Undercover Colors (or if you rape me I should have been wearing this nail polish)

Getting your nails painted or painting them yourself shouldn't have anything to do with you getting assaulted, am I right? Kind of.

This past week it was announced that four male college students have invented and are in the process of marketing a polish which will change color if it comes in contact with a drink that has been drugged. The company is calling itself UNDERCOVER COLORS. Imagine yourself having a drink at a bar or club and quickly stirring it around with your polished finger nail- if it stays the same color... congratulations- your drink hasn't been drugged. If it changes colors however, your drink has been compromised.

Like its predecessors the anti-rape underwear -AR WEAR- and the RAPEX condom (which may or may not have ever actually come to fruition), this nail polish demonstrates that it is easier for society to come up with devices that further place the responsibility on women to be responsible for not getting raped than it is for us as a society to work on stopping rape itself.

How many times have you heard that a rape victim should've been wearing less reveling clothing? Or that they had too much to drink and therefore bear part of the responsibility for their attack? What about when a women is raped by someone she knows or someone she may even be in a relationship with? Victim blaming isn't a rare occurrence in our society it is the norm. Now some people will respond to this saying something along the lines of "I mean I'm not blaming the women for getting raped BUT -insert thing she should have done differently here-." That is victim blaming. You can say that one has a responsibility to be aware of ones surroundings and or be aware of the potential for danger at every turn and that has a degree of validity to it but even that IS STILL blaming the victim.

Jessica Valenti writes online in this ARTICLE that "The problem is that simply being female in public remains an undue risk. Do we really believe that half the population should be required to avoid parties, socializing, drinking, cute clothes and walking alone if they don’t want to be raped?" She goes on to talk about a quote from Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister who after a cabinet member suggested that women be given a curfew to curb a spate of sexual assault: “But it’s the men who are attacking the women. If there’s to be a curfew, let the men stay home, not the women.”

I don't think we will ever live in a perfect society and I do not consider myself unaware of my own surroundings. I think we are all guilty of victim blaming because it is a deeply entrenched aspect of our society. It is easier for us to feel sorry for the victim and to shake our heads at them in the same sentiment wondering to ourselves: 'what were they wearing, how much did they have to drink?' Obviously the idea of preventing assault and rape is a good one. If a nail polish alerts one to a spiked substance with a fun self detecting color transforming lacquer then I am not entirely against such a thing. But this also creates a business incentive with selling fear for ones safety in a handy liquid coating. For example, besides the Rapex condoms and the modern day chastity underwear we are quietly accepting that men are inherently "bad" or incapable of controlling their urges.

I want to acknowledge that we can't trust people very often in this world and the need to be on guard for ones safety exists and is a serious thing. That doesn't mean that a person should live in fear that being raped will be something that they ultimately chose in the eye of society. Whether the responsibility for not knowing your drink has been spiked because of your nail polish decisions lays with the victim is a moot point after the fact. Be afraid is the message. But be afraid in the name of keeping yourself safe. Oh, and in the name of not being judged a "slut" because you had the misfortune of being a target of a crime. We can do better and we should be doing better than that.

Touching Base (Happy Womens Equality Day)

I am still here. Yes, it has been a month since my last entry. A lot has been going on in the Reproductive Justice world and I cannot pretend that I am keeping up. So instead of not publishing any entries or publishing ones that I haven't put my all into- I am giving you the reader a only slightly compromised post with some current events and random facts and minimal analysis.

Unless you live under a boulder, you've heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS but have you heard of the abortion funding spin on the challenge? Basically it involves eating a taco and or drinking a beer and then donating to an abortion fund. Sound easy enough? CHECK IT OUT

What's the deal with admitting privileges requirements? My original post on the topic can be found HERE, but the truth it has gotten even more complicated since April. The law is being challenged in Louisiana most recently, however, the last two significant cases involving the issue of admitting privileges have both come down against it. In Mississippi, enforcing the law would have shut down the only abortion clinic in the entire state. The judge ruled that it was certainly an "undue burden" and therefore unconstitutional to literally hand off the abortions needed for Mississippi women to another state to take care of. In Alabama, the judge simply ruled that admitting privileges were unnecessary from a medical and logical stand point. So, will Louisiana make itself the third State in a row to finally stop these politically motivated and absolutely unnecessary requirements? I sure hope so.

AFTER TILLER is the documentary film about the late Dr. George Tiller who was assassinated while at church by an anti-choice zealot. This film follows the only four doctors left in the country who openly provide abortions beyond the second trimester of pregnancy, PBS is airing this amazing film on September 1st at 10:00 pm. Check out your local listings and other air times HERE

AND it is Women's Equality DAY! What you can do to celebrate is to look at THIS ARTICLE gives you an update on some of the things we couldn't do back then and the things we still can't do. If anything there's your extra reminder to vote because you are legally allowed to.

Rock on.