*TRIGGER WARNING- DISCUSSES SEXUAL ASSAULT & VICTIM BLAMING*
While scrolling through my twitter feed over the last couple of days I've seen some interesting discussions over the newly invented "Undercover Colours" nail polish, created by an all male team of American University students and designed to detect commonly used date rape drugs; Rohypnol, Xanax and GHB. Being marketed as "the first fashion company empowering women to prevent sexual assault", the idea behind it is that you swirl your finger in your drink and if one of these drugs are present, your nail polish will change colour.
I have conflicted feelings towards this. When I first heard about it I immediately thought, "Ooh, clever!" but that was quickly followed by several misgivings.
Firstly, this feels like yet another opportunity to put the onus on women individually to "not get raped". Similar to other "advice", such as telling women to dress a certain way/limit alcohol intake/not walk home alone etc, which is undoubtedly meant to be helpful, it again somehow makes the victim complicit in the attack, which is not only wrong but non-sensical. No other crime is treated in this way; it's become a cliche to say it now but it still stands- you don't see victims of robbery in court being cross-examined and asked to account for what they were wearing when the crime took place. To put it further into perspective, male victims of rape are rarely asked to explain what they were wearing because it's not seen as relevant.
Well the same should be true for female victims yet this culture of blaming them persists.
Looking after and taking general care of your own wellbeing are obviously important, I'm not suggesting that we should intentionally put ourselves in clearly dangerous situations and this could definitely be helpful in assessing if certain situations are dangerous or not but my fear with this polish is that rather than "what were you wearing at the time" being the question posed, it'll be "oh so you say you were drugged and raped…why weren't you wearing your nail polish at the time?"
It's just yet another way for society to fail women; instead of addressing why men rape, with a product like this we're still focusing on what women can do to prevent their own sexual assaults.
The fact that there are people putting time, energy and money into developing this (and products like this- special colour changing straws were a thing recently too but never worked in the end) feels like modernising the chastity belt; we haven't come that far if the spotlight is still on women to sort it out rather than on men to stop assaulting people. I guess it just annoys me that we're having this conversation at all. Is prevention really better than cure? If the "illness" has been ongoing since the beginning of time and is still as prevalent as ever then I would argue that no, prevention alone definitely is not better than cure.
One more problem I have is that alcohol by itself is more commonly used than what is typically thought of as a date rape drug such as Rohypnol etc. This nail polish may actually only help in a minimum amount of cases but will do nothing where excessive quantities of alcohol are used to alter someones level of consciousness- which is sadly more likely to be the MO of a potential rapist. There's also a lot of doubt that this even works that well for detecting the drugs that it does claim to work on- at the moment it produces a worrying number of false positives and negatives, which could lead to either accusing innocent people of drugging you when they haven't, or worse, it could lure potential victims into a false sense of security if the polish is non-reactive.
To lastly go back to my original feeling of "clever!", I can definitely see one area where this could be well received; former victims of assault may feel more assured by this and if it helps someone then that's fantastic.
Overall though, I'm going to retain my reservations on this one.
Please let me know in the comments what you think. I know this is a highly emotive topic and if I've upset anyone I sincerely apologise. I feel it's important to look at things like this with an inquisitive eye rather than just accept them at face value but feel free to skip this altogether too if you'd prefer, normal service will resume tomorrow!
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It's an odd one. A good idea at face value but if it leads to women being blamed because they wanted to wear a different nail polish that night it's no use, really. bottom line is, the law enforcers do little to prevent crime. That's why it's becoming increasingly unsafe to walk around your own area in the evenings and a nail polish on one girl might prevent something terrible happening to her but it doesn't stop the rapist from targetting someone else that night or next week or whenever. I dunno....
ReplyDeletemusicandeverything.com
Yeah at face value it does seem like a good idea but there's just too many issues with it for me. If they could perfect it, that would be something but even at that, the fact that we're expected to take on yet another measure to stop someone from assaulting us is ridiculous. You're right- there is little done to
Delete(Published too soon!) prevent these crimes from a law enforcement point of view and that's before you even look at the insanely low conviction rates. This just seems like a desperate attempt at healing a massive wound by applying a tiny plaster.
DeleteI'm in two minds here. While I agree that victims of other crimes are not treated the same way as rape and sexual assault victims in court, I do think this type of innovation is important because while the message should be "Don't rape" instead of "Don't get raped", it should also be "Don't steal" and "Don't kill". However, I still avoid walking home alone or going down dark alleyways, not because it's my fault if something happens to me, but because it's a conscious decision I make to be safer. Equally I shouldn't feel like I can't put my bag down for a second among friends on a night out because the message should be "Don't rob" as opposed to "Don't get robbed" so someone shouldn't rob my bag. However, they can, they do and they have, so while I totally agree the scrutiny should not be put on how the victim supposedly failed to protect herself, I think this sort of innovation as important as pepper spray or a rape alarm. We don't all carry these things but they're helpful and even though the message is "Don't rape or sexually assault" the bottom line is men still do so women shouldn't have to stand there and take it hoping people will realise that it's not our fault.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it's wise to be cautious- that's why I mentioned trying to avoid dangerous situations where possible and that this could be helpful for that. I'm not denying that this COULD be useful or innovative, the problem is that even if it were to work successfully (and there's no guarantee that it actually does, unlike pepper spray- which is illegal here or a rape alarm, which may not bring assistance to you at all) it's indicative of a much bigger problem, which I've discussed already at length. We do say "don't steal and don't kill"- they're even part of the 10 commandments! But at the end of the day a victim of robbery or murder is still treated entirely differently to a victim of rape, with no obvious explanation other than misogyny. The reason why this nail polish worries me (apart from the fact that it might not actually work properly, as stated & that a predator watching a woman checking her drink could still feasibly add something afterwards) is that this is just one more way of saddling women with the responsibility to somehow prevent their own attacks, which is insane when you think about it. Yes, I'm all for being as safe as you possibly can be but women will be attacked regardless of whatever gimmick someone comes up with- rapists cause rape and will find some way of committing their crime, it doesn't matter what type of nail polish she's wearing. Again, alcohol is still the primary "date rape drug" of choice according to statistics from the US so this will do nothing for that, nor will it pick up traces of the majority of benzos, which are apparently also commonly used. And like I said, something can still be added to a drink after you've checked it- are we supposed to dip our fingers in our drinks before every sip now? Why should we be forced to live like that- in constant paranoia and fear. As a tweet that's doing the rounds at the moment has said "the nail polish to prevent rape sounds like a great idea but how are we going to get men to wear it?"
DeleteReally good post, Chloe. I must admit I'm conflicted about the whole thing too.
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction was similar to yours. Oh, that's a clever idea and if it saves one woman from being assaulted then it has to be a good thing. The more I thought about it though, the more it seemed like another way of putting the onus on women not to get raped. If women do report (and we know so many don't) they have been raped will 'Were you wearing the United Colours nail polish?' become another question that she has to face? I can't help thinking that it will, especially if the product takes off.
On the other hand, I completely understand why a woman would choose to wear it. Sometimes you would do anything to feel safer on a night out. Although, could using the polish and there being no drugs in your drink possibly mean that a woman would feel relaxed (and safe) in a situation that could still be dangerous? I don't have the figures to hand, but I don't think date-rape drugs are overly common in reported Irish cases (although, they are undetectable after a certain time period so the later the case is reported the less likely knowing if drugs were present is going to be). Like you said above, excessive quantities of alcohol alone (particularly with shorts where it's easier to give someone double measures without them realising) is more likely to be a rapists drug of choice.
So, yeah, I can kind of see some merit in it (even with all my questions), but I really hate that we live in a world where someone even thought such a product necessary.
I vaguely rememeber a British lip product being released a few years ago that changed colour when it came in contact with Rohypnol, but that meant that some of the drug may already have been ingested before you became aware of it. In comparison the polish does seem like a slightly more practical idea, but it's not without it's own problems. The biggest one being that it is, once again, up to women to prevent their own sexual assault.
I'm fairly sceptical about this to be honest..I'm all far enabling women with the tools to help protect themselves as best they can but this...I think the innovativeness of it is well intended but the message it delivers just adds to the evergrowing list of how women can prevent rape happening to them as opposed to the real message of respecting boundaries and consent. yet again the onus is on women to be more responsible and accountable for what happens to them.
ReplyDeleteMeh, I don't think it's a great idea. I think the usual things are probably more helpful i.e. making sure friends look after each other on a night out, not leaving drinks unattended, not accepting drinks from strangers (or dodgy 'friends'), alternating with water or soft drinks so as not to get completely plastered.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's a good idea for anyone (male or female) to get so drunk that they black out, pass out, can't remember what happened, can't look after or control themselves. For one thing, think of your poor liver!
I think it's a good idea. I think it would probably be most helpful to someone who has experienced a previous sex attack, just to give them a little more reassurance. I see the potential for it to turn into another victim-blaming thing, but unfortunately until society has a change in attitude towards rape victims, the majority of things could be turned into victim blaming. Why were you wearing a short skirt?Why weren't you in a group? Why were you on your own? Were you drunk? Were you talking to a stranger? Did you leave your drink and go to the toilet? Why weren't you at home with your children? Why were you out at all? Etc. So while I don't think it's going to change the world, I think that I can look at it as an extra tool to arm yourself with, to give women more power to stand up against those who think they have the right to attack. Now I know that there's only one solution to rape - don't rape. But I don't think that's going to sink in overnight, I think that needs to be taught and taught and taught again. I've already started with my 9yo - respect for women and for yourself is an integral part of stopping this, but until then, I do think that it's a positive thing to arm yourself with as much information and protection as possible, I know it's wrong and women shouldn't HAVE to protect themselves, but given the frequency of attacks, it's important to evaluate risks and decide whether or not you want to take advantage of protection available to you, like the polish. Did I make any sense?
ReplyDeleteThis one is all kinds of confusing for me!
ReplyDeleteI can see the basic merits of the product, but I don't necessarily see how practical it could be first off, what if it reads wrong or you've dipped your finger in too many drinks and it wears off a little? What if people become reliant on it and trust the polish over their own judgement?
But more importantly I'm worried about the message it sends out into the world :(