Shock bras, mobile apps: Why technology can’t stop sexual violence

Women’s safety is a point of debate once again India.  The Badaun gangrape and murder case where two teenaged Dalit sisters were gangraped by seven men, then hanged from a tree has shocked all and led to protests in both Delhi and Lucknow.

The impunity with which the rapists acted shows that not much has changed in India, especially for women in rural areas and those from lower castes. In light of Badaun, maybe it’s time to revisit the hype around technology as a safeguard against sexual violence.

More so since in the wake of the Delhi gangrape, we’ve witnessed a proliferation of tech apps, anti-rape lockets, and anti-rape underwear grabbing media headlines. Last year, three engineering students came up with lingerie that would give the rapist/attacker a shocker. They said that they felt the need to do something after the 16 December gangrape.

“The lingerie with global positioning system (GPS), global system for mobile communications (GSM) and also pressure sensors, is capable of sending shock waves of 3,800 kV as well as alerts to parents and police,” said lingerie co-inventor Manisha Mohan in an interview with PTI.

“The shocks can be emitted up to 82 times,” she said, adding that the device could give women “freedom from situations faced in public places.” The group had planned to look for a commercial roll-out of the device by April last year, although its not clear if the new underwear hit the stores.

There have been apps focused on women’s safety as well. The most prominent is the VithU app, which has been endorsed by Bollywood Superstar Kareena Kapoor. The app basically will send your location to four of your chosen contacts in case you are attacked. All the user has to do is press the power button twice.

Screenshot of the VithU app.

But do any of these high-tech solutions really offer any help?  Not really, says Adi Robertson in  The Verge  who points that very often such devices end up trivialing the seriousness of the rape.

The author gives the example of products like “Guardian Angel” a pendant which is aimed at helping women feel safe. The pendant has a central button which triggers a call to the wearer’s phone (thus helping her avoid any annoying man at the bar).

Also if they hold the button for long it sends an emergency text message with location coordinates to a designated contact, in case the woman is facing a direct threat. Another product mentioned in Anti-Rape wear (ARWear), which is resistant to cut, tear, etc and is thus supposed to protect women.

Robertson, writes, “there’s a fine line between giving women useful tools and focusing so much on those tools that the larger societal problem gets ignored.”

In case of the anti-rape wear ad, she points out that the promotional video shows “a woman strikes a pose to check out her anti-rape underwear before sliding on her little black dress and doing her hair, all in one seamless process. Split ends. Deodorant streaks. Sexual assault. How terribly inconvenient.”

She adds that such technology and the way its marketed “ends up normalising rape as an unremarkable, if unfortunate, part of the female experience,” by reducing it to a pendant or a piece of underwear.

Screenshot from the Vimeo video of Anti-Rape wear.

This kind of messaging is apparent in India-made devices like iBall’s Andi Uddaan, a smartphone with dedicated SOS button and designed keeping in mind the safety concerns for women in India.  Pressing the SOS button would ensure that loud siren goes off in the phone to alert people nearby of the danger, and also makes calls and sends messages to five pre-defined contacts.

The company called it  “perfect blend of security and style”, evidently because the two go hand-in-hand.  Just to drive home the fact the  phone was for women, iBall fitted a Swarovski Zirconia crystal on the home button.

Reducing women’s safety to a bra or even a panty doesn’t help explain the larger problem which is this: women are attacked not because they forgot to wear a pendant but because they are women. It also puts the onus of safety on women themselves, thus once again opening up areas for potential victim-blaming. This is all the more problematic in a country like India, where not every woman can afford a smartphone, and where getting even 2G connectivity is a miracle at times.

The sentiment behind these devices can’t be faulted, nor is anyone saying that only fool-proof solutions are need to fight crimes against women, but in country like India, these only talk to a very small number of women. They don’t answer the concerns of a dalit girl who is forced to go out in the open to defecate  or the housemaid who is raped by her employer.

Nor is this to say that technology can’t help women deal with the violence. Mapping of areas where crimes against women are high is possible using GPRS. Data from such mapping can also be used to help set up better policing in these areas, perhaps setting up legal aid centres or even medical centres in the vicinity.

But where many apps like electronic shock bras are concerned, as Roberston says, “it is simply the aestheticisation of female fear.”

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Before Curtain Drops on Theater Teacher David Holmes’ Career, He’s Got a …

This is definitely the first time people are encouraged to bring squirt guns and toast into the San Marcos High School theater.

Longtime teacher David Holmes is living up to his 30-year-old promise that his retirement show will be the campy musical The Rocky Horror Show. He started teaching in the early 1980s after taking over from one of his mentors, Santa Barbara theater legend Marjorie Luke.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was 10 years old and his high school students begged him to make it the school’s next musical, he said. The cult show was in full swing, with theater showings featuring costumes, callback lines and props.

“It was very contemporary then, and very naughty and very racy,” he told Noozhawk.

Holmes told his students he would do it, but not for spring — it would be his retirement show.

“I never really intended to do Rocky Horror, it was the most outrageous show I could suggest,” he said.

It’s still not appropriate for high school, in his opinion, so he had the idea to make it an all-alumni show, bringing back former students from all over the country to perform together on their old high school stage.

He sat down his students one day and told them, he said.

“I said, ‘OK you guys, I’m going to tell you two truths and one lie,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘My retirement show is going to be Rocky Horror, next year’s spring musical is going to be Les Misérables, and I am not retiring.’ I let them squirm with that for a while.”

Holmes, now 60, caught the theater bug early, after writing a play in fourth grade. He grew up in the small town of St. Helena in Napa Valley and was involved in theater throughout junior high and high school. After graduating, he created a few theater companies with friends but eventually decided the lifestyle of a professional actor wasn’t for him.

Holmes attended UC Santa Barbara, became a student teacher and then the full-time theater teacher at San Marcos.

When he was hired, Holmes had never directed a musical and couldn’t even keep time, but it was tradition to have a big spring musical every year. He chose Oklahoma! that first year, he remembers.

In those days, he did the directing, set design, lighting and costuming — all by himself.

“I used to be here until 3 a.m. with students building sets,” he said.

They would order pizza and, on the way out, would get stopped by Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies who wondered why people were on campus so late, Holmes recalled.

“I don’t know why their parents put up with that,” he laughed.

Holmes doesn’t pull all-nighters anymore, but he is wholeheartedly dedicated to the success of his students.

“To get students to their greatest potential, it takes hours of rehearsal for every moment on stage,” he said.

Teaching high school theater is about building confidence, and he always has a kind or encouraging word for his students.

There’s a moment when they get past memorizing lines and blocking and become true storytellers — and that’s his favorite part of teaching.

“They don’t know what they’re capable of,” he said.

“If you can focus that teenage energy, it’s marvelous. That’s what I’ll miss the most, that moment when students take ownership of the play and it becomes theirs. It’s glorious.”

Holmes is proud of the many former students employed as stagehands, stage managers, scenic artists, sound technicians and other theater crew jobs in town.

“I can’t go to any theater in Santa Barbara and look at the program without seeing a former student on there,” he said.

He credits his colleagues with helping students succeed, including musical and vocal director Carolyn Teraoka-Brady and sets and lighting designer Theodore Michael Dolas.

When Holmes decided to retire, he wanted to go out on the top of his game, he said. He directed Les Misérables this spring, which was “truly incredible,” he said.

Holmes is handing the torch to student teacher Riley Berris, who is finishing her master’s at UCSB this spring. She has worked with Holmes all year, which was a great opportunity to learn the ropes, she said.

“I wished it would work out this way, to pass on the torch the same way it was passed to me,” Holmes said.

Once he retires, he’ll be doing some local acting himself and finishing a series of autobiographical short stories, but he’s still focused on organizing the Rocky Horror effort.

There was an overwhelming response from former students when Holmes suggested the alumni show, and 84 people are in the cast, with some parts divided between four people.

“What a testament to how important this program was that they would come back, stop their busy careers for a week and do something as dumb as Rocky Horror,” he marveled.

The point of the show is fun, and he won’t be putting anyone into a compromising position, he said.

All the cast members — some in their 40s — are dressing themselves to their own comfort level, given the show’s enthusiasm for fishnet tights and lingerie. There will also be an appearance by the famous hippo costume that shows up at every talent show, he said. It’s getting Rocky-appropriate attire so it can do the Time Warp along with everyone else.

The cast members will rehearse together for only a few days before the midnight show on June 12 and the 7:30 p.m. show on Friday the 13th. The San Marcos theater holds 1,000 and Holmes hopes people will show up in full costumes with props, ready for audience participation.

Holmes said he wants to leave the department better off than he found it, which is why he had the idea of making Rocky Horror a fundraiser.

Tickets are $25 for the general public and $20 for students. Click here to purchase tickets online, call 805.967.4581 or buy them from the box office on the night of the shows. The shows are expected to sell out both nights, organizers say.

Performing arts students will also be selling bags of props at the theater.

All proceeds will go to the San Marcos High School Performing Arts Department and donations can be given to the high school or the San Marcos High School Performing Arts Affiliates nonprofit organizations at 4750 Hollister Ave.

Tamara Jensen, who’s playing Magenta in Act 2, remembers playing the leads in many San Marcos musicals during her high school years. She was a freshman when Holmes was hired and remembers when he promised to do Rocky Horror one day.

“What’s spectacular is my daughter is a freshman at San Marcos this year and she got to be in his last fall production,” Jensen said. “I was in his first one and my daughter was in the last one.

“I was thrilled to death that she had the opportunity to work with him.”

Jensen, who owns a party-planning business in town, got together with Holmes and some of the alumni for a photo shoot last week.

Everyone has so much admiration, respect and love for Holmes, Jensen said.

“I have some of my best friends flying in from all over the place,” she said. “We’re making it not only a tribute for this wonderful person, but to reflect on our high school memories — so many were based on shows we did together.”

She remembers going to midnight showings of Rocky Horror in costume, knowing all the lines, but hasn’t watched or thought about the movie since high school, she said. She’s been wearing her Magenta wig around the house — which cracks up her kids — and many of her close friends are preparing for their parts, too.

“To think that I’m going to be back on the stage I was on 26 years later and also in lingerie is terrifying,” she laughed.

“There’s such teamwork and everyone is pulling together because they really want this to be the most ultimate and epic finale for him,” she said. “If anyone deserves it, it’s Mr. Holmes.”

Amy Stark and her three siblings attended San Marcos in the early 1990s and were all involved in the theater department, she said.

“That the school’s willing to do it says so much about how respected he is,” Stark said. She’s working on the planning committee, coordinating schedules and finding cast members.

Holmes made a valuable impact on all her siblings, inspiring them to get better roles and helping them come into their own. When her younger brother was suffering from appendicitis, Holmes was the one who knew something was wrong, she said.

“He did a scene and Mr. Holmes called my dad to say something’s not right, and my dad took him to the hospital,” she said. “My brother’s appendix had exploded.

“Mr. Holmes potentially saved his life.”

When Stark’s other brother died six years after graduating, Holmes added him to the school’s Hall of Fame, honoring him for his work as a talent agent.

“He’s just that kind of teacher who knows just enough,” Stark said. “He made a huge impact on our family in a very positive way. That’s why I want to give back and help with this.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.

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