Web3 Will Suck for Women
When I close my eyes and envision the internet of tomorrow, the language is complicated, the faces are male, and the world is virtual. In truth, when I discovered Apple had decided to join Facebook and Microsoft in developing its own 'metaverse', I was confused. Why are we pouring millions of dollars into virtual reality technologies when the world right in front of us feels like it’s on the brink of crisis? The ins and outs of Web 3.0 were lost on me, but I wanted to understand. As it turns out, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it might just suck for women.
Web3 is a black box for most of us. Broadly speaking, it’s based on the decentralization of the internet. In contrast to the current choke-hold that a handful of tech giants (think Facebook, Twitter, Apple) have on the digital landscape, the next wave of the online experience centers ownership, democracy and places power back in the hands of users. The Cambridge Analytica scandal was just one case that made us reconsider how benign the online platforms we interact with daily truly are. In that respect, Web3 seems to be the natural outcome of a demand for greater agency on the web.
But what sounds like a project in equality might actually be reinforcing the very systems of oppression it’s claiming to tackle.
The blurring of meta and physical realities isn’t necessarily new. Virtual influencers like Lil Miquela debuted on Instagram as early as 2016. She’s the CGI brainchild of Brud - a transmedia studio that creates ‘fictional characters who live out in the real world’. So far, Miquela has been sponsored by the likes of Chanel and graced the covers of Esquire. If you’re not already feeling inadequate, this year she signed with CAA (Creative Artists Agency), cementing a projected net worth of $10 million dollars. That’s a substantial sum of money for someone who doesn’t exist.
In the real world (that’s right, the one we actually live in), nearly 2.4 billion women still don't have equal economic rights, gender discrimination continually prevents women from receiving loans, and we’re still making 83 cents to every man’s dollar. The disparity between one virtual supermodel’s exponential monetary success, and the socio-economic barriers that women face in the real world every day is undeniably jarring. What’s worse is some investors think that’s pretty cool.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/ZZ Bottom
The pro-metaverse take is that virtual reality is a place where social inequalities fall away and the confines of the real-world (geography, physics, and economic barriers) are defied. In a recent interview, billionaire and Meta investor Marc Andreessen expanded on the notion of ‘Reality Privilege’ versus ‘Reality Deprivation’. Those of us with reality privilege (Andreesen argues that this is a minority of the population), will see the metaverse as a dystopian conclusion and demand that we prioritize improvements in reality over virtuality. He continues: ‘the vast majority of humanity lacks reality privilege’, meaning ‘their online world is, or will be, immeasurably richer and more fulfilling than most of the physical and social environment around them in the quote-unquote real world’. In short, Andreesen doesn’t think we should wait around to close the Reality Privilege gap - we should create online worlds that are wonderful for everyone, ‘no matter what level of reality deprivation they find themselves in.’
Ironically, there is no evidence that this ‘utopia’ is offering an escape from the evils that come with simply existing as a woman or minority in the real world. Since the beginning of 2022, there have been droves of disturbing reports of female VR users being sexually assaulted on a variety of platforms. A recent briefing from SumOfUs came down on hard on the metaverse, branding it a 'cesspool of toxic content'. A quick scan of its contents and I'm inclined to agree; the paper also collates numerous instances of virtual groping, gang-rape, and sexual, homophobic, and racist language, as well as an overall refusal on behalf of servers to take action against these violations. In one instance, a female user's avatar was sexually assaulted while a group watched and passed around a bottle on Meta's Horizon Worlds. The user had her 'Personal Boundary' setting disabled at this time, a safety feature that stops 'non-friends' from coming within four feet of your avatar.
The sheer idea that users are permitted to act such violations out in the metaverse is troubling, but perhaps unsurprising when women's safety in the real world remains contested. UN Women reports that almost 9 in 10 women in cities around the world feel unsafe outside their homes. Their #SafeSpacesNow campaign asks women what they’d do if they felt safer out in public. Their dreams are simple; staying out all night, jogging in the dark, taking the train home alone. If the metaverse becomes the new solution to these tangible problems, I can’t help but despair.
Image Credit: Moonai Website
The other corners of Web3 paint an equally bleak picture of representation and safety. All 19 of the world’s crypto billionaires are men, another indication of the gate-keeping that might arise in this new web frontier without significant structural changes. The Blockchain ‘boy's club’ continues to stifle diversity by keeping sexism alive and well across crypto chat rooms, and The World Economic Forum even recently announced that virtual currency could widen the gender 'digital divide' that already exists in financial services.
Despite my skepticism, it’s not all negative. The advent of Web3 is making some room for female entrepreneurs who want to use tech to tangibly improve the lives of marginalized people. ‘Femtech’ has experienced an undeniable boom over the last few years and Laura Clarke is one of the pioneers of the movement. She is the CEO and creator of Moonai, a sound app which uses neuro-based audio to alleviate emotional and physical pain during a user’s menstrual cycle. “Web3 is offering positive changes and new opportunities, as well as new challenges” she says. When I ask her about the future of the digital sphere for women, she’s positive: “We’re seeing more and more women in tech, cybersecurity and engineering, [but] new preventions and policies will be needed to rethink Web3’s impact on women” on a psychological level.
iD Magazine recently rallied for more Web3 Bimbos in a light-hearted call to arms against the internet of the future's male majority. Sure, I’d love to see a flurry of ‘hot crypto queens’ as much as the next person, but in seriousness, with no evidence that the development of these platforms is set to stop, women wishing to stay online find themselves at a digital crossroads. If the future of tech leaves us no choice but to engage with these technologies, then removing ‘settings’ that allow us to be violated and harassed is just the tip of the virtual iceberg. The tech architects of the future must protect women, champion women, and learn from inequalities IRL to make Web3 the utopia we’ve all been promised.
