In the last 24 hours, I have been embroiled in multiple conversations about terribly innovative products under development, products with the end goal of protecting someone from something.
“That’s very clever,” you’d think the conversation would go, “Let’s call the Nobel committee.”
No. There are objections to products being designed and formulated by very, very smart people to protect other people from dangers we all read about and tsk-tsk in the newspaper everyday. Those products are EVIL.
Comedian and commentator, David Mitchell, ranted freely in the Guardian recently about the outrage of having a seatbelt installed into your car that detects when you’ve dropped off to sleep. Using a series of sensors, this relatively inexpensive addition to your already existing car safety system could prevent up to 20% of the auto accidents that happen on our roadways. Those absolute bastards.
“Even if they work properly, which I suppose they probably will after 10 years of irritation,” Mitchell gripes, “They’re an ominous development.” His contention is that driving is a skill, that it should be done by people who know what they’re doing and paying attention to it while they’re at it. Giving them a device that buzzes or bleeps them awake when they begin to nod off behind the wheel provides a false sense of security; it gives “an exhausted person the illusion of consequence-free power.”
This is clearly the voice of someone who has never driven the long, empty prairies of Wyoming, nor lost someone to a fatal accident caused by inattentive driving. This is the voice of comfortable privilege.
Meanwhile, a group of very clever chemistry students have developed a nail polish that, when dipped into a drink containing a handful of the wild assortment of so-called date rape drugs, changes color, thereby alerting a would-be victim before she is debilitated beyond the ability to protect herself. According to one interview with the young researchers, it was “personal experience” that inspired this product. “Through this and similar technologies, we hope to make potential predators afraid to spike a woman’s drink for fear of being caught,” they explained.
Hey girls! It just got slightly less dangerous to have fun again! Hooray! Oh wait…
Turns out, this is a very bad idea. A number of outspoken feminists have cried “victim blaming” in response to this apparently heinous effort to decrease the horrific act of raping women who are too debilitated to resist. Feministing blogger, Maya, asks “Are you at all concerned that women who weren’t wearing your polish when they were drugged and raped will be blamed for not doing everything in their power to ‘ensure [their] safety’?” She also wonders why we are working on chemical detection products when we should be teaching men not to rape.
She makes half of a point, there. Yes, men should very much not be raised in a culture that teaches them to feel entitled to women’s bodies, that encourages aggression and contempt when they are not given free access. I agree. Loads of work to be done there. And yes, law enforcement and defense attorneys need to stop Stop STOP banging the drum of when and where women should be allowed out and about and what uniform is acceptable. We need more women in both fields with a personal understanding of what it is like to be objectified, preyed upon and always just a little bit frightened. Start studying for those LSATs, ladies!
But in the meantime, while the roads of nightlife are riddled with the debris of rape’s gut wrenching, life altering, soul killing collisions, I think wearing a proverbial seat belt is a really good idea. Having an additional protective sensor in that seatbelt is an even better idea! Let’s call it layering. That way it sounds like Scandinavian fashion or good planning for a hike.
Go for it, engineers and chemists! Keep doing good in the world. Most of us appreciate your noble efforts.