New York-based (designer) Jessica Corr sent us a postcard that immediately grabbed our attention. Portrayed was an intriguing picture of a steel rock with a flat edge polished to a perfect mirror finish, backed by a cryptic product description: "GBF (Girl's Best Friend) A conceptual weapon. A compact mirror for your purse. GBF draws on the old-fashioned advice to carry a rock in your purse to slug would-be attackers," Jessica explained. The 29-year-old designer is interested in creating objects that depict the desires or fears of a popular culture that are not commercially addressed. "It involves taking very different ideas and creating one form. In product design, there is an element of aesthetic reasoning that the form must somehow give clues to how the product is used. GBF is pretty direct. It dissolves any disconnection between the user and the weapon." So just how practical is this conceptual weapon? "I think a purse with a long handle would help to hurt someone. "But -by the time you get attacked, it's probably too late to use GBF. This is part of what I wanted to convey. There is no such thing as guaranteed protection. The fact that women were once given the advice to carry a rock in their purse for protection is as ridiculous as suddenly seeing gas masks in every drugstore last year."

Which brings us to the post-September 11 climate that inspired GBF. "During the months following the attack, New York had become a city of conflicting feelings: fear and paranoia, and the desire to return to a 'normal' carefree live-in-the-moment workaday life. There was a vulnerability that people felt for the first time. But women all over the world feel this way all the time. I'm not sure if I can change this, but maybe I can make people aware of it." As there is a pressing global need for the protection of women, we couldn't agree more. Why, however, combine a self-defense tool with a vanity accessory? "I think it's natural for men and women alike to care for their looks. What I don't agree with is the imbalance. There is much more social pressure on women than men. In the midst of the US invasion of Afghanistan, I saw a news banner in Times Square that said: 'Women in Afghanistan now allowed to wear high heels.' So there is some indication that women's vanity became a symbol of freedom to some people. This cultural phenomenon fascinates me. As for GBF, I like the image of a woman taking a rock out of her purse to put her make-up on in the subway. Would you mess with her?" Hell no.

Katia Vlerick, BEople: Dec 2002