German Designer Creates ‘Anti-Rape Pants’ After Spate of Sexual Assaults in Cologne at New Year
Chloe Kerr, The Sun, January 19, 2018
ANTI-rape knickers complete with combination lock and 130-decibel alarm have gone on sale.
Some online outlets have sold out of the £87 knickers, invented by a German designer.
The pants come with a lock and an alarm
The lock prevents the pants being torn down while the alarm sounds if they are cut.
The advertisement for the pants reads: “Scarcely a day passes without headlines of sexual assaults. Only recently, a father in Kleve could barely prevent an attempted rape of his daughter. Brand new on the market of deterrence: underpants with a number lock.”
One pair of safety underpants, which are branded as “safe shorts”, costs about €100 (£87)
Demand has reportedly been driven by mass sex attacks in Cologne at the 2015/16 New Year’s Eve celebrations, which saw women assaulted.
The product has prompted mixed reactions online.
One internet user commented: “I think the idea is good. One never knows what is going on in these heads of the perpetrators. Yet honestly, it is actually bad that one had to invent such a doubtlessly well-intentioned thing.”
Another was more sceptical: “What if the women are directly threatened with weapons and forced to open the lock if the perpetrators do not succeed?”
A similar product was produced in Australia in 2013.
At the time, feminist writer Louise Pennington described it as a “modern chastity belt”.
Adding “Let’s focus on men preventing rape by not raping rather than curtailing women’s freedom to exist.”
Similar safety devices, such as small alarm systems for handbags, have recently gone on the market in Germany to protect women from possible attacks.
The videowith the original story shows how they work.
