Overview
I know you read my title… confused, aren’t you? How can a bra fight back? Yes, the bra a woman wears as an undergarment. Can it fight back? Well, based on the technology created by Manisha Mohan, Niladhri Basu Bal, and Rimpi Tripathi, yes, a bra can indeed fight back. In the 2013 article written by Fiona Graham, “Wearable Technology: The bra designed to shock attackers” (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-22110443), technology is being created to help people; the catch is that the technology is in the clothes! How cool is that?!
Why I Chose this Article?
Well, the primary reason is that the title immediately caught my attention. I mean, who isn’t intrigued by a, quite literally, shocking bra! It made me curious as to what is really happening in the article and just what sparked this ingenious idea. Come to find out, it was due to a gang rape which unfortunately, makes a lot of sense. It would take a terrifying event to create such an extreme counterattack. Though, I believe extreme my be taken too literally, I simply mean “extreme” as in something more than a sharp key or maybe a keychain bottle of mace (something that almost every girl gets when she hits puberty).
The Argument
In the article, it gives more than just the bra as examples of wearable technology; it includes a music-making jacket, the Flutter, which helps the hearing impaired, and Bluetooth integrated clothes which includes GPS. These examples show how technology can be intertwined with even the most basic, essential things. I mean, who doesn’t wear clothes on at least a semi-daily basis? By placing technology in clothes, it creates an almost guaranteed type of security and provides at least a little bit more freedom than just choosing what shoes should go with what top. In other words, my argument is technology integration with apparel is an EXCELLENT idea. If you get attacked and the person takes your phone and loose items away immediately, you are only left with your clothing. That bra could save your life. That Bluetooth shirt can give your last known location to the cops.
Support
For many people, the idea of wearable technology is a great idea. Most of the articles on the internet mention something similar to this: “The healthcare industry benefits from garments with biometric measurements to gain real-time data regarding the health of some of the more vulnerable among us, like post-op patients, expectant mothers, senior citizens, or diabetics” (https://gritdaily.com/smart-clothing-e-textiles/). Real-time data is a legitimate life-saver for many people– it is similar to being able to tell the doctor what your blood type is when you are being rushed into the emergency room. This data can help someone from being in a diabetic coma or from a pregnant mother losing her baby.
Other health benefits often mentioned Under Armour, a company that creates many athletic styled clothes. In a few articles, “athlete recovery” is mentioned as a benefit for wearable technology. “Athlete Recovery is Under Armour’s range of clothes that absorb heat from the human body and reflects it back onto the wearer’s skin as Far Infrared light, which safe energy that is said to encourage better muscle recovery and enhance relaxation” (https://www.lifewire.com/best-smart-clothes-4176104).
Against
Very few websites had anything negative to say about wearable technology. The most common negative aspect was data security. “Many wearables tend to have little to no security measures keeping their data safe. The fact that much of the data is unencrypted and that most of these devices use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections to transmit data means cybercriminals can get their hands on it pretty easily” (https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/wearables/how-can-wearables-affect-our-lives/1/). It is a common worry because we prefer our data to be kept secure; however, this is also a relatively easy fix and can be taken care of as wearable technology becomes more popular. Anything new will have glitches, but they can be fixed and modified.
Conclusion
My conclusion is this: wearable technology is definitely going to become a common trend in the future. Personally, I own an iWatch, a fitbit, a Bluetooth beanie with built-in speakers, another beanie that has a wire that plugs into your phone, and a pair of earmuffs that function the same way. It’s more or less an “if you can’t beat them, join them” type of situation.
Forbes stated: “Just last year, Gartner forecast that worldwide shipments of wearable devices will reach 225 million in 2019, an increase of 25.8 percent from 2018, and that smart clothing will be one of the fastest growing areas of the industry, increasing from 4.12 million shipments in 2017 to a predicted 19.91 million by 2022” (https://www.forbes.com). Technology is constantly advancing and the only way to avoid it is to completely avoid technology. For me, that isn’t an option; I would not do well in a cabin in the middle of the woods scavenging and forging– I would be dead in a few days, or at the very least trying to contact Doordash! Tech is the now and the future. Be careful, but embrace it!
Society and Information 