Introducing @metaglasses by @kyliejenner. A new way to see and share your world on Instagram
Tech firms believe the future lies on your face. Unfortunately for them, women have figured out who else likes the same thing.
For their 2026 Autumn collection, Google and Samsung partnered with one of the trendiest glasses brands, Gentle Monster, on AI Smart glasses. They ran a campaign featuring recipients of the Model of the Year, Anok Yai and Alex Consani, for further social media coverage. Meta even took things a step further: it partnered with the world-renowned Kylie Jenner to create her own new “slim oval” Meta Glasses.
It is difficult to explain this recent fashion trend as anything other than planned. Smart glasses have created a branding issue. People are now referring to these devices as “pervert glasses”. Given that many men use them to film for pickup or manosphere content secretly, they seem to have earned the nickname.
When the technology that enables surveillance becomes known for being used by creepy voyeuristic men, how does one get past that?
Cast Kylie Jenner!
There is something uniquely bleak about selling women the technology that decreases their comfort while interacting in public spaces. Google states that its Smart Glasses enable you to take photos without raising your phone. This is the exact reason why they are so problematic. With phones, there has to be an indication when a photo is taken (e.g.: lifting your phone), Smart glasses eliminate the space between looking at someone and recording that person.
The camera did not disappear. The social warning indicating there was a camera present did.
This is surveillance capitalism disguised as high fashion. In terms of surveillance capitalism, research indicates that big tech’s ability to extract user data erodes user autonomy. Likewise, in regard to feminist theory on Instagram’s algorithmic economy, research points to a digital culture where women are becoming increasingly both products and producers, continually documenting and monetising their lives.
Women are already conditioned to document all aspects of daily life as content. From GRWM’s, dates, vacations, etc. Even doing tours of their apartment, with the heading “I Live Alone” plastered unwittingly. Big tech wants the camera’s permanently attached to our faces now.
This is techno-solutionism at its best. Wearable cameras may be marketed as tools to help document and protect from dangerous situations, but normalising hands-free video recording capabilities just enables predators to record victims easily.
Perhaps casting models and hiring Kylie will make surveillance appear fashionable enough and perhaps women will forget what the product actually does.
This just makes women lose yet another caution they had in public: being aware when someone is watching.
Jamez 
Scarlett Johnstone 
Yuxi Xu