![]() "My issue with is first they're very cluttered, and second is that people think that just having it alone is enough to keep them safe," Dani Joy, lead instructor at IMPACT Personal Safety, a Los Angeles-based self-defense organization, told Newsweek. Fabulyss Boutique, for example, once showed off their items in a video captioned: "When a creepy guy is following you but doesn't realize you have a safety keychain."īut nonchalance in the face of danger is highly unlikely in real life. "If you don't have any strength in your strike, you're not breaking any window, I don't care what you're holding," Cassetta told Newsweek.Īside from quick demos, keychain influencers have also looked to exude confidence in their products via hypothetical situations packaged in TikTok memes. In demonstrating the potency of glass-breaking items, sellers have used visibly thin pieces of glass while claiming their products are powerful enough to smash through the thicker glass of windows on buildings and cars. Self-defense keychains (also known as safety keychains) are sold in an oversaturated online market on TikTok that taps into women’s anxieties about gender-based violence. Kubatons are known for being most effective on pressure points, but these how-to videos use them as stabbing tools. In TikTok videos, weapons such as Kubatons, pointed knuckles, knives and pepper spray were demonstrated on fruits, pieces of meat, cans, synthetic flesh, and mannequin heads. "Unless you've been training and you understand how to really work this stuff and it's second nature to you-how are you going to expect a young woman to pull out something and stab somebody in the throat who's attacking them?" "In general, a tool is just a tool, it's not a weapon unless you really know how to use it and you trained with it and you understand it and it's like an extension of your limb," Cassetta told Newsweek. Jennifer Cassetta, a self-defense expert who runs the "She Warrior" online self-defense course, said providing a "gigantic thing of tools" to a largely untrained customer base is "unrealistic." "And it can also be used to attack your attacker." "This could potentially save your life if you are trapped in a car because you got in a car accident, you went into water, or you're being kidnapped, this can easily break the window," she told her 1.4 million followers. In one TikTok video viewed over 9.6 million times, the owner of Fabulyss Boutique, a top safety keychain store, made ambitious claims about her products' Kubatons. retailers such as Alibaba, DHGate and Global Sources.Ī number of obscure American wholesale vendors also have the items up for sale to businesses. The separate keychain components are available in bundles on platforms such as and Amazon, but are also cheaply sold wholesale for less than $10 by non-U.S. Exclusive: How YouTube Facilitates the Persecution of TikTok Women in Egypt.Animals Are Eaten Alive in Viral Videos.Exclusive: Pick-up Artist Used YouTube, PayPal to Share Covertly Filmed Sex. ![]() Other staple tools of these keychains include alarms that double as LED lights, a "seatbelt cutter," a stylus that grabs door handles, and pointed tools dubbed as Kubotans, a Japanese self-defense accessory. ![]() Pocket knives are tucked inside hair combs, pens, or lipstick cases, even hidden behind fake keys. Stun guns are shaped like cell phones, car key fobs or lipstick. While enclosed lip glosses and hand sanitizers are exactly as they appear, some of the weapons are made to imitate everyday items. The videos attract hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of views. On TikTok, some merchants have marketed the keychains with grandiose claims, such as helping women to fight back against assailants, free themselves from attempted abductions, or even escape car wrecks. These tools require adequate training to handle properly, but safety keychain businesses tend to provide little to no guidance on their use. Attached to decorated wristbands and poofy pom-poms are weapons-sometimes concealed-such as pepper spray, stun guns, pocket knives, or pointed metal knuckles. Usually sold for upwards of $30, the keychains are marketed as must-haves for women who want to feel safe while looking cute. The ventures are typically started by Gen Z women and provide near-identical products across businesses. TikTok's niche of independent businesses selling "self-defense keychains" for women is a trend that has self-defense experts worried and exposes some of its merchants to potential legal issues.Īlso dubbed "safety keychains," these colorful contraptions are sold in an oversaturated online market that taps into women's anxieties about gender-based violence.
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