In response to the national focus on curbing sexual assault on college campuses, products meant to deter sexual assault, such as Undercover Colors drug-detecting nail polish, LifeShel smartphone cases and Vive bracelets, have been gaining attention and criticism.
According to a White House report published in April, one in five American female college students have been sexually assaulted. Yet, only two percent of incapacitated sexual assault survivors and 13 percent of forcible rape survivors reported the crime to campus or local law enforcement.
Undercover Colors states on its website that it is the “first fashion company empowering women to prevent sexual assault.” The company, which was founded by four engineering students at North Carolina State University, is currently in the early developments of a nail polish that changes color when it touches common date rape drugs, including Rohypnol, Xanax and GHB.
“We hope to make potential perpetrators afraid to spike a woman’s drink because there’s now a risk that they can get caught. In effect, we want to shift the fear from the victims to the perpetrators,” a post on Undercover Colors’s Facebook page states.
LifeShel seeks to protect individuals from sexual assault by creating Whistl, an alert system smartphone case. Whistl cases will have a button on the top of the phone case that produces a 120-decibel alarm — as loud the front row of a concert — when pressed.
When the Whistl user presses the button, local law enforcement and the user’s emergency contacts are notified, and the phone will begin recording audio and video.
“Existing apps and wearable tech offer solutions for after an event happens,” the company’s press materials state. “LifeShel’s products integrate preventive and reactionary features into one product.”
Another product that alerts an individual’s contacts in emergency situations is the Vive bracelet. The Vive bracelet syncs with the wearer’s friends through Facebook and through tapping other wearers’ bracelets.
The bracelet, which won the prize for Best Product Concept of Microsoft Research Faculty Summit Design Expo this year, vibrates occasionally to check the wearer’s state; if the user is okay, he or she would squeeze the band. If the wearer doesn’t respond to the bracelet’s vibrations, it will automatically contact the wearer’s friends.
Vive’s producers will market the product to organizers of events where alcohol is readily available, including music festivals, raves and college parties. The company will encourage organizers to loan the bracelets to event attendees in the same manner that 3-D glasses are loaned to moviegoers for 3-D films.
“We spoke with SARVA, the Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Activists, at the University of Washington, and they highlighted the reality that alcohol heavily contributes to sexual assaults that happen to and by college students ... Frighteningly, alcohol is the weapon of choice for people whose aim it is to rape and assault,” Dan Doan, one of Vive’s developers, wrote on his personal website.
Many criticize the products for placing additional pressure on those who have been assaulted instead of discouraging rapists.
“When a woman is sexually assaulted [and these products are on the market], it’s not going to be what happened to you, why did this happen to you, who did this to you, it’s going to be why weren’t you wearing your anti-rape nail polish [or] why weren’t you recording the incident so that the police could record it. That’s really problematic,” Carlene Partow, president of Hopkins Feminists, said.
Partow does not believe that these products are heading in the right direction in stopping sexual violence.
“[The products are] all very well-intentioned, and it’s admirable that these people are going out and doing things that they believe are helping women, but I genuinely feel they’re very counterproductive, and I don’t think that they would be very successful,” Partow said.
Partow believes that women alone cannot be responsible for ending sexual assault.
“[These products] are not getting at the root of the problem,” Partow said. “I think people are focusing on the wrong aspect of rape, and that’s not their fault. The problem is not with women; the problem with the men committing these crimes.”
Christine Fei, the events committee co-chair for the Sexual Assault Resource Unit (SARU), said that although she agrees with Partow, she is glad that students are using their expertise to address sexual assault.
“I admire [the inventors’] compassion and emotional investment in this issue, and I hope they will continue their efforts,” Fei said. “[But] as a society we should focus on getting rid of rape culture to begin with. The bottom line is it’s not someone’s responsibility to prevent [themselves] from being raped.”
Doan wrote that his intention behind Vive is not to blame people who fault those who have been assaulted after drinking, but rather to provide a precautionary measure.
“No one blames young people for wanting to have a good time. We recognize that drinking and partying happen. It’s not going to change, but it could definitely be safer. That is our problem space,” Doan wrote.
In an Aug. 28 Facebook post, the founders of Undercover Colors wrote that they were $5000 away from hiring a new chemist to help the company speed up their research and development process. This month, LifeShel will run a Kickstarter campaign to spread the mission and notify more people about the product. They are currently accepting pre-orders for Whistl and expect to begin shipping phone cases in the spring of 2015.
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