Twitter users have condemned the release of a new condom that requires two people to open it simultaneously.
Tulipán, an Argentinian sex toy company, designed the new "consent condom" packet with the aim of ensuring both parties are equally involved in the decision to have sex.
The design works by requiring two people to simultaneously press special points on each side of the packet to access its contents.
The product officially launches later this year but the company has already started promoting it on social media and handing them out at bars in Buenos Aires for couples to test.
Tulipán’s advertisements for the condom include a series of videos on Twitter and Instagram that frame consent as key.
“Tulipán has always spoken of safe pleasure but for this campaign we understood that we had to talk about the most important thing in every sexual relationship — pleasure is possible only if you both give your consent,” says Joaquin Campins of BBDO, the agency tasked with promoting the condoms.
“If it’s not a yes, it’s a no,” he adds.
The invention has received mixed reactions on social media with many confused as to how the condom will deter a person from committing sexual assault.
“I'm going to go ahead and bet that someone who doesn't ask for consent is not going to let the lack of a condom stop them,” one person wrote on Twitter.
Another added: “She can still change her mind after the condom has been opened by both of you if she feels a certain way. Seek consent till the end guys. The condom isn’t a contract.”
A third person tweeted: “Seriously?!
“1. Amputees f**k as regularly as non-amputees. 2. Pretty sure someone who intends to rape isn't worried about condoms.3. Consent can be withdrawn at any time. Using this bulls**t isn't evidence of NOT rape.”
However, some social media users defended the condom, saying those opposed to it are “thinking about it from the wrong perspective”.
“It's not intended to prevent rape,” one person wrote.
“No still means no, even if you're wearing a mutually-opened condom. It just provides an additional layer of confidence in consent. Of course bad people can still do bad things.”
Another agreed, adding: “What a nice idea.”
Tulipán has said its “consent pack” was designed after AHF Argentina – an organisation campaigning for the rights of those living with HIV – revealed that only 14.5 per cent of Argentinian men regularly used a condom.
65 per cent said they occasionally used condoms, and 20.5 per cent said they’d never used a condom.
These findings follow the results of a major survey into rape by the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) in 2018 which revealed that a third of British people think it is not rape if women are pressured into sex without physical violence.
Similarly, one-third of people over 65 said they believed non-consensual sex with a long-term partner was not rape, despite the law professing it to be.
In 1991, a landmark court judgement removed marital exemption, ruling that within a marriage any non-consensual sexual activity is rape
