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I’ve read statistics about sexual assult on college campuses: At least 1 in 4 college women will be the victim of a sexual assault during her academic career; more than 70% of rape victims knew their attackers; in a survey of high school students, 56% of girls and 76% of boys [some of whom may be incoming college freshmen] believed forced sex was acceptable under some circumstances. These statistics are unsettling and unfortunately all too real.
I thought about these statistics when I handed each one of the Her Campus UCSB interns a pink Sabre pepper spray package from our Her Campus Spring Break Survival Kit. The package reads, “making grown men cry since 1975!”
I asked my fellow interns, “What does this pepper spray mean to you? What do you think it represents?”
Here’s what they said.
Ivy Kuo: Pink pepper spray symbolizes female empowerment and asserting our right to defend ourselves in a dangerous environment. Our safety is never guaranteed. Sabre’s pepper spray gel is a tool that provides us with both physical protection and a peace of mind.
Carrie Han: Sabre’s pepper spray represents safety. I guess you can say it’s a grown up version of a security blanket.
Allison Chen: Whenever I think of pepper spray, I think of a time when my friend from high school, Franklin, pulled out a pepper spray can along with his car keys. I laughed at him and asked him, “why do you carry that?! Isn’t that something that only girls are supposed to carry?” He responded by telling me that he carries it to give himself an “extra level of security,” and that he would only use it if he needed to be “defensive toward a potential aggressor.” This stuck with me because what he said was completely true. Any other person could threaten another person’s safety, and it’s only a matter of the situation and circumstance that one would need to use it! And his reason for always carrying it around? He would “rather have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”
Melissa Doran: It’s something that you want to have for safety, but don’t actually want to have to use.
Maya Wong: For me, Sabre’s pepper spray gel is my new little pink buddy that makes walking to my car alone at night a lot less scary.
Helen Gannon: Why is the spray orange and not pink to match the bottle? I want whoever I spray to be covered in pink, not orange.
Connie Lin: This pepper spray is a better than Sriracha! It’s like seasoning for the girl on the go.