The root cause behind some of the most absurd and unprecedented popular cultural phenomena of the past year, from Trisha Paytas’ supposed congressional bid to Pantone’s color of the year being announced as cloud dancer, is our desperate thirst for authenticity.

The accessibility of luxury aesthetics caused by fast fashion, combined with self-censorious internet era media training, has created an obsession with authentic and provocative public figures. Hallmarks of personality are becoming accessorized and made status symbols to all of our detriment.

As fast fashion and dupe culture democratize luxury aesthetics, which in turn are increasingly lackluster, the true signifier of status is no longer tied to the physical. We want what cannot be acquired with two-day shipping: an authentic, interesting personality. 

We vie for and pedestalize those who have what money cannot buy: star power. That hasn’t stopped us from trying.

Remember when influencers would intentionally scrape, step on and deface their designer handbags to give the impression of a lived-in, storied feel à la Jane Birkin or the Olsen twins? Or when over-the-top bag charms became the hottest new accessory, meant to signify an individualistic flair? 

How about the return of indie sleaze and the popularity of messy, party girl aesthetics in opposition to the clean girl? 

All of this links back to desperate signaling of being a person with charm and stories to tell. A person who’s lived a life where the most sought-after bags earn years of wear from casual usage, charms have accumulated from travels and time doesn’t allow for makeup removal. 

Our culture in the post-pandemic years has taught us by example that a life well-lived looks like isolation and walking on cloud-dancer white eggshells. 

In reaction, we’re clamoring toward anything real. Celebrities who speak candidly, or as if they haven’t been media trained, are gaining cult followings. This phenomenon made headlines, as exemplified by “Mean Girls” star Renée Rapp and her catchy, sometimes jaw-dropping interview quotes, which have gone viral multiple times and spawned multiple compilations, later inspiring her 2025 single “Leave Me Alone.” 

Her positive reception shows she’s a breath of fresh air in an age of internet hypervigilance. 

University of Minnesota assistant professor of media and popular culture Ruth DeFoster said she’s seen anecdotally how public figures who go off script become so captivating. 

“The sense that I get from my Gen Z students is that they are tired of artifice,” DeFoster said. “They are tired of corporate statements that say nothing, that stand for nothing. They’re yearning for ideological authenticity and so when they get that, they respond to it really powerfully.”

The ability to directly oppose the artifice that’s baked into being a public figure is especially compelling and enviable.

University cultural studies and comparative literature professor Timothy Brennan said he has observed a fatigue with superficial pop culture in his students as well. 

“They’re no longer willing to settle for an ironic and sardonic pessimism, even cynicism that one finds on late-night TV, which is kind of like the limits of the social and political critique that’s allowed in this country,” Brennan said. 

Capturing the public’s attention through showing authenticity makes an individual look smarter and more apt to what’s going on.

The problem here is authenticity, worldliness and true expertise are not easily obtained. 

Someone can be loud and have lived a big life, but it does not necessarily grant them the status they claim or demand. Provocation and contrarianism are not legs to stand on, but they’re easy to identify and mimic. Just like it’s easy to drag a purse through some dirt on the way home from the mall. 

The deification of authenticity lurks behind the shadows of our most nonsensical pop cultural and political happenings. As mass culture pushes toward homogeneity, minimalism and optimization, we are seeing a growing, insatiable impulse to reject it in favor of literally anything else.

As we continue to worship and uplift personality for its own sake and mistake its presence for other stifled cultural and societal values, we will continue to see false prophets and make ourselves into them.