Wednesday, May 8, 2013

So it's come to this - Anti-Rape Lingerie

Apparently three engineering students in India have created a bra that electrically shocks predators when they grope their victims. Inspired by recent rapes in India and an attempt to tackle the disgraceful rape culture, the students hope the electric brassiere will discourage sexual assaults. Isabel Wilkinson for the Daily Beast writes, "The garments—named Society Harnessing Equipment (SHE)—have been wired with pressure sensors and equipped with an “electric-shock circuit board,” which delivers up to 82 electric shocks when the garments detect unwanted force. Using a GPS system, the undergarments can also apparently send an alert to parents or police." The students chose to re-wire the bra because studies have shown that it's the first area most likely to be groped by assailants.

Though this is doused with good intentions, the fact that there is a sense of necessity to create undergarments that will condition men to not sexually assault women disgusts me. This new bra is essentially another Bobo Doll experiment. I'm glad that there are individuals out there who are trying to think of inventive ways to combat sexual assault and rape, but at the same time perhaps we should start paying more attention to society and the culture of rape.

An electrified bra implies that this behavior comes naturally to these assailants getting a shock from a bra when you grope a woman is the equivalent to smacking a child's hand out of the way when they reach for a cookie. Breasts are not cookies and you can't just reach for them whenever you feel the urge to. Nip the behavior in the bud, focus on the message we are sending to adolescents by not prosecuting rapists or sympathizing with the college football players who had so much potential before one unfortunate evening. We don't need an electric-shock bra, we need to change our attitude on rape.

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