Marilyn: The Influencer
By Dr. Marco Benavides. Long before Instagram, TikTok, or the algorithms that now decide what we see, there was a woman who turned every appearance into a cultural event. Marilyn Monroe didn’t need Wi-Fi to go “viral.” It was enough for her to walk through a door, tilt her head, or speak with that breathy voice for the world to stop. What we now call a “trending topic,” she generated simply by existing. She was a movie star, yes. But she was also something more unsettling and modern: the first person to master—and pay the price of—the logic of massive influence. Marilyn understood the power of image like few others. Nothing was accidental: every pose in front of the cameras, every crystalline laugh, every movement of her platinum hair was charged with intention. She could read the press better than a modern digital strategist reads “views.” She knew when to smile, when to stay silent, when to disappear so she would be missed more. She knew that a white dr...