailant. I would find this underwear only useful if the victim is also intending on fighting back, because it should give her a few extra moments to think, plan or react.

Humans are shitbags, so prepare accordingly.

 

[chadachada123]

Women who go to college in the US have a 1 in 4 chance of being raped while they are there.

That statistic is completely horseshit, by the way.

http://www.iwf.org/news/2432517/One-in-Four-Rape-myths-do-injustice-too

The "statistic" was that 27% had been raped or victim of an attempted rape, and, more importantly, it was researchers determining that someone had been raped, despite the majority of the 15% that had been raped not considering themselves rape victims. Unless it's true that 3 out of 4 female rape victims can't even recognize that they are victims (which, if I were female, would find absolutely insulting), it just isn't a believable statistic.

Realistically, the upper bar here is perhaps 12%, the lower bar being 2-5%, of females that have been raped, which is a far more reasonable number.

Actually, that's even lower than the number of male prisoners that are sexually assaulted in the US, percentage-wise, since between 10-20% of male prisoners (20% by staff) are sexually assaulted (compared to 2% of female inmates, mostly by staff).

 

[Something Amyss]

Huzzah if it works as advertised, but I don't understand how exactly they'd make something like that for a pair of briefs, at least not to any extent that provides more than a short distraction.

So it's just underwear that's hard to take off?


I mean, they can still be taken off right?

Yes, but anything that slows a rapist down is going to benefit the potential target. You can still get into a locked door, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't bother locking it.

Also, don't most rapes occur between someone the girl knows?

I'm not sure why that changes anything, but yes.

Also, I'm not sure that specifically changes the activities involved, since people you know can go clubbing or on dates or even jogging.

I might be wrong on this, but I imagine the last thing a rape victim would want is to piss off or frustrate her attacker, which seems to be the point to this.

As far as I know the only way to avoid a rape, is to escape before anything happens.

The video (and statistics) claim otherwise. Resisting supposedly doesn't increase the chance of harm and will decrease chances of rape. That doesn't mean a rapist won't harm or kill you, merely that they were as likely to beforehand.

One worrying implication of this is that it puts more of an impetus on the victim to "not get raped."

I'm not sure the impetus shifts any with this in the states, given the way we report and cover rape. And given this is from a company in the states....

Remember, we're a country where even the so-called "liberal media" reports the ruining of a boy's life when he gets convicted of rape. Hell, we're a nation that elects people whose advice to rape victims includes things like "relax and enjoy it." And remember, you weren't really raped if you get pregnant, because "legitimate rape" leads to a woman's body shutting the whole thing down.

Can't speak for other first-world nations, but I can certainly see why paranoia might exist.

Yup, that's true.
They're just playing on the paranoia of certain women and parents of younge girls, trying to get them to buy something that might make them feel safer.

60% of rape victims know their rapists. That's still 40% who don't. And being in the 60% still doesn't rule out the deterrent factor proposed here.

As paranoia goes, this seems fairly justified.

Next, we'll see idiots running around with these:

Good. Those scissors are borderline useless. I'd think that would actually make people safer, unless they're planning on beating someone to death with them (which is still a suboptimal tool for the job, so it might still be better).

 

[lord.jeff]

They can't provide to much of an obstacle or else the women wearing these are gonna need to get really good at controlling their bladder.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Unless it's true that 3 out of 4 female rape victims can't even recognize that they are victims (which, if I were female, would find absolutely insulting)

Why? Myths about rape are very pervasive, all sorts of things are taken to mean it wasn't rape. If people don't fit the classic model of being jumped by a scary stranger in an alley, many people assume it wasn't really rape. This includes victims.

For example, up until relatively recently, it was impossible for a man in many nations to rape his wife, it was just assumed that she consented. That attitude hasn't completely disappeared.

It's well recognised that people will often shy away from the word "rape", which is why the definition, not the word is preferred in surveys.

EDIT: If you recall the "Ask a rapist" reddit of a while ago, he said that his victims often wouldn't click that what he'd done to them was rape, because he knew them socially, they'd agreed to go on a date or go back to his house or whatever.

 

[William Dickbringer]

It is an interesting concept, though I worry that they would become too much of a hassle for the women to actually bother wearing after a short time.

Also this particular example feels a bit money grubby. 100$ in funding would get you 30% off on a single piece of clothing, either meaning the clothing is going to be extremely expensive for women to buy or they are just trying to get what free money they can rather than offer value for the funders.

this sums it up for me why don't make something like batman's mask where it electrocutes when someone touches it

 

[jklinders]

For reasons already stated, I'm not very keen on this. EMTs are going to have as much of a hard time as a rapist with this regardless of the promises. Encouraging the use of sharp objects in that area does not strike me as an attractive goal.

I'm very suspicious of the advertiser mentioning research about "frustration" not increasing the violence of an attack but completely ignoring the irrefutable evidence that most sexual assaults originate from a known (and often trusted) source.

And no, you cant "teach people not to rape", thats like saying we can teach them not to murder, or not to lie..or whatever.

yeah you can do that

there's a reason crime rates vary wildly between different areas

There are many reasons for that. population density, demographics, affluence...etc etc.

 

[Thaluikhain]

And no, you cant "teach people not to rape", thats like saying we can teach them not to murder, or not to lie..or whatever.

yeah you can do that

there's a reason crime rates vary wildly between different areas

There are many reasons for that. population density, demographics, affluence...etc etc.

Cultural influences is one of them, however, and that's something that is taught.

 

[jklinders]

And no, you cant "teach people not to rape", thats like saying we can teach them not to murder, or not to lie..or whatever.

yeah you can do that

there's a reason crime rates vary wildly between different areas

There are many reasons for that. population density, demographics, affluence...etc etc.

Cultural influences is one of them, however, and that's something that is taught.

Absolutely correct. I included that under the term "demographics." However, no amount of cultural influence eliminates a trend altogether. Maybe some people can be taught. Maybe most people can be taught. But even those who know better still do it. Otherwise murder, rape etc etc would have died out in our "civilized" society.

 

[chadachada123]

Unless it's true that 3 out of 4 female rape victims can't even recognize that they are victims (which, if I were female, would find absolutely insulting)

Why? Myths about rape are very pervasive, all sorts of things are taken to mean it wasn't rape. If people don't fit the classic model of being jumped by a scary stranger in an alley, many people assume it wasn't really rape. This includes victims.

For example, up until relatively recently, it was impossible for a man in many nations to rape his wife, it was just assumed that she consented. That attitude hasn't completely disappeared.

It's well recognised that people will often shy away from the word "rape", which is why the definition, not the word is preferred in surveys.

EDIT: If you recall the "Ask a rapist" reddit of a while ago, he said that his victims often wouldn't click that what he'd done to them was rape, because he knew them socially, they'd agreed to go on a date or go back to his house or whatever.

I'm afraid that I don't use Reddit, actually.

Still, if a person thinks that they weren't actually raped, what separates their act from, say, just having sex when they didn't want to but consented anyway?

To use an analogy: If I convince someone to follow me to a park, that is not kidnapping, even if, internally, they really really don't want to. Even if they're drunk, still not kidnapping. If I *coerce* them to follow me, then it's essentially kidnapping.

While the person that willingly followed me may have the same regrets or emotional impact as a person that followed me because of coercion, only one makes me a kidnapper, and only one situation involves the kidnapped.

To put it frankly: Just because a person feels intimidated doesn't mean they were raped, unless the partner knowingly intimidated them with intent to get them to do something out of fear. This argument, while argued by many to apply to sex, doesn't work with most other situations, like my kidnapping example, for, if someone follows me because they were intimidated, legal precedent holds that it doesn't count as coercion/intimidation unless I knowingly or purposefully did so.

The 1/4 survey would hold that being intimidated, regardless of the partner's intent, makes the intimidated a rape victim, among other issues. It seems, though, that many women (certainly not all, but many) understand that while they did not want to consent, or felt intimidated, they still consented and take responsibility for that.

You are likely right that many others either make excuses to convince themselves that they weren't raped when they were, though, in addition to just not reporting it for whatever reason, like your marriage example.

 

[Auron225]

So... it's underwear that is difficult to take off?

Noble intentions but I don't see this preventing rape. If a case reaches the point where the rapist is trying to remove a womans underwear, I think they may well be of the mind that there is no going back. They're not just gonna stop cus her underwear is frustrating. All this will accomplish is buying another minute or so in the hopes that somebody will come to intervene, in exchange for pissing the rapist off and presenting a situation in which a knife is the "answer". Not a good trade off in my opinion.