Dear Microsoft: there are better ways to help women eat less than 'smart bras'

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/11/microsoft-smart-bra-emotional-overeating-ekg

Version 0 of 1.

Tis the season for shoving a third gingerbread man into your mouth after mum's passive-aggressive comment during the holiday meal. But this year, Microsoft has got an app for that – and also, a brassiere.

The Microsoft Research Institute and the University of Rochester are working on a "smart bra" (pdf) that collaborates with a phone app to warn women who are emotionally overeating. Equipped with removable stress sensors, heart rate monitors and a 3.7-volt battery, the bra detects her mood and sits close to a woman's heart to administer an electrocardiogram (EKG). When the bra picks up a woman is stress-eating, she is alerted via the phone app, called an EmoTree. Prototypes of the bra can be worn for four hours before needing to be removed and recharged.

The invention came about when Microsoft's team sought to develop wearable tech which could curb stress eating. As Business Insider explained, the bra is intended to alert women in the throes of eating their feelings so they can drop the candy cane and pick up a carrot stick instead. The team was unable, however, to create a version of this product for men. The lead researcher, Mary Czerwinksi explained:

We tried to do the same thing for men, but it was too far away [from the heart].

Not surprisingly, Microsoft's overeating bra has drawn criticism for singling out women and their eating habits. Katy Waldman at Slate.com snarked, "What a sign of progress that that technology now recognizes the holy trinity of womanhood, emotional instability and concern for food and weight." Ashley Feinberg at Gizmodo lamented stress-eating women will "[get] kicked by their phones when they're already down" and warned of "fat-shaming". The blog Feminist Philosophers called it a "Shame-You-Into-Not-Eating Bra".

Sensing the PR problems with this device, Microsoft is now trying to "clarify" just what it's intending to do. A company spokesman told NPR:

The bra sensing system is just one instance of a class of work from a group of Microsoft researchers who are focused on the broader topic of affective computing, or designing devices and services that are sensitive to people's moods and react accordingly. While we will continue our research in affective computing, Microsoft has no plans to develop a bra with sensors.

It's unfortunate Microsoft abandoned wearable tech for men on this project, because gender balance could have prevented most of these criticisms. To be sure, women are generally encouraged to have a more complicated relationship with food and emotions and, Czerwinski even said "it's mostly women who are emotional overeaters". Yes, the bra does reinforce women's body anxiety in a sexist manner because it can only target women who overeat. But beyond that valid criticism, is technology which encourages healthy eating really that objectionable?

There are many tools which dieters already use, from Weight Watchers apps on their phones to the FitBit, a $129 wristlet which tracks activity, calories, weight and sleep. I don't see how this bra is demonstrably different; it's just another tool. I find it difficult to call a product "fat-shaming" if women use it as a tool to curb an unwanted behavior, as gender-specific as it may be.

Emotional overeating is something all of us, men and women, struggle with at some point. Lots of dieters struggle to learn portion control and teach their bodies to know what fullness feels like. Technology can, and should, help. Microsoft had the right thinking cap on; a "smart bra" is just the wrong execution. So here's an idea: wow about long necklaces with pendants for both men and women, which hover over the heart? Surely the EKG monitors can hide in jewelry – and leave our bras to us ladies.

Because that's really what I find objectionable about Microsoft's bra idea: the colonization of the boobs. The bra takes breasts – an area of the bodily landscape which should be about sexiness and sensuousness – and plunks an EKG over it. How much less erotic can you get than to be reminded about your struggle with weight? (Thank goodness the sensors in the Microsoft bra are removable, or else they might dim the flame of passion entirely.)

I wouldn't wear a bra that warned me when I'm emotionally eating – though I could admittedly use that information – because I like how my bras make me feel sexy and beautiful. It's difficult enough as a woman to feel sexy in puffy winter coats, business casual button downs, and workout sweatpants. I'll keep my lingerie a sacred space, thank you very much.

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.