The earbud that tells a story of safety and survival: Meet the AwarePod
Society13.11.2024
“That’s what girls have to think about all the time.”
It was a quick retort that actress Saoirse Ronan recently gave in an interview that took the world by storm.
She said it in response to an exchange between her male counterparts about self-defence and how silly it would be to use a phone as a weapon. As Ronan aptly pointed out, women often think about their safety, especially when travelling alone or at night.
It’s a sentiment that is also at the heart of the Canadian Women’s Foundation’s latest campaign, AwarePod, the first earbud designed for women.
A parody advertisement at its heart, AwarePod “features advanced audio performance, cutting-edge design, and leading wireless technology…all in just one earbud. Why just one? Because for women and gender-diverse people to feel safe, they need to keep one ear open.”
Forty-six per cent of women and gender-diverse people in Canada have experienced some form of unwanted sexual behaviour in public, nearly double the rate of men. It’s no wonder that in the Foundation’s recent national poll, nine out of 10 women and gender-diverse people said they take precautions when out in public to stay safe. This campaign was designed to draw attention to these very real gendered behaviour differences when it comes to public safety and to spotlight the lengths women go to to protect themselves in public.
Ask any woman you know, and we guarantee they know all the usual safety tricks: holding their keys between their fingers, faking a phone call, and, of course, only listening with one earbud in at a time.
It’s an unfortunate reality.
“As a leader for gender equality in Canada, we challenge all forms of gender-based violence, including the assault, harassment, and unsafety women and gender-diverse people routinely feel in public,” says Mitzie Hunter, President and CEO of the Canadian Women’s Foundation. “Many are unaware of the lengths to which we go to protect our sense of safety every day, especially those of us at higher risk such as racialized and Indigenous women, under-housed women, and women with disabilities.”
A shared reality
The idea for AwarePod first struck Gabrielle Lazarovitz when she was putting her daughter to bed.
As a copywriter at m5 Agency, she loves highlighting a problem to enact change. When she found herself using only one earbud even while in her house, she started to think about why that behaviour felt so normal.
After chatting with some friends and realizing it was a far more universal experience, the issue’s importance became increasingly clear.
“I thought this could be a great vehicle for sharing and validating the lived experience of someone who has to take their safety into consideration every single time they leave the house,” she said. “And many people are not safe inside their own homes as well, and we just wanted to find a way to bring that reality to light.”
While the campaign recognizes that no woman should ever need the AwarePod, it is designed to spark conversation and raise awareness about gender-based violence and gendered fear of the abuse and harassment that happens in public spaces.
“We’re using AwarePod to draw attention to the widespread assumption that our sense of unsafety is unchangeable or ’a part of being a woman,’” added Hunter. “We’re saying we need to make the right safety-enhancing changes and challenge the tendency to shame and blame those who are victimized so we can all be safe from harassment and abuse.”
