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Striking back
In Africa, your vagina can get spikes for $2. No longer just a revenge dream, this device — called Rape-aXe — was actually distributed for free last year at the World Cup in South Africa.

In Africa, your vagina can get spikes for $2. No longer just a revenge dream, this device — called Rape-aXe — was actually distributed for free last year at the World Cup in South Africa. A psychological weapon as well as a physical one, Rape-aXe evokes a terror that was a staple of ancient folklore among cultures as different as the Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, Chinese, Polynesians, and Native Americans: teeth down there!

Complete with sharkskin-like barbs that catch onto an invading penis, causing pain and preventing urination, and requiring specialized medical professionals to remove, the Rape-aXe is a real-world application of feminist theory. It's a practical response to the harsh environment in which women around the world conduct their daily lives. While it may not yet be available in the United States, the Rape-aXe is an example of a new, forceful, even primal, phase of the women's rights movement, worth examining as Portland observes its annual Take Back the Night rally.

Feminists are still — and rightly — concerned with demanding respect and equality from a male-dominated world: Even in an America we may think of as gender-equal, women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man doing the same job, and this is just one example of the ways in which women still struggle to attain equal footing and opportunities. But the invention (by a woman, South African doctor Sonnet Ehlers) of a device like the Rape-aXe signifies a major shift in the direction of women's empowerment — the taking, declaring, and wielding of direct power by women in overt physical opposition to male aggression. And it's a reminder of the myriad ways in which women can get their points across. In Ehlers's own words, "If men can use their bodies — their manhood, as a weapon of attack — well then it's time for women to do the same!" (See "Going On Offense," by Deirdre Fulton for a like-minded approach.)

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