Lo-Jack for Whores
As the Duke Stripper case clearly demonstrates, hookers, whores and strippers take safety too lightly. They wear next to nothing, are completely unarmed, and are supposed to do their jobs in the dead of night. How will they ever protect themselves?
Why, its Lo-Jack for Whores, From Ronco! Those 5-inch platform shoes have plenty of room for everything the girl-on-the-back needs for personal protection. It has a GPS, an audible alarm, and could provide emergency locator services for the police, the fire department, or maybe even your pimp.
This sounds like a joke, but I’m not so sure. From the pages of the project designer, Aphrodite Project here:
One of the main concerns of contemporary urban sex workers, even in areas where prostitution is legal, is violence. Each sandal will have an audible alarm system, which emits a piercing noise to scare off attackers. The shoes are also outfitted with a built in GPS receiver and an emergency button that relays both the prostitute’s location and a silent alarm signal to public emergency services.
The shoes will transmit their location via APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) originally developed by Bob Bruninga, US Naval Academy Satellite Lab, in the late 1970s. APRS uses amateur radio to transmit position reports, weather reports, and messages between users. It is free and open to the public, and used by police officers, fire fighters, and other public service workers across the country to track their locations.
Companies like Rave Wireless (www.ravewireless.com) have developed tracking methods that utilize cell phone signals to provide reliable positioning indoors and in urban environments. The shoe design may incorporate this technology and/or Rosum TV-GPS, which uses commercial broadcast TV signals to determine locations.
Okay, I see several problems with this technology. First, Pimps would use this to keep his tabs on Trixie, and if the technology is really good, he would be able to tell everytime Trixie’s feet were in the air too.
Wouldn’t the cops just use this to roundup the whores? Shouldn’t they? Prostitutes are safest when they are off the streets.
And you think its annoying to wake up with the neighbor’s car alarm going off down the block? Now you have to put up with listening to shoes going off when someone smacks around a whore behind a dumpster.
And why stop at hooker shoes? Why not go with the Urban Sex Worker Utility Belt? It has pockets for condoms, a convenient pump for lubrication, moist towellettes, and of course, room for extra gum. It also has holsters for lipstick and pepper spray.
