Company Crowdfunds 'Locking' Anti-Rape Garments

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By Eva Recinos2013-11-01 11:09:25 UTC

The creators of a new clothing line featuring underwear and running shorts aim to help women feel safer on the streets.

AR Wear has been working on a anti-rape garments that women can wear discreetly, underneath their normal clothing. The idea is that customers can wear the AR underwear, for example, with a dress and leave for a night on the town feeling, potentially, a bit more secure.

See also: Indian Students Develop Anti-Rape Underwear With Electric Shocks

The company designed the underwear with specific locks that keep it safely and tightly on the user and make it difficult for a stranger to forcibly remove it. The "skeleton structure," as the company's video describes, functions on certain parts of the garment to add protection by making those parts harder to move.

A set of so-called thigh locks make it so that the material over the leg openings are difficult to move after the user snaps them in place. The center of the underwear's waistband also contains a lock which only opens when a wearer sets two notches to a specific position, like the hands of a clock. Each pair of underwear is assigned a position out of up to 132 different combinations.

Mashable spoke with a representative of the company, who preferred the focus to stay on the product versus the identities of the people behind it. Ruth and Yuval, the main creators of the project, therefore declined to give their last names on the campaign or elsewhere.

"Our goal is to get a product out there that might be used by some people and prevent some rapes," said Ruth. "And possibly even make more awareness of the problems of rape culture."

The clothing adds new features to already existing clothing items so that women can incorporate them into an outfit.

"Basically you're putting in some straps and webbing that can't be cut ... and you connect that with the center panel and you miraculously end up with something that is comfortable," said Ruth. "And that was the really tricky part."

AR Wear currently features underwear and running shorts and the creators hope to apply the same techniques to "traveling shorts" in the future.

The team's Indiegogo campaign had raised $2,080 at time of writing, out of its $50,000 goal, with 28 days to go. Donations of $25 yield a 10% discount on any AR Wear purchase and a $100 contribution gives the largest discount of 30% per garment. The project, however, will only be funded if it reaches its goal.

The clothing line debut has not been without controversy, however. Aside from raising questions about whether or not it would even be effective during an assault, the Daily Dot points out that such an invention "subtly shifts the responsibility for avoiding rape from the attacker to the victim," among other problems.

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Images: AR Wear

Topics: anti-rape clothing, AR Wear, indiegogo, Lifestyle