Rape, Date Rape, Date Rape Drugs, and Nail Polish to Detect the Drugs

I posted an item to my Facebook page talking about a new type of nail polish that women can wear, which will change colors if exposed to ‘date rape’ drugs. The woman would need obviously to be wearing that type of polish, and would need to stir her drink with her finger. If her nail polish turned black, she would know the drink had been spiked with a drug.

A close female friend of mine took serious issue with this. She felt it ignored many aspects of rape. First, it ignored that most rapes are perpetrated by someone the victim knows – a relative or friend. Second, most don’t happen because someone slipped GHB or Rohypnol into a drink, but are because the victim was coerced in some way or was too drunk to resist. Third, both men and women are victims of rape, and men don’t wear nail polish.

All of what she said was true, but it also misses the point. While this is a tool that can only help prevent a small percentage of rapes, that doesn’t mean that we should ignore or denigrate it. If any woman avoids rape by using this nail polish, then it has been a benefit. This item will not end the scourge of rape in human society. It may help may some small reduction in the incidence of rape in western society, when things like ‘date rape’ drugs are available.

To look at a parallel, body armor will not protect its wearer against armor piercing ammunition, or against bullets to the head, nor to bullets to the limbs which could strike a major blood vessel. Does that mean that people who know they could be the victims of gunfire should not wear body armor? As with any form of protection, it is limited in what it can protect and the circumstances under which it can protect.

We should nonetheless protect ourselves as best we can, understanding the limitations of that protection. It is only one tool in the arsenal of a battle against a dehumanizing act, but we should make use of all the tools we have.

We need education and socialization that tells men that forcing themselves sexually upon another person, female or male, is vile. Yes, a few rapes are perpetrated by women, but that is statistically a very small percentage. Rape is predominantly a male act, and it is primarily men who must be so educated. The way many societies see sex and sexuality turns primarily women into objects, and creates a conflict that induces some men to try to exert ‘power’ through rape – either for self aggrandizement or because they feel themselves deserving in some way, and denied unfairly.

Rape is a complex problem that is rooted in sexual and gender stereotypes and roles in our society. We must change the nature of that, which is more than can be solved by a clever type of nail polish. Still if the nail polish can save a few victims, then we should have and use that as well.