Researchers at MIT and Advanced Research Apparel have come
up with a shocking new jacket design for women – literally.
Designed as an anti- assault device for women, this little
black sports number carries an 80,000-volt, low amperage current
just below the surface shell of the entire jacket.
Dubbed the “No-Contact Jacket”, this exo-electric
armor protects the wearer by emitting a high voltage shock
that interrupts a would-be assailant’s neurological impulses
which control voluntary muscle movement. The attacker is thus
temporarily “turned to jelly”.
What’s all the buzz?
Designers Yolita Nugent and Adam Whiton say the project’s
goal is to call attention to violence against women and to
provide an alternative response to the body’s vulnerable
space that society, culture and fashion have created.
Funded in part by the MIT Council for the Arts and the MIT
Center for Advanced Visual Studies, the No-Contact Jacket purports
itself as an attempt to intervene in the social condition of
women, and enters a new level of physical and visual communication
by expanding the borders between technology, visual arts, culture,
product and the mass market.
According to Nugent and Whiton, women have historically been
placed in positions of vulnerability – even in modern
times fashion can be physically restrictive, confining and
can limit mobility – and they hope the No-Contact jacket
will challenge the existing power landscapes between men and
women. Their intent is to alter the idea of human space and
boundaries and to shift the ideas of perceived female vulnerabilities.
Yes, but why?
Well, take the US Judiciary Committee statistic that in their
lifetime, three out of four American women will experience
a violent crime at least once. A startling statistic, but
one that shouldn’t undermine the fact that the numbers
for men are higher and that nearly two-thirds of all violent
crime victims in the U.S., and three-quarters of homicide
victims, are male. But, that’s not the whole point
If by donning and arming exo-electric armor in situations
where a woman feels threatened – such as walking home
alone after dark in urban environment – consequently
prevents an attack, then the designers feel the extremeness
of the technology is worth it.
Shocking by design
Unarmed, it may look like a sample of Trekkie couture, but
a simple turn of the key located on the jacket’s left
sleeve and a press on one of the palm switches conspicuously
placed inside the jacket’s cuffs, transforms it into
a dazzling display of high tech design.
When armed – meaning the key has been turned to the “on” position – the
jacket produces a series of visible and audible electric arcs
between two seams on the wearer’s upper right shoulder
as a way of warning off any potential unauthorized contact.
By pressing the palm switch, the wearer can send pulses of
electricity through the conductive pathways just below the
surface of the jacket – delivering an 80,000 volt shock
to a would be assailant.
“It’s kind of like sticking your finger in a wall
socket,” states Whiton.
By design, men cannot wear the jacket – it has been
specifically tailored to the female form, sporting small armholes
and smaller sizing - nor can it be easily used against the
wearer. Unlike weapons or pepper sprays, the jacket cannot
be grabbed from a woman and used against her.
Intended for use as a passive defense, the designers have
gone to extreme measures to ensure the No-Contact Jacket won’t
be used to proliferate violence. This, however, is entirely
up to the wearer and Whiton concedes that women could use it
offensively.
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