no more bloodless sheets

via Frisky

My friend Ranya tipped me off to a product, Gigimo's "Artifical Virginity Hymen," via an article in HuffPo suggesting that Egyptian lawmakers may ban it. Gigimo is a sex-toy shop based in China, so naturally the marketing for this product focuses on fulfilling whatever fetishes men may have about women who are virgins. I am much more concerned about this product from a cultural perspective - Egypt's claim that the product encourages premarital sex, and undermines the principle of women maintaining strict purity. The argument is that the product allows women to misrepresent their sexuality, and thereby defy Islamic law.

In a society where honor killings/beatings are not out of the ordinary, this product has significant potential. At $30/piece, it's not necessarily readily available, but is much more so than hymen reconstructive surgery .

Does the product get to the root of the problem, the cultural stigmatization of women's sexuality in the Middle East? No, not directly. But hopefully such controversies, and yes, the associated media attention, will guide a more thorough discussion on the cultural implications of such a device. On the other hand, there is always the risk that any cultural exploration/intervention will only lead lead to colonial backlash and cultural defense in the form of stricter punishments.

peepoo bag

The PeePoo bag is a biodegradable, self-sanitizing, single-use bag to be used as a receptacle for - you guessed it - pee & poo - for the 2.6 billion people living in the world who don't have access to proper toilet and sanitation facilities, and as a result are at high risk of becoming infected with life-threatening diseases.

When my roommate forwarded me a link from Design Observer on the PeePoo bag, I had 2 immediate, but conflicting thoughts:

1. This is a great temporary solution
2. The title and the concept seem a bit degrading

After reading a lot of the very heated commentary from readers of the blog, I am still conflicted about the overall approach and have some unanswered questions/thoughts that are really ever-present when I look at product design of this nature.

Function. The peepoo bag is a great temporary solution. It sounds potentially degrading, but if it's complemented with real strategies to improve sanitation and water access problems in the long-run, then the product isn't just a product - it's a symbol of a greater campaign, and a temporary fix that if implemented properly will save lives.

Timeframe. How long should "temporary" be? Can "temporary" products become a crutch that impedes progress towards finding more sustainable solutions?

Branding. I thought about branding in product design recently at a lecture on Project H Design given by founder Emily Pilloton at Columbia College. Project H worked on the redesign of the hippo roller, a water carrier concept originally developed by engineers Pettie Petzer and Johan Jonker that aims to increase water access for populations in rural South Africa by allowing them to carry significantly larger loads of water than did their previous method of carrying filled buckets on their heads.

When Project H did the redesign of the hippo roller (including a few functional improvements), they didn't want to fundamentally alter the actual look of the product, because it had become recognizable in the community and having one had become a source of pride. So, is this a culturally-, and community-sensitive approach, or does it feed into a certain sense of possession and accumulation that seems to be inseparable from product design...or both? Can branding be a positive way to proliferate ideas, concepts and innovative products, or does it always take advantage of our desire to accumulate?