Measuring harassment with a smart-dress.

The shear amount of hopeful, wishful or even predatory thinking in the men revealed by the smart-dress, to me, has reduced women’s experience of a night club to one that is wholly sexual. Whether they choose this or not.  Uncaring that women must cope with the fact at all times. Like being around adolescent boys who find themselves knee deep in semen.

There was a conclusion that data collected by the dress (40 touches per hour) supports why Me Too has exploded onto the scene. They make a good point.

This data point makes men seem so trapped in their own experience, or so it seems to me, that they immediately act to debase women or perhaps not always sordid, to fill an all unrelenting need or desire.

Why are men so compromised by a dress? It must be more than entitlement. More than concepts like toxic masculinity. More than a need for sex at all times and places. There is something important missing in how we understand the male condition.

And thus with no understanding, there also are no solutions forth coming. Whether providing effective outlets at different stages of development, or who knows what all is needed. I don’t want to speculate on changes to societal norms and such. It certainly isn’t the same for all men. Consider those who are more overwhelmed, more driven, more shy vs socially able, and so on. I fear we are clueless.

Women getting touched 40 times an hour communicates, to me, such overboard wishful thinking on the part of the men. These are men completely lost in seeking a sexual relationship, regardless of good or bad intentions, regardless of the well being of others, particularly women.

Clearly there is something here that men experience to an unfathomable degree. Ignoring it and merely punishing the worst men is not going to take Me Too where it needs to go. Clearly, punishing the worst of women and all the victims has gone on for too long. Understanding and respect for women. I would add Caring, Understanding and Respect. The men are going to need a little bit too.

Link to the Smart-Dress experiment:

For a campaign on behalf of beverage company Schweppes, advertising agency Ogilvy created a touch-sensitive dress that tracked how often—and with what degree of intensity—women in Brazil were groped on an average night out. The goal was to elevate the issue to men, who expressed in preliminary interviews that harassment was not a major issue for club-going…