a_fem_manifesta

02:58 pm: Anti-rape condom aims to stop sexual assaults
South African inventor creates 'rapex' device fitted with hooks and barbs


Updated: 6:04 p.m. ET Aug. 31, 2005
KLEINMOND, South Africa - A South African inventor unveiled a new anti-rape female condom on Wednesday that hooks onto an attacker’s penis and aims to cut one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world.

“Nothing has ever been done to help a woman so that she does not get raped and I thought it was high time,” Sonette Ehlers, 57, said of the "rapex," a device worn like a tampon that has sparked controversy in a country used to daily reports of violent crime.

Police statistics show more than 50,000 rapes are reported every year, while experts say the real figure could be four times that as they say most rapes of acquaintances or children are never reported.

Ehlers said the “rapex” hooks onto the rapist’s skin, allowing the victim time to escape and helping to identify perpetrators.

“He will obviously be too pre-occupied at this stage,” Ehlers told reporters in Kleinmond, a small village about 60 miles east of Cape Town. “I promise you he is going to be too sore. He will go straight to hospital.”

The device, made of latex and held firm by shafts of sharp barbs, can only be removed from the man through surgery which will alert hospital staff, and ultimately, the police, she said.

It also reduces the chances of a woman falling pregnant or contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases from the attacker by acting in the same way as a female condom.

South Africa has more people with HIV/AIDS than any other country, with one in nine of its 45 million population infected.

Ehlers, who showed off a prototype on Wednesday, said women had tried it for comfort and it had been tested on a plastic male model but not yet on a live man. Production was planned to start next year.

But the “rapex” has raised fears amongst anti-rape activists that it could escalate violence against women.

“If a victim is wearing such a device it may enrage the attacker further and possibly result in more harm being caused,” said Sam Waterhouse, advocacy coordinator for Rape Crisis.

Other critics say the condom is medieval and barbaric — an accusation Ehlers says should be directed rather at the act of rape.

“This is not about vengeance ... but the deed, that is what I hate,” she said.


Okay, this one as gotten a lot of mixed reviews, so I am interested in hearing more about what others think. I for one think this is a horrendous idea. Although this has not been implemented yet, and it might take a while for it to get here, there is a chance that it will be coming. First of, I think it poses a lot of potential risks for any woman who choses to use one. If a man does get stuck in one, he may brutally retaliate against the woman. Also, when you consider the statistic of how many rapes are committed by people the woman already knows, it's not likely that she is going to use rapex on an attacker of that sort. Also, it has been suggested that if men know women are using these they may begin to check for them with other implements. Can you imagine how upset a guy might be if he were to realize before hand that a woman was wearing one? Also, if the woman is able to simply remove it than why couldn't the attacker? Overall, I do not see how this could possibly be helpful. Either I am missing something, or this woman has just come up with an idea to get rich quick no matter who she might hurt in the process.

02:30 pm: ACLU sues federal government over funding for faith-based group
Wednesday, May 18, 2005

By Ervin Dyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Visitors to the Web site for the Silver Ring Thing will see a gathering of 415 smiling youths in baseball caps and baggy jeans that occurred 10 days ago in northwestern Pennsylvania.

All around them are flashy lights, music and testimony.

Many of the students show off their $12 silver rings. The rings are a symbol of their pledges to remain sexually abstinent until marriage.

Such is the Silver Ring Thing, a faith-centered program that sometimes runs for three hours and is known to feature bonfires, luaus and special guests. The "thing" bills itself as an experience in abstinence-only education.

It's more than that, claims the American Civil Liberties Union, and because the group has gotten $1 million in federal funding, that's a constitutional problem.

This week, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in Boston against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services alleging the group has moved beyond educating into evangelizing. The ACLU claims that violates the constitutional principle of separation of church and state and further blurs the line between using federal funding to fuel faith-based programs.

"It's very much religiously based," said Barbara Feige, head of the Pittsburgh ACLU. "The organization sees itself as bringing students to Christ; it uses federal funds to do this and that poses a constitutional problem, because it amounts to government-endorsed religion."

For at least a year, the ACLU has been observing the group, which is not a party to the lawsuit. It says the silver ring itself has an inscribed biblical verse and that there is no equivalent secular ring. During presentations, organizers quote Bible passages on stage; students who wear the ring make avow to remain abstinent, which the group calls a covenant before God; for follow-up, the students are encouraged to get the Silver Ring Thing Bible, which is full of Christian messages, and there's no secular equivalent, said Feige.

The debate over secular education or proselytizing occasionally flares up as federal funding of abstinence education has increased over the past four years.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which doles out much of the funding, in 2001, approximately $82 million was spent on abstinence education. In 2005, approximately double that amount will be spent, about $167 million.

Since 2003, the Silver Ring Thing has received about $1.3 million as part of the Bush administration's effort to broaden abstinence-only education.

Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania believes the message of Silver Ring Thing should be more comprehensive and says the group in Pennsylvania gets a significant chunk of government money. In 2004, it received a $400,000 federal grant, one of the largest of 10 given to abstinence programs in Western Pennsylvania.

Officials with the Silver Ring Thing did not return phone calls yesterday and did not provide a statement from the organization responding to the charges.

The president and founder of the group, Denny Pattyn, a native Pittsburgher, started the outreach program 10 years ago in Yuma, Ariz. In 2000, he introduced the Silver Ring Thing to Christ Church at Grove Farm in Ohio Township, where he was working.

Three years ago, Pattyn announced he wanted to expand the program to 75 cities and would seek $1.75 million in federal seed money. He said he was working with U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, both conservative Republican legislators.

Across the nation, the organization now claims at least 20,000 teenage members from about 15 states who have agreed to wait until marriage for sex.

The program is expanding internationally and is sending 30 men and women to Glasgow, Scotland, Dublin, Ireland, and other cities in the United Kingdom for the summer. The group is seeking funding to have a presence in Africa.

Secular health and sexuality programs, which often must compete for funding, say the messages of the Silver Ring Thing don't offer enough education and can be misleading.

Planned Parenthood has been critical of the group's abstinence-only messages, believing that, where appropriate, it should include talks on condoms, contraceptives and medically correct information on family planning, said Brenda Green, vice president of education for Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania.

In a related case earlier this year, the ACLU asked a U.S. District Court in Louisiana to hold the Governor's Program on Abstinence in contempt of a 2002 order requiring it to keep religion out of the taxpayer-funded sex education program. A decision is pending in that case.

Adrienne Verrilli, director of communications with the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, a group that promotes responsible sexual decision, says Silver Ring Thing does what it does in the guise of teen pregnancy prevention, but really is "promoting its version of Christianity."

She added that abstinence and family planning "are serious public health issues and this is not the time to use federal dollars to espouse religion."

For more about what the Silver Ring Thing is check out their official site: http://www.silverringthing.com/about.html


Needless to say, I am very much disturbed. Recently, a woman from the ACLU came and talked with my Women and the Law class, and she told us all about this program. In case, you can't tell from reading the article, this program is extremely controversial considering it is both a faith-based and an abstinance only program. First of, what right does the government have to spend money on religious porgrams like this one? Has anyone in Washington even heard of seperation of church and state? It's also really disheartening to hear that the government is determined to promote abstinance only programs. Whatever happened to choice? Oh wait, that's right, in America we don't have any of that! According to some studies that were done abstinance only programs work to prevent teenagers from having sex for about a year, but after that year all hell breaks loose. How can teenagers, or anyone else for that matter, make educated decisions if they don't have the necessary education to do so? Also, what's with those rings? Does anyone else get the feeling that this is more than an abstinance only program? Can we say cult! But I must say I love how they integrate music videos and sketch comedy to drive home their point. Abstinance may not seem like a whole lot of fun, but at least they have "high-tech club-style lighting, videos and, of course, a sweet sound system" to convince kids to sign over their souls.

08:20 pm: Naughty or Nice...

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Thursday I saved a busload of nuns in Angola (326 points). In August I bought porn for triggur (-10 points). In September I pulled triggur's hair (-5 points). Last Saturday I helped triggur see the light (8 points). In June I broke triggur's X-Box (-12 points). Overall, I've been nice (307 points). For Christmas I deserve a Lego set! Sincerely, a_fem_manifesta

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05:24 pm: Where will you be?
Boots are being polished
Trumpeters clean their horns
Chains and locks forged
The crusade has begun.

Once again flags of Christ
are unfurled in the dawn
and cries of soul saviors
sing apocalyptic in air waves.

Citizens, good citizens all
parade into voting booths
and in self-righteous sanctity
X away our right to life.

I do not believe as some
that the vote is an end,
I fear even more
It is just a beginning.

So I must make assessment
Look to you and ask:
Where will you be
when they come?

They will not come
a mob rolling
through the streets,
but quickly and quietly
move into our homes
and remove the evil,
the queerness,
the faggotry,
the perverseness
from their midst.
They will not come
clothed in brown,
and swastikas, or
bearing chest heavy with
gleaming crosses.
The time they need
for ruses are over.
They will come
in business suits
to buy your homes
and bring bodies to
fill your jobs.
They will come in robes
to rehabilitate
and white coats
to subjugate
and where will you be
when they come?

Where will we all be
when they come?
And they will come--

they will come
because we are
defined as opposite--
perverse
and we are perverse.

Every time we watched
a queer hassled in the
streets and said nothing--
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we lied about
the boyfriend or girlfriend
at coffee break--
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we heard,
"I don't mind gays
but why must they
be blatant?" and said nothing--
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we let a lesbian mother
lose her child and did not fill
the courtrooms--
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we let straights
make out in our bars while
we couldn't touch because
of laws--
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we put on the proper
clothes to go to a family
wedding and left our lovers
at home--
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we heard
"Who I go to bed with
is my personal choice--
It's personal not political"
and said nothing--
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we let straight relatives
bury our dead and push our
lovers away--
It was an act of perversion.

And they will come.
They will come for
the perverts
& it won't matter
if you're
homosexual, not a faggot
lesbian, not a dyke
gay, not queer
It won't matter
if you
own your own business
have a good job
or are on S.S.I.
It won't matter
If you're
Black
Chicano
Native Americna
or White
It won't matter
If you're from
New York
or Los Angeles
Galveston
or Sioux Falls
It won't matter
If you're
Butch, or Fem
Not into roles
Monogamous
Non Monogamous
It won't matter
If you're
Catholic
Baptist
Atheist
Jewish
or M.C.C.

They will come
They will come
to the cities
and to the land
to your front rooms
and in your closets.

They will come for
the perverts
and where will
you be
when they come?

~Pat Parker

(We discussed this in my Contemporary feminist theory class today, and I want to thank Daphney for introducing me to it.)

This poem reminds me of another that you might recognize:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not from the Jews.
Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

A poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller

If history is to teach us anything it is that we need to stand up for what is right instead of waiting for someone to do it for us. We all have very real power in this world as long as we have our own voices and the ability to speak. Until we start using them in the battle for what is right instead of for what is easy, nothing is going to change, and when it is your own cause that you are fighting for no one is going to stand beside you unless you first stood beside them. Do what is right; join the revolution!

10:27 pm: Recently, my father encouraged me to start keeping a blog about the topics I constantly engage in discussion about. Either he wants me to shut up about it, or he really just thinks I have something valuable to say and he wants me to put it down on paper (or on the computer in this case). Although I am sure it is the first one. Either way, as a daughter of this revolution I feel fortune to have parents who continue to encourage me no matter what endeavors I undertake. In that vain, I am starting this journal and dedicating it to all of those people who continue to stand by me in all that I do. Hopefully, at least one of them will read it.