For cross-state drivers, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are a godsend. If you ever find yourself lost while navigating your way to Nowheresville USA (Ithaca), you can simply activate your car’s GPS and allow a robotic-sounding, typically female voice guide your progression.

Still, GPS-enabled cars and cell phones are a known quantity. So, Brazilian lingerie designer Lucia Iorio decided to deviate from the norm with her line of GPS-enabled lingerie called “Find Me If You Can.”

Of course, many feminist groups are already crying foul, calling the lingerie a modern incarnation of the “chastity belt” designed to stroke the worrisome egos of insecure men. However, Josh Pothen of the Cornell Daily Sun disagrees.

He writes:

Such a device may be more safety-oriented than you might realize at first. Iorio said Brazil is a country prone to violence, so women might buy this lingerie for protection from potential attackers and rapists.

[…]One other note: Almost any technological innovation or idea can be used in a multitude of ways, some of which may be helpful and others which may be harmful. How it is used is up to us, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we should bar it from being sold. That would be like barring computers with Internet access from being sold because they could be used to discover information about making bombs. A far better approach instead of protesting to cease production is to encourage responsible use.

The Berlin feminist group that’s raising a stink over these overpriced undies ($800-1100) must be either shortsighted or ignorant to the rape issue in Brazil.

As Pothen mentioned, rather than protest the sale of the lingerie, the group should consider the beneficial uses – or shift their complaints to something more deserving, like the bulky box that rests on your hip and will probably make it uncomfortable to walk in these things.