As I went through my daily news this morning, I came across this gem:
India’s first female-oriented gun designed to prevent rapes.
As much as I am a fan of technology, there comes a point when you have to ask yourself: Why are we not spending more time educating men on why rape is wrong and stimulating behavior change that will be more long-lasting and less bloody than equipping women with guns? Why is our response from the tech side something totally ridiculous, especially given that I imagine India doesn’t have tons of gun ranges for women to even practice use of their new, ‘dainty’ weapons?
If we are to continue going this route, perhaps somewhat of a middle ground is the self-defense app championed by Mary Kom. Mary, who is a world-class boxer and Olympic medalist, is creating an app for Indian women that “…offers hints and tips to staying safe as well as a free SMS-based service.”
Ms. Kom has also partnered with Vodafone India to create the first female “fight club” in the country. This seems like quite an unexpected and unlikely pairing, but I am interested to see how this pans out. Although, it almost implies that men are raping women because they are not strong enough to fight back or don’t know how; thereby still making it the woman’s fault when she is raped.
I long for the day when combating rape places more or at least equal burden on the men than it does the women when it comes to prevention… and for the day when the tech that is imagined for this cause is more appropriate for the context of use.
Well, they have to do something. It has just gotten out of control in India and something tells me that the men committing these rapes know it’s wrong and not so nice a thing to do to someone, me thinks they just don’t care. What would be the point of male education on rape if at the end of the day, men are still going to be raping. I say, KICK HIM IN THE NUTS
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Yes, they need to do something but I am not sure violence meeting violence is going to be the best approach in this case. Especially considering if women did take up guns in droves, there is likely not to be much training around gun safety.