The anti-rape bra

This week, I read an interesting article, Wearable technology: The bra designed to shock attackers, by Fiona Graham in 2013.

There are four wearable technology products that are introduced in the article: the anti-rape bra, developed by Manisha Mohan; the Machina Midi Jacket, a jacket that allow artists to create music by human bodies, designed by the Machina company; Flutter, a nice-looking dress that helps people with hearing disability to communicate with outside world by the sensors equipped in the dress;  TrackR, by Asher Levine, a clip that can be put on clothes and alarm you on the phone if you left the cloth behind.

The wearable technology has been developing rapidly since the last decade. The most common device might be a smartwatch. However, I never think about this technology can be combined with clothes in daily life to make lives better. And I never imagine that a bra can be a weapon. I choose this article to discuss because of the anti-rape bra. This idea fascinates me. And I’m interested in how a woman helps other women to empower themselves by using technology. Thus, in this blog post, I will focus on the anti-rape bra.

Manisha Mohan was a student in aeronautical engineering in India. In 2012, she was inspired by the sad news that a young girl experienced gang rape in Delhi, India. She decided to use her knowledge of technology to design a product that enables women to protect themselves. She and her group designed a prototype of an anti-rape bra, called the SHE (Society Harnessing Equipment). This bra can detect unusual pressure when someone attempts to forcibly take off the bra, and deliver a 3800kv electric shock, which should be enough to cause burns. This bra also links to the pre-setting contacts and police station and can send a text message and GPS location of the woman. This device received the Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award in India. Manisha Mohan later became a master student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology can continue works on this project. In the latter version of the bra, it became a washable strip “sticker” that can be put on any single pieces of cloth. The strip is combined with four layers: conductive fabric, nonconductive layer, electrode patch and hydrogel. When senses usual pressure, it will send a “consent” to the pre-linked phone, if the consent is not replied within 20 seconds, the alarm will ring, and the phone will send out messages and GPS location to the pre-set contacts and the police station. 

Being a female, I feel very impressive and proud of her; being a student in IS field, I think this design is innovative in two aspects. First, the women empowerment with technology. It has been discussed a lot that technology may enable the minority or the margin groups to empower themselves. Most of the empowerments are based on Information and Communication Technology (ICT). For example, in an empirical study in 2012, Stavrositu and Sundar applied survey on 340 females and an experiment of 214 participants. They concluded that blogging has a positive impact on empowering women regarding creating a feeling of belonging and a belief of influencing the community. However, fewer studies had applied hard technology to empower women and the “minority groups” of women (e.g., sex assault victims).

Second, in the past, the education of sexual abuse is most likely “classroom style” guidelines (e.g. Attend Take Back the Night events) rather than providing women with a powerful tool that can decrease the risk. See What YOU Can Do to Prevent Violence against Women by the Women’s Study at Marshall University for more examples. Although there are some self-protection stuffs, like pepper spray, there is a lack of a device that enable women to both to hurt the abuser, and immediately and safely ask help from other. This device arises women’s cognition that they have the power to actively protect their body. Third, it is very impressive that Manisha Mohan and her team did a user study of 338 sexual assault survivors when revising the prototype. Since it is a very sensitive topic, the participants may be hard to reach and unwilling to share those terrible memories. I admire her efforts in accomplishing this hard work. (Further reading: MIT student Manisha Mohan develops wearable adhesive to prevent rape, sexual assault by Ruchi Vaishnav in 2017)

However, I also have some concerns about this device. First, the health impact. Researchers still in debate of whether cellphone and the wearable computer can cause cancer and other health problem (See The Health Concerns in Wearable Tech by Nick Bilton in 2015). Currently, common wearable devices that are used in daily life are mostly wear on hands, where is far from vital organs, like the heart. But a bra is so close to the lung and heart, and if one put the anti-rape sticker on her panty, it can be so close to the uterus, which I am very concern about the possible harm cause by radiation. Also, this device has the capability to heat an invader and link to a phone and report out the emergency, which means the electric power may be too strong to harm one’s health, or cause injury when accidentally turn on the defense function. 

Remember last week I shared an article of the One Laptop per Child. The TOP mission of this project is to provide an AFFORDABLE laptop for children live in poor areas. So my second concern is whether this product will be an affordable one for most women is another issue. Women in a better social economic status may have more dominating power in the culture (can be the culture of a society, the culture of a workplace). In an international report done by the World Health Organization in 2002 (See World report on violence and health, p.162), the sexual violence is severer in areas where “the ideology of male superiority is strong”.  Another report done by Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape in 2007 (See Poverty and Sexual Violence Guide) indicated that poverty makes women more vulnerable and have fewer chances to seek for help. This anti-rape device should be helpful for them. However, I’m wondering if they can afford it.
The lateset updated news about this device in June 2017. We don’t know how far this device goes and we don’t know the possible cost if it can really be mass produced, neither. But this idea and Manisha Mohan’s achievement is undoubtedly impressive. I hope to see more updates and user test reports about this device, and I also believe Manisha Mohan’s contribution can inspire the society to develop applicable wearable technology that can empower women to live safely.     


References
Liberty, J. (2017, June 13). Intrepid. MIT Media Lab. Retrieved from https://www.media.mit.edu/videos/lm-intrepid-2017-06-12/

Bilton, N. (2015, March 18). The health concerns in wearable tech. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/style/could-wearable-computers-be-as-harmful-as-cigarettes.html

Dahlberg, L. L., & Mercy, J. A., (Eds.) (2002). World report on violence and health. World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/42495/9241545615_eng.pdf;jsessionid=732C0A81A7AEA799ED9766FC0B572A06?sequence=1

Graham, F. (2013, April 16). Wearable technology: The bra designed to shock attackers. BBC news. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-22110443

Marshall University. (n.d.) You can do to prevent violence against women. Marshall University. Retrieved from https://www.marshall.edu/womenstu/stop-abuse/what-you-can-do-to-prevent-violence-against-women/

Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. (2007) Poverty and Sexual Violence Guide. Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. Retrieved from https://www.pcar.org/sites/default/files/pages-pdf/poverty_and_sexual_violence.pdf

Quartz. (2017, July 22). Intrepid: MIT's sexual assault-detecting sticker. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzRsWtF5yOY

Stavrositu, C., & Sundar, S. S. (2012). Does blogging empower women? Exploring the role of agency and community. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17(4), 369-386.

Vaishnav, R. (2017, June 27). MIT student Manisha Mohan develops wearable adhesive to prevent rape, sexual assault. News India. Retrieved from http://www.newsindiatimes.com/mit-student-manisha-mohan-develops-wearable-adhesive-to-prevent-rape-sexual-assaul