Lil Miquela, Postmodernism, and a Cynicism Towards Truth in American Society
Like many compelling social media influencers in the 21st century, Lil Miquela has almost 2 million Instagram followers, a chic wardrobe, a Calvin Klein Campaign, celebrity friends, and even several top-charting singles. What distinguishes Lil Miquela from the rest, however, is the fact that she is not a real person. Rather, Lil Miquela is a computer-generated image (CGI) that has emerged as a character, trendsetter, and curator of social relevance.
Developed in 2016, Lil Miquela is a 19-year-old, Brazilian-American model and singer. Her real backstory is somewhat unknown, except that she was created by a surprisingly private software company, Brud, and that TechCrunch reported the company’s valuation at about $125 million earlier this year. While she is enigmatic offline, her social media identity is robust and prolific. In the past three years, Lil Miquela has undergone dramatic character development as she falls in love, reconnects with old friends, learns that she is not a human, and gets “hacked” by her politically conservative computer-generated-enemy-turned-friend, Bermuda. While Lil Miquela continues to amass fame with the help of celebrities such as Bella Hadid, Diplo, and J Balvin, she also and perhaps less obviously, highlights the rise and acceptance of postmodern relativism and the obfuscation of truth in American society.
Lil Miquela manifests an amalgamation of everything socially significant and avantgarde. She sports designer brands, attends popular events such as the Coachella Music Festival, and shares esoteric memes that reflect her sense of humor and self-deprecation. Lil Miquela is also politically liberal — she shares images that support transgender rights and calls to abolish ICE. Her social engagement and personal style are admirable and without a doubt “cool,” but as a fictional character, it is important to recognize her attributes as merely a reflection of the social and cultural trends her creators find the most appealing and popular. So, if Lil Miquela is a façade mirroring curated trends back to her followers, why then is she still so incredibly popular?
Aside from the fact that Lil Miquela is fascinating to observe, I would argue that her success also parallels with a current resurgence of postmodernism and relativism in American society. These frameworks encourage a reconceptualization of truth, one that does not view reality as absolute. Instead, accepted facts are viewed with skepticism and discerned as context-dependent, thereby suggesting they are not inherently true. According to Michiko Kakutani in her book, The Death of Truth, “relativism has been ascendant since the culture wars began in the 1960s.” Initially, the concept of relativism was employed by the New Left as a means of “[exposing] the biases of Western, bourgeois, male-dominated thinking…” Kakutani continues, “since then, relativistic arguments have been hijacked by the populist Right, including creationists and climate change deniers who insist that their views be taught alongside ‘science-based’ theories.’” Today, these arguments seem abundant with the rise of previously fringe movements such as anti-vaxxers, holocaust deniers and white supremacists, and the surplus of fake news. In almost every context, Americans are becoming fixated on rejecting formally accepted facts and reality. This concept of deceptiveness and even escapism is infiltrating many aspects of mainstream society, and popular culture is no exception. So, while we know that Lil Miquela is not real, we are enthralled by her existence because she represents a departure from the norm and a challenge to established ideas, even if she utilizes many existing and real trends. In fact, her appeal is all the more magnified by her artificiality.
The current reclamation of postmodern relativism particularly by the populist Right, but also by many others in America, is not occurring now by happenstance. Many of America’s core foundations have undergone dramatic transformations as a consequence of new technologies, thereby inciting a collective backlash. This backlash manifests itself in an overall rejection of the structures of society that have changed and left behind those who have become unnecessary. Repudiation and distrust further bleed into many other facets of American culture, thus instilling an ethos of postmodernist cynicism towards truth, facts, and realism.
While Lil Miquela is a fascinating and harmless manifestation of the extent to which postmodernism is permeating American culture, she should also serve as a warning. What happens when computer-generated political candidates emerge on social media and gain more traction than those who are actually running? And what happens when real, elected officials are unable to agree upon– and even deny–scientific facts when creating policy to supposedly protect the nation? I wish this was a hyperbolic fantasy, but in many ways, postmodernism is already starting to unthread the very fabric of our democracy. Therefore, we must learn from Lil Miquela, and while we can admire her cool, it’s more important that we use her symbolism to help restore an appreciation of truth back into American society.
