Meet The Galactic Cap "Condom"
It May Not Work, It Hurts to Take Off, It’s Not FDA-Approved, but It's Available for $5
A few years ago, some of my daughter’s classmates were told by their male, middle school, gym teacher that they could not wear tank tops to PE because it would distract the boys. As you can imagine, I prepared a diatribe for both the teacher and the principal about the awful messages this kind of a dress code sends to young women. I believe I argued that the idea that girls’ bodies are a distraction and that it is their responsibility to keep boys’ libidos under control shares its roots with the idea that a rape victim was “asking for it” if she showed too much skin. I may also have pointed out that the whole concept was based on the stereotypical assumptions that boys always want sex and girls don’t and that all kids are cisgender and heterosexual in the first place. But I never got to hit send because the principal quickly sent a note to parents assuring them that this was not school policy and she had spoken to the teacher in question.
That does not seem to be what is happening at Bartram Trails High School in Florida which made the news last week for “sexualizing girls’ bodies” and making them feel embarrassed and ashamed. You see, when the yearbook came out recently, at least 80 of the student portraits had been retouched because someone on the editorial staff felt they showed too much skin. Exposed shoulders were covered, and any hint of cleavage was removed. Not surprisingly, all of the edited photos were of young women.
As an example, this:
Turned into this:
The student in the picture, 9th grader, Riley O’Keefe told the local news: “The double standard in the yearbook is more so that they looked at our body and thought just a little bit of skin showing was sexual. But then they looked at the boys, for the swim team photos and other sports photos and thought that was fine, and that's really upsetting and uncomfortable." (O’Keefe gave permission for the local news to publish both the before and after pictures.)
In this case, the school is standing behind the decision telling the local news that officials decided the pictures in questions didn’t meet the school’s dress code and noting that the decisions were made by a female teacher (as if that makes them better). They’ve offered no apologies to the girls whose yearbook pictures look nothing like the ones they submitted but did say that parents who complained could get a refund.
Having spent time as a teenager picking out the perfect outfit for school picture day (not to mention working on the hair), I can tell you that money back is not what these young women want. They want the picture they chose, in the shirt they chose, to be in the book signed by their friends on the last day of school. And, they want a little bit of respect.
Meet Galactic Cap: It May Not Work, It Hurts to Take Off, & It’s Not FDA-Approved, but It Can Be Yours For $5
TikTok is talking about the Galactic Cap, a not new and not FDA-approved “male contraceptive” that looks a little like a butterfly bandage for your dick. A video in which TikToker Venus Skywalker demonstrates how the product works by applying it to a water bottle now has over two million likes, and the sex educator in me is worried. This isn’t a condom, it hasn’t been proven to prevent pregnancy, and there’s no data on whether it prevents STIs, yet you can buy one for $5.
From a user’s perspective, the Galactic Cap really does look like a clear bandage that you put over the tip of the penis to cover the urethra (the hole where ejaculate comes out). The company explains it this way: “The Galactic Cap is made up of two pieces of polyurethane welded together with an opening in the bottom portion. This opening becomes the airtight reservoir that catches and traps the seminal fluid much like the tip of a regular condom.” Only the tip of the penis is covered, leaving the sides and the shaft bare. The goal of the design was to allow for skin-to-skin contact at the head of the penis as a way to increase sensation during intercourse.
Galactic Cap was first introduced in 2012 with an Indiegogo fundraising campaign, claims that it was going to revolutionize the condom business, and promises of fast FDA approval. It looks like the prototype has changed since then as the original version came with an adhesive strip and the newest models appear to be self-stick. The company promises that this extra-strong adhesive has been pre-approved by the FDA for use on skin.
While that may be true, the Galactic Cap itself has never gotten FDA approval.
The company’s website (which apparently had 14 million visitors in one day after the TikTok went viral) is made up primarily of contradictory statements and legal disclaimers. The product’s logo, a capital G with a phallic arrow pointing left, reads Galactic Cap Pregnancy Prevention. It calls the Galactic Cap a condom and says that one of its goals is to improve upon the contraceptive efficacy of traditional condoms, but the FAQs admit that it has never been clinically tested as a contraception. Of course, that same question goes on to say, “We have field-tested our product for three years together with our customers and have found no adverse effects and received outstanding feedback.”
A field test is not a test. It could just mean you gave it to your cousin at Tulane and his frat brothers. “No adverse effects” could just mean that neither your cousin nor his brothers got a rash. Notice that it doesn’t say no pregnancies. And even if it did, I’d want to know how many people used it, how often, what kind of sex they had? For all we know ten people used it and eight of them were in same-sex relationships in which no one was going to get pregnant in the first place.
The statements on STIs are no better. A lawyer clearly convinced the company it had to start with strong language: “We cannot make any claims that the Galactic Cap will prevent the transmission of STDs and/or HIV.” But that gets walked it back two sentences later when the answer to the question: “Will the Galactic Cap reduce STDs and HIV?” starts with “We feel it can….”
Customer reviews, unstructured field tests, and gut feelings are not science. And the makers of Galactic Cap know this. That’s why there’s a two paragraph legal disclaimer on the “How it Works” page that admits no claims have been evaluated and ends with: “By electing to use this prototype, you assume full responsibility for its use and understand that Powell Developmental Group Inc…cannot be held responsible for any damage or injury caused to you or your partner during use.”
As far as I can tell, this is a one-man show that never got off the ground. Charles Powell, the inventor, serves as the company’s primary spokesperson and the person you should contact if you want to invest in the company, but he also offers his own email to customers who need to change their address after they’ve placed an order (the sudden popularity may cause a long delay in products being shipped).
It’s unclear to me whether Powell has gone to the FDA and been rejected or hasn’t been able to raise enough funding to even start the process. What is clear is that the company continues to sell a product that may or may not work using the loophole of it being a prototype or possibly by labeling it as a novelty.
No matter how many disclaimers there are on the website, this is simply unethical.
That said, the TikTok generation has impressed me yet again. Sure, 14 million people went to the website to check out this crazy product in that first day but only 1,000 bought it. And most people on the app seem to be talking about how incredibly painful the product is to remove. (Check out this other TikTok video for a pretty funny account of taking it off.)
Rule number one for a sexual health product you want to people to buy again—don’t hurt the penis.