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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