Wilkes: The Manicure That Stops Date Rape

AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON FEMINISM …

By Mande Wilkes  ||  Once upon a time I went to my very first and ever-only college football game.  Other than the fact that there are entirely too many steps to climb, I remember not a thing about Williams-Brice Stadium.

One second I was at the “frat lot,” wondering how so many girls could be so excited for football, and the next thing I knew I … didn’t know a thing.  The atmosphere felt thick and sticky, like trying to move through maple syrup.  Everything seemed at once deliberate and fuzzy, slo-mo and fast-forward.  This didn’t feel like “drunk” feels, this felt like twilight, the smack-dab middle between consciousness and unconsciousness.

I was drugged, I suspect.  Probably I wasn’t the specific target, probably there was a barbiturate or a benzodiazepine lacing the vats of vodka & Red Bull. (Greek-life “culture” at its finest, baby).

Anyway, a sweet friend (bless her heart) ferried me away from the heat and the noise, finally, making sure I was safe.  So the story has a happy ending, fortunately, but obviously a lot of girls are less lucky.

That’s why an enterprising group of students at the University of North Carolina (UNC) has developed a shield against date-rape drugs.  It’s a fingernail polish, the formula of which is designed to change color when exposed to Rohypnol (commonly called “roofie”).

As a preemptive measure, a girl simply dips the tip of her finger in her drink – discreet, quick, and effective.  If the nail polish changes color, she’ll know to throw away the drink (and high-tail it out of the place, hopefully).

Predictably, feminists are convinced that this is just another weapon of “the patriarchy.”  All over the internet and even already in print media itself, from ThinkProgress to National Review to Salon, women writers are reacting with venom.  According to feminists, we should figure out how to make men not want to commit rape.  How they imagine this to be accomplished is unclear, but it involves a lot of vague pablum about changing “the culture of rape.”

Of course it’d be nice if no men ever was compelled to commit rape, but in the meantime?  Girls should proactively protect themselves, and this nail-polish is just another form of defense.

It’s hard to see why feminists, who profess to care deeply about women’s safety, could oppose such a practical method of defense.  Oh, but guess what?  It wasn’t a woman who invented the nail polish.  It was four men.  That’s what’s causing the backlash, here.

That a group of guys in college are helping girls stay safe debunks the whole “culture of campus rape” meme.  Also, so-called feminist progressives can’t stand it that once again, boys are superior inventors and scientists.  Had it been a woman who had developed this nail polish, the entire international media would be declaring a win for girls in “STEM” industries.  But because men invented it, it’s just more evidence that campus culture encourages rape. Nevermind the fact that the inventors are college students themselves. . .

Oh, and the most dangerous part is that there’s already a movement afoot at campuses across the country to discourage women from using the nail polish.  Feminists and “social progressives” have tremendous clout among both students and administrators, and so it’s not hard to imagine that they’ll convince a certain number of girls that, reality be damned, women shouldn’t have to take proactive steps against date-rape.

In sum, then, I guess there is a culture of rape on campus, both spearheaded and sustained by the so-called progressive feminists.

Mande Wilkes is a wife, mother, businesswoman, author, etc. residing on the South Carolina coast with her family.  You can read more of her work in The (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) Sun News.