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The Trap Anti-Rape Technology (redirected from The Trap Anti-Rape Device)

Page history last edited by Renee Shelby 8 years, 1 month ago

The Trap

 

The Trap is a wearable, disposable anti-rape technology designed for women to wear vaginally patented by Sandra L. Davis and Michael G. Kielty in 1993. Visually, it resembles a condom with a lubricated rubber pocket attached to a metal rim. The metal rim is flexible, and ifashioned with plastic, triangular, pointed, curved spears that only move inward. The Trap is a media extension, enhancing the physical and defensive capacity of the female body. [1] When the penis is pulled out of The Trap, the spears become lodged, causing great pain, bleeding, or even death. The device must be surgically removed, and thus also serves a latent function of attacker identification. The inventors assert that once this device is known widely, fear alone may prevent men from raping women.[2]

 

 

Within a broader cultural context, this device is a technical manifestation of the vagina dentata myth (Latin for toothed vagina) that appears in Native American, Hindu, Shinto, Maori, Greek, and other folklore [3]. In the myth, women’s sexuality is unruly, their bodies are devouring, dangerous, and constitute a site in which hero men must subdue by “breaking the teeth” of women. The Trap reverses this myth into a passive, revenge-enacting technology operating under Hammurabi's ‘eye for an eye’ law.[4] The inventors assert it as a “weapon against rape” and assert, “rape is an act of violence and this invention is an equal and passive answer to that act.”[5]

 

 

     

 

Popular Critiques



While general critiques and readings of this technology position the device as a means of policing female bodies, the legal-technical history of the device situates The Trap within a broader constellation of sexual policing, including men and animal reproductive functi
ons. The Trap draws on four patents, three of which are intended to self-regulate men’s behavior, including an 1856 device to prevent nocturnal emissions (US14739A), a 1905 seemingly paradoxically "comfortable" "spring clamp" intended to prevent male masturbation (US826377A),  a 1908 “surgical appliance” intended to prevent men from achieving erections during slumber (US934240A), and a 1978 German intra-vaginal insert for domestic animals (DE2844840A1). 

 

The first three patent references, are inventions stemming from Victorian cultural panic over spermatorrhoea—a "disease" suffered by men resulting in physical and psychological deterioration due to masturbation [6]. Now recognized as non-existent, spermatorrhoea preoccupied the medical community, leading to the development of “wellness” technologies designed to "protect" men from themselves [7]. Many of these interventions were as physically destructive as The Trap, including clamps, binding outerwear, and electro-shock groin harnesses (See patent references below). 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

      

          Advertisement for Spermatorrhoea cure.

                                

 The Electric Alarum, an anti-Spermatorrhea device from John                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Lawes  Milton (1881) Spermatorrhea—Its Pathology, Results,                                                                                                                                                and Complications.

 

 

Wearable Device History - Patent References for '128/883' and '128/884'


These patents are a kind of "dream machine,"[8] reflecting cultural discourses of health, sexuality, and the perceived possibilities of technology. They tell a temporal story about bodies, gender, and changing social anxieties. Notably, there is a shift in language and targeted wearer in chastity devices over time from protecting men from themselves in private spaces to women's self-defense in public spaces.

 

1800s

  • US 14739 A (1856) - Clamping Rings - Prevention of Nocturnal Emissions 
  • US 33162 A (1861) - Spermatorrhea Male Chastity Belt
  • US 36314 A (1862) - Clamping Device - Prevention of Nocturnal Emissions 
  • US 37116 A (1862) - Clamping Ring - Prevention of Spermatorrhea 
  • US 104117 A (1870) - Male Self-Protector 
  • US 397106 A (1887) -  Male Chastity Device - Prevention of Nocturnal Emissions
  • US 396212 A (1889) - Electric Body Wear - Prevention of Nocturnal Emission/Self-Abuse
  • US 494437 A (1892) - Cold-Water Device - Prevention of Nocturnal Emissions 
  • US 587994 A (1897) - Male Chastity Belt 

1900s

  • US 742814 A (1903) - Electrical Belt to Prevent Spermatorrhea 
  • US 745264 A (1903) - Male Chastity Belt 
  • US 826377 A (1905) - Male Clamping Device to Prevent Self-Abuse 
  • US 875845 A (1907) - Sexual Armor - Prevention of Self-Abuse in Males and Females 
  • US 934240 A (1908) - Male Chastity Device - Prevention of Nocturnal Emissions

1910s

  • US 9955600 A (1910) - Male Chastity Harness to Prevent Self-Abuse 
  • US 997067 A (1910) - Male Chastity Belt 
  • US 1136396 A (1915) - Lacing Suit to Prevent Self-Abuse 
  • US 1215028 A (1915) - Male Chastity Shorts
  • US 1215028 A (1915) - Male/Female Chastity Shorts to Prevent Self-Abuse in Asylums
  •  US 1243629 A (1917) - Ringing Alarm Belt to Prevent Erection in Asylums
  • US 1266393 A (1918) - Electrical Awakening Device to Prevent Nocturnal Emissions 

1920s

  • US 1720439 A (1928) - Dual Sport Groin Protector/Self-Abuse Protector

1930s

  • US 1865280 (1930) - Lacing Suit to Prevent Self-Abuse

1940s

  • N/A - During this time, male chastity devices are co-pateted as male protective sportswear

1950s

  • N/A - During this time, male chastity devices are co-pateted as male protective sportswear

1960s

  • US 3353749 A (1965) - Defensive Ring (Noxious Liquid) 
  • US 3373445 A (1967) - Spiked Protection Bracelet

1970s

  • US 4030490 (1975) - Vagina Dentata
  • US 4016875 A (1976) - Vagina Dentata
  • US 4148310 A (1976) - Vagina Dentata 
  • US 4016875 A (1976) - Vagina Dentata 
  • US 4167183 A (1977) - Vagina Dentata  
  • US 4164217 A (1977) - Apron to Control Sexual Conduct  
  • US 4148310 (1979) - Vagina Dentata
  • US 4237876 A (1979) - Vagina Dentata 

 

1980s

  • US4237876 (1980) - Vagina Dentata
  • US 4508114 A (1983) - Vagina Dentata 
  • US 4599751 A (1983) - Chain Mail Locking Undergarment 
  • US 4599751 (1986) - Protective Undergarment 

1990s

  • US 5161680 A (1991) - Protective Smellwear 
  • US 5353811 A (1992) - The Trap Vagina Dentate 
  • US 5368050 A (1993) - Chastity Belt 
  • DE 4324398 C2 (1993) - Sexual Armor Protective Undergarment
  • US 5485636 A (1994) - Locking Undergarment
  • US 5613251 A (1996) - Rape Prevention Belt 
  • US 5636387 (1997) - Sexual Armor Protective Undergarment
  • US 5769090 A (1997) - Computerized Undergarment that extends to Vaginal Cavity 
  • US 6250304 B1 (1999) - Vagina Dentata 

2000s

  • CN 2423759 Y (2000) - Sexual Armor Shorts 
  • CA 2343707 A1 (2000) - Chastity Belt 2000 
  • US 6935343 B1 (2002) - Vagina Dentata
  • US 7131444 B1 (2005) - Vagina Dentata 
  • CA 2530564 A1 (2005) -  Awful Stink Smell Self-Defense Clothing
  • WO 2007067194 A1 (2005) - Vagina Dentata 
  • DE 202005007420 U1 (2005) - Chastity Belt 
  • US 7486194 (2009) - Watch alarm 
  • CN 101461573A (2007) - Anti-rape trousers
  • WO 2013142882 A2 (2012) - Vagina Dentata - Rapist Identifier
  • US 2013209325 A1 (2012) - Fingernail Mounted Date Rape Drug Detector 
  • US 8487773 (2013) - Telecommunicator
  • US 8887317 B2 (2013) - Protective garment with scissor deflecting and jamming obstacles
  • WO 2014147609 A1 & US 9163906 (2013) - Ergonomic Garmet 
  • US 20150274366 A1 (2014) - Cosmetic Compact/Drink Tester 
  • US 9163906B2 (2015) - Ergonomic Garment 
  • US 9163906 (2015) - Ergonomic Garment 
  • US 20150027452 (2015) - Vagina Dentata - Rapist Identifier 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

[1] McLuhan, Marshall. (1994). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. MIT press.

[2] US 5353811 A (1992)

[3] Durham, Robert. 2015. Modern Folklore. p.436. RBD Publishing, New Delhi, India.

[4] Code of Hammurabi 

[4] US 5353811 A (1992)

[5] Bartholomew, Roberts. Spermatorrhea. (1879). Spermatorrhea: Its Causes, Symptoms, Treatments, and Results. New York: Wood & Co. 

Also, Treatment of Spermatorrhea. (1872). Medical and Surgical Reporter (1858-1898), 26(18), 391.

[6] Classified ad 2 -- no title. (1887, Feb 18). The Atlanta Constitution (1881-1945)

[7] Milton, John Lawes. (1881). Spermatorrhea—Its Pathology, Results, and Complications.

[8] Huhtamo, Erkki. 1997. From Kaleidoscomaniac to Cybernerd:Notes Toward an Archaeology of the Media. Leonardo, 30(3):221-224.

 

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