All Tasered In Pink: The Feminizing of Self-Defense Products

Written by NY Press on July 17, 2012. Posted in Sex & Relationships.

Hot Pink pepper spray

By Rebecca Hoffman

Pink dresses, pink razors, pink tasers. Oh my! It’s every woman’s dream come true. Now she can defend herself and look feminine at the same time. Because nothing says, “Get back,” like a cute hot pink can of pepper spray.

Self-defense is no longer only a precaution, but increasingly a fashion statement too. Markets target women with girly pink tasers, stun guns, and pepper sprays. Though miniaturizing these items might serve some practical purpose decorating them only belittles the seriousness they imply.

Self-defense isn’t about looking cute, or having the hottest lipstick stun gun in several classy colors, or concealing perfume pepper spray in a limited-time pink camouflage pouch. This type of marketing only serves to demean women and their reasons for wanting a weapon in the first place.

These dainty, though arguably powerful, weapons make a mockery of women seeking protection when, the truth is, women’s safety is still an issue. According to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey one out of five women reports being involved in some form of sexual assault. A woman’s personal safety isn’t a joke, though it is, admittedly, hard to take it seriously when confronted with female safety mascots like Pinky Sparkadero.

Pinky, a hot pink robot that wears a pink mini skirt and crop top, is a character on the blog DefendThyself.com who presents the best in “girl-themed” self-defense products. While sporting lip-gloss and a six-pack, Pinky looks anything but serious. She’s girly, but macho, and, on top of that, she’s not even real: she’s a robot, a fantasy, and a joke. Though well intentioned, Pinky sounds about as foolish as she looks.

She says things like, “I may be pink and girly, but don’t let my appearance fool you, I can bring a big, strong man to his knees! There is no thrill greater than blasting a Punk in the face with hot pepper spray. They may even cry like a little girl!”

Not only does she degrade women by portraying men as being more powerful, but she also uses the comparison to a girl as an insult. Her entire attitude serves to raise men and defame women.

Carrying a weapon is about creating a sense of security and control. It’s a serious affair and should be marketed as such; not dumbed down and accessorized. Women aren’t children and these items aren’t toys, portraying them in this light sends the wrong message to attackers and women alike. The gimmicks and pink dye depict women as weak and girly when the affect should be the opposite. Carrying a weapon should make a woman feel safe and empowered, not trendy.

It be nice to argue that these types of items are irrelevant, bedazzled or not, but sadly, in a big city like New York, that isn’t the case. Whether its knowing not to leave drinks unattended or learning krav maga, knowing how to defend oneself is important. Carrying pepper spray may be a smart preemptive move on a woman’s part, but dying it pink isn’t helpful to anyone.

Tags: defendthyself.com, hot pink pepper spray, national intimate partner and sexual violence survey, pinky sparkadero, rebecca hoffman, women self defense products

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cwinkler

Interesting point of view, however, you must have a big chip on your shoulder, and maybe hate men, because you are judging a book by it’s cover, and that is a shame. These products do one thing, get rid of an attacker without killing or wounding them, then they sue you. They work, and work well. Everyone should have pepper spray, it can be used pretty much every time, unlike a gun. It does not matter what’s on the outside, it’s what’s on the inside. Men are more powerful, bigger, and stronger and these products can even the playing field. Each year, 1 million people are the victims of violent crime, and most are women.

Obviously you don’t like pink, as you can buy anything in the world pink, and someone is buying it, though just not you. And we don’t make the products, you need to ask the manufacturers, and groups like Susan Koman, who promote pink everything & many of these items are made pink to promote through them. Did you make any effort in your research to call MACE or TASER International, or SABER to ask them why they are making them pink? Maybe its because women have asked for it? And the spray isn’t pink, the packaging is.

Pinky is a mascot, and a talking stun gun, and she must be doing her job to get you all worked up enough for your rant. As the creator of Pinky, I would really like to hear other women chime in on their thoughts if she is demeaning or not. We are not out to please everyone, because you end up pleasing no one.
- Mari
  
  At the very least, Pinky is insulting and ineffective. Think about it this way: When a
  company wants children to buy their products, what do they do? They make
  that product a bright color and give it a mascot. Because children are
  superficial. So by doing the same thing to a product marketed towards
  women, you’re implying that all women are also superficial. I’m not
  saying companies shouldn’t make products in all colors of the rainbow,
  but most self defense items are either black or pink. This assumes that
  if a woman doesn’t like the color black then she must like the color
  pink. No.
- Mari
  
  At the very least, Pinky is insulting and ineffective. Think about it this way: When a company wants children to buy their products, what do they do? They make that product a bright color and give it a mascot. Because children are superficial. So by doing the same thing to a product marketed towards women, you’re implying that all women are also superficial. I’m not saying companies shouldn’t make products in all colors of the rainbow, but most self defense items are either black or pink. This assumes that if a woman doesn’t like the color black then she must like the color pink. No.
  
  And saying that a woman “hates men” simply because she’s upset about something? Also very offensive.
  - cwinkler
    
    Wow, 2 women insulted. Who wooda thunk a simple character derived from a stun gun we developed 5 years ago to help sell these products is so offensive. We actually created it after we created Sparky the Stun Gun, to give him a girl friend. With all the problems in the world, so many people out of work, loosing their jobs, kids killing each other, home invasion robberies every few minutes, etc., on a small website that was started to pay the bills after I lost a job is actually got people talking. Hollywood makes billions off of comic book characters and I don’t see too many people complaining about that. And I used the word “maybe.” Anyone else find Pinky offensive? What about Wonder Woman or Cat Woman? What about all the trash Hollywood is putting out? There sure are a lot of people with paper thin skin & we refuse to be politically correct.
    - Mari
      
      Haha actually A LOT of people complain about the female tropes in comics and video games. Not only Wonder Woman or Cat Woman, but also the lesser known female “super heroes” who were created and killed off whenever a male super hero needed a more interesting story line. The phenomenon is called “Women in Refrigerators”. Look it up. Also, I suggest you take a look at how the other commenter expressed their thoughts. That’s how a grown up does it.
- Allison
  
  I’m not opposed to Pinky. I’m not even opposed to pink self-defense items. I think they’re silly, and I’d be more likely to opt for a neutral color myself, but I believe they have their place. If making them in pink means more women buy them, then more women are better equipped to defend themselves. No one is forcing women to buy the pink stuff, anyway – if we don’t want it in pink, we can just buy it in a different color. People must be buying it if the manufacturers are still making it, and if some woman wants a pink taser, then who are we to tell her she can’t have it?
  
  I think the problem comes from women feeling as though the pink items are intended only for them, and the neutral colored ones are intended only for men. It’s easy to feel like manufacturers are patronizing women, but the truth is they just want to sell more of their product, and the pink items target a very specific edge case rather than all women. Pink stuff appeals to women who normally would never even think of buying a cordless drill or a taser, but upon seeing it in pink, realize that the item is not just for men, and that they can use it too. Manufacturers aren’t targeting ALL women with pink stuff – after all, the women who don’t care about the color were probably already buying their product before it came out in pink.
  
  The whole “Pinky is belittling and degrading specifically to women” thing doesn’t really hold up, either. There’s a male mascot too, Sparky. It doesn’t appear as if they’re there to belittle anyone; they’re just goofy company mascots, like the Michelin man or something. I think they’re kind of cute.
  - cwinkler
    
    Thank you…
  - Mari
    
    This was a very insightful and well thought out response. And because you used logic instead of insults, I now better understand your point of view. If only the seller knew how to communicate their feelings they way you do!
cwinkler

Lets vote on it; Are Pink Self Defense Products Degrading To Women? http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e6639lcch4uof5gn/start
http://www.rachelkhona.com/ rachelkhona

I’m not sure if I’m insulted by the pink, but the seller’s answers ARE insulting. To suggest the author hates men is the oldest and cheapest insult in the book and completely irrelevant. Having read cwinkler’s diatribe, I wouldn’t buy this product just based on the fact that the seller sounds like, for lack of a better phrase, an a-hole.
Sara

Do they have pepper spray for bears in pink?