#WomeninNFTs & the deadly promotion of smoking
Dr Merilyn Childs
This is the second in a series I plan to write about #WomeninNFTs.
While my experience entering the world of #WomeninNFTs has been a positive one, there are some dark sides. One of the darkest sides is a trend for NFTs to include smoking as a trait.
This means that although #WomeninNFTs that use the cigarette trait use funds from their sales to alleviate poverty, discrimination and disadvantage, they are at the same time promoting smoking & a global health problem. And strangely appropriating the very bro culture they aim to fight.
In some projects, cigarettes are not only presented as a trait, but they are associated with being sexy (Image 1) or cool (Image 2).
They are also very commonly associated with being a badass, rebel woman.
Or with being artistic.
The use of the cigarette trait is by far the most disappointing aspect of NFTs I have encountered. They normalise smoking for a whole new generation of NFT holders, and portray it in ways I have not seen since the bad old days of the Marlboro Man promotions.
These are the key facts about tobacco provided by the World Health Organisation:
Tobacco kills up to half of its users.
Tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Over 80% of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries.
It is inconsistent and wildly irresponsible for #WomeninNFTs to use cigarettes as a trait. If I could change anything, it would be this. Personally I will not hold an NFT in my wallet with a cigarette trait, nor lend my voice to support a project that uses a cigarette trait.
Smoking is not cool, rebellious, sexy, or badassed.
If you are thinking about getting into #WomeninNFTs projects, then choose women-led projects that do not use smoking as a trait. It has taken me 3 months to learn this, but it is now a metric I’ll use going forward.
Some projects that do not include the cigarette trait (at time of writing) include
There are many others. Good hunting!
