1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime.
It’s a shocking statistic, but this is the harsh reality in which we live. This could mean your cousins, sisters, friends, or even you may experience sexual assault, of which nowadays is becoming increasingly likely to happen on university campuses through ‘date rape’.
The culture of drink spiking or use of ‘date rape’ drugs has unfortunately become a relatively common and accepted part of university life. On campus, everyone has heard of someone, knows someone, or been someone who has experienced having their drink spiked, and in the UK as many as one in 10 people have admitted to being a victim.
But the most appalling fact remains that we can never really know the true magnitude of the ‘date rape’ epidemic, as it’s still so difficult to tell if you’ve genuinely been victim to a crime or just have difficulty pacing yourself on a long night out. Just as difficult as it is to see it coming; many will never know that they were drugged.
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But, four engineering students from North Carolina State University may be about to show us light at the end of the tunnel. As part of a larger effort to “combat sexual violence”, co-founders Tyler Confrey-Maloney and Stephen Gray and their team of engineers set up the company Undercover Colors to “empower women to protect themselves from this heinous and quietly pervasive crime”.
On their Facebook Page, Undercover Colors is marketed as “wearable nail tech (or nail varnish to you and me) that identifies the presence of common date rape drugs in a variety of beverages through color change.” Specifically, the nail varnish has been designed to change colour when it comes in contact with the drugs Rohypnol, Xanax, and GHB; the most common spiking drugs used in ‘date rape’ crime. The product itself is discreet and allows the wearer to detect spiking by simply stirring a finger in any drink they deem suspicious, taking control of their safety anytime, anywhere.
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The product is currently still in its testing stages so isn’t available for purchase as of yet. However, the company recently underwent a crowd funding Kickstarter, and 11 months after blowing up on the international blogosphere, more than $1 million had been raised to push the product into its development stages and clinical trials.
“One moment we were students with an idea and some promising research, and the next we had the attention of the entire world” commented co-founder Tyler Confrey-Maloney in a recent interview for NC State Engineering Magazine.
“As we were thinking about big problems in our society, the topic of drug-facilitated sexual assault came up,” he said. “All of us have been close to someone who has been through the terrible experience, and we began to focus on finding a way to help prevent the crime.”
“We wanted to focus on preventive solutions, especially those that could be integrated into products that women already use.”
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Despite the creators’ good intentions however, Undercover Colors has recently received a social media backlash in response to the products advertisement. Katie Russell from Rape Crisis England & Wales was critical of the idea, saying that the charity will not support the invention.
“Whilst Undercover Color ‘s initiative is well meaning, on the whole,” she said, “Rape Crisis does not endorse or promote such a product or anything similar. This is for three reasons: it implies that it’s the woman’s fault and assumes responsibility on her behalf, and detracts from the real issues that arise from sexual violence.”
“For us, we work with victims to make them realise that they did nothing wrong,” she added. “Among primary cases, some do ask if they could have done anything to stop it. Products like this suggest otherwise. The emphasis must be placed 100% on the perpetrator.”
Though Katie Russell raises some extremely valid arguments, Undercover Colors has responded that they acknowledge they are indeed only a small solution to a wider problem. The product itself is just a small step towards combatting sexual assault and the company will continue to support a larger effort that “includes outreach, prevention, victim services and culture shifting.”