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posted by janrinok on Tuesday August 26 2014, @09:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the can-I-live-in-a-different-world-please? dept.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a new nail polish called Undercover Colors changes color when it comes in contact with any date rape drug so, a woman just has to discretely dip her finger in her drink to test it for safety. "Our goal is to invent technologies that empower women to protect themselves from this heinous and quietly pervasive crime," say four male undergraduates at North Carolina State University who are developing the polish and currently asking for donations to complete their work. "​Through this nail polish and similar technologies, we hope to make potential perpetrators afraid to spike a woman’s drink because there’s now a risk that they can get caught."

However some sexual assault prevention advocates warn that the nail polish is not necessarily the best way to approach the sexual assault epidemic on college campuses. “One of the ways that rape is used as a tool to control people is by limiting their behavior,” says Rebecca Nagle. “As a woman, I’m told not to go out alone at night, to watch my drink, to do all of these things. That way, rape isn’t just controlling me while I’m actually being assaulted — it controls me 24/7 because it limits my behavior. Solutions like these actually just recreate that. I don’t want to fucking test my drink when I’m at the bar. That’s not the world I want to live in.” According to Alexandra Brodsky the argument that women simply need to be more responsible is a common response to the current conversation about sexual assault on college campuses — and one that activists say doesn’t get to the heart of the issue. "The problem isn’t that women don’t know when there are roofies in their drink; the problem is people putting roofies in their drink in the first place."

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Wednesday August 27 2014, @04:16PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday August 27 2014, @04:16PM (#86323) Homepage
    Normally you're a smart poster, ...

    and your method of saying something shocking in order to draw attention to your point (that you disagreed with him and wanted him to justify his stance) was indeed a smart approach. It forces the person you are responding to to be painfully clear and precise about what he believes the problems and alternatives to be. Unfortunately, the person to whom you were responding doesn't seem to be smart enough to have worked that out.

    What I want to know is: how on earth does having real time evidence, in a public place, of a smoking gun not make it *easier* for the social pressure to rise? It's now easier to identify many of those who are part of the problem. Abstract concepts are far harder to stamp out that things you can positively identify. (Compare how labels like "Al Qaida" or "ISIS" have been used in order to help drum up support for abstract campaigns.)

    I would have tought that anyone who performs a crime which requires a modicum of planning (bringing and chosing where and when to deposit the drug) almost certainly has also considered the probabilities and consequences of getting caught. (And there's very little you can do to protect against the psychopaths and sociopaths who will not fold to pressure except, perhaps, just maybe, I don't know if this would ever be possible, - *catching them with the smoking gun* before one sip of rohypnol has been imbibed.)
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  • (Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday August 27 2014, @04:35PM

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 27 2014, @04:35PM (#86341)

    What I want to know is: how on earth does having real time evidence, in a public place, of a smoking gun not make it *easier* for the social pressure to rise?

    This is pretty much the point my wife made when this article appeared on her news feed. To which I was informed that I really had no idea how dangerous it is for women out there.

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/the-daily-show-takes-on-the-double-standards-in-combating-co [buzzfeed.com] -- This link here did more to give me a clearer idea of what the social problems here than not-releasing-the-app, like the AC was headed down the path of suggesting.

    Unfortunately, the person to whom you were responding doesn't seem to be smart enough to have worked that out.

    I'm actually disappointed about that. Not that I wanted him to be right, but rather I have encountered really effective uses of later-thinking in my life. I was secretly hoping to eat some humble pie if this dude had delivered.

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