The worrying rise of the CGI ‘cyberbabe’

Lil Miquela, however, is actually the creation of LA-based start-up ‘Brud’.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B92KmvcnBV2/

Other FX artists have also jumped on the bandwagon, with 2018 marking the arrival of more cyber-models. The highest profile of these was Shudu, who starred in a 2018 Balmain campaign.

But the trend is not being taken well by everybody. Unsurprisingly, the optics of CG models (particularly CG models of colour) taking potential jobs away from actual models to line the pockets of men has enraged many. Lil Miquela, Bermuda, Shudu, and Akila, are all the brain children of male creators.

Through promoting CGI women, men are given free license to ‘create’ a female aesthetic that then becomes a norm. One only needs to glance at one of Lil Miquela’s posts to see that she is the epitome of homogenised, insta-friendly beauty, with her ambiguous ethnicity, slim waist, and girlish freckles.

Is this not the very definition of promoting literally ‘unrealistic’ standards of beauty for women?

Even more concerning is the fact that these idealised women are becoming more popular than their flesh-and-bone counterparts, with some of Shudu’s pics garnering more likes than that likes of Hayley Baldwin.

The fashion community seems to be turning a blind eye to the irony of using Lil Miquela in promotional material (as Prada and Balenciaga have) in the same beat as calling Kendell Jenner and Bella Hadid ‘fake’ for undergoing cosmetic surgery.

Whilst Alita herself doesn’t seem to have come down with a case of the insta pout, her digitally sculpted body and unblemished facial features are still an obvious departure from what actress Rosa Salazar looks like. That is to say, like a human being.

So, what do we make of this? Well, I suppose the only thing we can do is marvel at the power of technology and, if you’re a woman, realise that you have something these cyberbabes will never have.

A pulse.