Skunk-scent bracelets to ward off predators . . . seriously?
Device just latest in long list of gadgets aimed at women
In the promised reckoning over sexual assault, harassment and rape culture, a bracelet probably wasn’t the solution the women of 2018 were hoping for.
But here it is. Last week, a Dutch startup announced the sale of the Invi bracelet, the latest in a long line of odd implements designed for fending off would-be rapists.
When the wearer gives it a tug, the Invi releases a pungent stench that Invi’s founder, Roel van der Kamp, likens to a skunk’s perfume.
The tag line for the Invi is “Provoke Independence,” which is an oddly upbeat way of reminding us that without some kind of protection, women’s freedom is not a given.
“If this approach was going to work, it would have worked already,” says Jaclyn Friedman, an anti-rape activist and author of Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power, and How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All.
Instead, she says these sorts of products are “incredibly exploitative of women’s fears, and they sell the idea that there’s some capitalist-commerce fix to the problem of sexual violence.”
And, adds Emily May — executive director of Hollaback!, an organization that offers resources and training to fight harassment on the street and online — self-defence contraptions are a “cottage industry” built around “the idea that, essentially, it’s your responsibility to protect yourself — that the people who perpetrate these behaviours don’t have any selfcontrol, and you need to take control and strap on your jacket with 110 volts of electricity.” So why are so many of these “protective” gadgets aimed at women? Here’s a list of some of the well-meaning (often ridiculous) defences women have been offered against sexual violence.
The chastity belt Researchers say there was never an actual medieval device intended to make a fortress of a woman’s erogenous zones, but the fantasy of a locked-up damsel endures.
A modern-day version might exist in AR Wear, a crowdfunded prototype of a woman’s panty with locks at the waist and the legs. Tag line: “For when things go wrong.”
The rape whistle Sound archaic? Dozens of these glorified noisemakers are available on sites such as Amazon. The self-defence movement Urban American women first took up jiu jitsu and other self-defence training in the 1920s, just as they were going after the right to vote, according to the recent book Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women’s Self-Defense Movement.
Pepper spray Whip it out of your pocket or purse and spray the rape away — or maybe not. “I’ve always had this fear: What if I were in a situation where I had to carry (pepper spray) to protect myself, but what if it were turned on me? What if it blew up in my bag and ended up making me get sick?” says Jamia Wilson, director and publisher of the New York-based Feminist Press. “I’d rather have a society that holds people accountable, that teaches people about consent and where rape culture doesn’t exist.”
The Athena The Athena is a buttonlike device that, when triggered, sends a distress message and your location to a network of contacts you’ve selected. Then you sit and wait for one of them to rescue you.
Date-rape nail polish Yes, really. Undercover Colors has developed but not yet begun selling a nail polish that changes colour when dipped into, say, trash can punch loaded with roofies.
“Power,” reads the company’s website, “must be handed back to women in what is a devastatingly powerless situation.”
Consent apps Swipe your consent to sex ahead of time, so you won’t have to discuss it. LegalFling, announced last week, offers just that, with Tinder-like ease of use.
As a bonus, your potential partner gets a record of that consent for posterity (or in case of future legal action), and if there’s “a breach” of contract, you can simply tap the app, triggering a cease-and-desist letter. Men, naturally, are behind this.