The creator of the Me Too kit — an at home rape kit that has yet to hit the market — has come under fire as sexual assault advocates argue the kit is dangerous and misleading for women.
The kit is marketed as "the first ever at home kit for commercial use," according to the company's website. "Your experience. Your kit. Your story. Your life. Your choice. Every survivor has a story, every survivor has a voice." Customers will soon be able order one of the DIY kits in order to collect evidence "within the confines of the survivor's chosen place of safety" after an assault.
"With MeToo Kit, we are able to collect DNA samples and other tissues, which upon testing can provide the necessary time-sensitive evidence required in a court of law to identify a sexual predator's involvement with sexual assault," according to the website.
However, critics argue the kit is highly problematic, as evidence collected is unlikely to hold up in court.
"We do not advise anyone to use an at-home rape kit as a viable alternative to a forensic exam. We also do not advise that any college or university encourage students to use this product or make it available for use," the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence said in a statement. "Me Too Kit has provided no information to explain how these kits will be admissible in court and how the proper chain of custody will be followed."
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The kit is even banned from being sold in the state of Michigan, where Attorney General Dana Nessel issued the Brooklyn-based company a cease and desist for violating Michigan's Consumer Protection Act. "This company is 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," Nessel said in a release. "There is absolutely no benefit here for victims."
Campbell argues that the kit makes the process easier for survivors. According to RAINN, only 23 percent of rapes are reported to the police. Some people fear losing their anonymity. For others, the forensic test can be traumatizing, and Campbell believes having the option to do a rape kit at home helps to eliminate some of these issues. But while her intentions might be good, critics argue the kit will be of no help to anyone. "We are advocates for all options for survivors," Morgan Dewey, communications director for the group End Rape on Campus, told Vox. That is, provided those options aren't harmful, which she says isn't the case with the at-home kits. "This is in fact harmful."
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Campbell, who didn't report her own sexual assault to the authorities, says she drew on her experience in creating the Me Too kits. "I know how terrifying and traumatic being sexually assaulted is," she told the Brooklyn Eagle. "And I didn't even want to touch myself after it happened, or go to anyone, or tell anyone about this. All I wanted to do was give survivors time to process their trauma."
Campbells company is only two months old, and she says she's open to listening to her critics. While the Me Too kit likely isn't the answer, it brought light to the fact that there's a lot we need to work out when it comes to dealing with sexual assault.
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.