A rape has occurred if any person is forced to part take in sexual intercourse that they did not consent to. Sexual assault is a crime that takes place so often that it tends to be a topic widely discussed. Many times a sexual assault takes place during a party or when a person has gone out clubbing with their friends. As a result the public has questioned how we can protect ourselves from such crimes.
That being said, about a year ago I was discussing rape culture with a few of my friends at lunch and one of them began to talk about a nail polish. According to CBC the nail polish was created by a group of male engineering students that attended North Carolina State University. The nail polish changes colors when it comes into contact with the typical “date rape drugs” including but not limited to: Rohypnol, Xanax, and GHB. The individual simply has to stir their drink with their finger and if the nail polish changes color, then they will know that their drink has been spiked. 
While researching the product I came across a blog, only with consent, that made negative comments about such a product. The author of the blog stated that the “nail polish adds to the laundry list of steps women are supposed to take to prevent being raped.” They compared the product to a drink-ware that has the same affects as the nail polish. This got me thinking about the business aspects that lay behind the creation of such a product. I thought back to topics discussed in class and I wondered about how the product would be priced and if the creators were only trying to make a quick profit off of their idea. I wondered, does it actually work?
While reading some of my peers’ blogs I discovered someone’s post regarding business ethics. Fathia brought up some fascinating points regarding an unethical slogan made by the beer company, Budlight. 
The slogan was: “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night #UpForWhatever“. I loved the point she made in her post about how Budlight has been criticized by the public for the way the slogan encourages sexual harassment. Fathia further interpreted her point of poor business ethics by questioning what story the brand was trying to portray with such a slogan. This brought me to a full circle with my thinking in regards to the nail polish. If it wasn’t for poor marketing schemes such as the Budlight one which encourages negative behavior, then there wouldn’t be as large of a demand for the creation of such products to protect people from those poor decisions.
Word Count: 449
Picture Sources:
http://ssmilesblog.blogspot.ca/
http://www.slashgear.com/date-rape-detecting-nail-polish-made-real-undercover-colors-22342431/
Other Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2014/08/nail-polish-that-detects-date-rape-drugs-proves-controversial.html
http://onlywithconsent.org/blog/nail-polish-answer
https://blogs.ubc.ca/fathiaulya/