There have been some bizarre ideas for start ups over the years but by far one of the most controversial we've heard of recently is the at-home rape-kit.
Branded the 'MeToo' kit, the idea might at initially seem like a good one. Created by Madison Campbell, it's intended to be an at-home self-forensic exam similar to ones which survivors of sexual assault would undergo at a hospital.
It sounds good on the (artfully designed) label - there's one big problem: legal professionals are saying that it won't hold up in court.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who sent the Brooklyn-based company a cease-and-desist letter has criticised the start-up for 'shamelessly trying to take financial advantage of the ‘Me Too’ movement by luring victims into thinking that an at-home-do-it-yourself sexual assault kit will stand up in court … Career prosecutors know that evidence collected in this way would not provide the necessary chain of custody.'
The kit isn't actually retailing yet, just raising money, but Nessel makes a good point - what kind of a world do we live in where start-ups are financially profiting from rape victims, and potentially undermining their legal cases as they do?
The purpose of a rape kit is to collect forensic evidence, but there are key procedures in place when that evidence is collected to make sure that it isn't contaminated and doesn't resultantly become inadmissible in court. The last thing a rape victim would need to face, on going forward with a charge of sexual assault, would be an argument that their evidence could have been tampered with because they self collected it wth a kit purporting to try and help them.
'When evidence is taken as part of a forensic exam in a rape case, there has to be a very clear order of who came into contact with the evidence: who had access to touch it, see it, know where it was' Ebony Tucker told The Cut. So it's really no wonder that the kit states 'there is no guarantee that any of the evidence collected as a result of the use of this product will be admissible in court.'
Much like feminist T-shirts that are made in terrible conditions by workers whose own rights are being exploited, the self-testing rape kit is highly problematic because it's profiting on the back of something which is not intended to be a 'market'.
Furthermore, hooking it, shambolically, on to the MeToo movement undermines the point of MeToo in the first place - entering the complicated territory of commercializing popular social causes. Simply inserting 'MeToo' into a company's marketing strategy doesn't vindicate it from being under thought, badly planned out or potentially harmful, and it's of detriment to the movement as a whole.
Medical professionals have also raised concerns about the fact that often undertaking a rape kit in hospital is accompanied by time-sensitive treatment for potential health concerns including HIV, Sexually transmitted infections and internal injuries. While the kit might enable a sexual assault victim to take a swab, it isn't a solution to the medical aftercare sexual assault victims often require.
One thing's clear: we don't want to see MeToo - and women's pain - become a basis for a marketing campaign or a 'pound' (or dollar) to profit off of. Especially when it has potentially very damaging consequences for sexual assault victims.
READ MORE: Reports of sexual assault on public transport double in five years