Has True Romance Disappeared in Consumer Society ? A Morinian and Baudrillardian Reflection of the Acute Crisis of Simulation
reality and its models , there being no other reality that that secreted by the simulative models ” ( Seduction 11 ). The philosopher posits that the flood of incessant simulacra that we ingest has commodified human sexuality and the search for romance . Like Morin , Baudrillard directs much of his attention to the “ code of beauty ” that has transformed the female body into a hyperreal sign or a mere object of consumption ( The Consumer Society 26 ). The philosopher describes the enhanced imagery highlighted by Morin , which is supposed to exude femininity and sex appeal , as a fetish or “ an object that is positioned purely for its symbolic value ” ( Koch and Elmore 556 ). For both thinkers , the problem with idealistic archetypes of romance and eroticism that are generated in a studio and disseminated to the general populace through Hollywood cinema and other expressions of popular culture is that “ The fetishisation of the body through makeup and adornment creates a seductive sexuality that is not grounded in real sexuality ” ( Dant 507 ).
In a passage that is reminiscent of Morin ’ s apprehension about how women are judged by prefabricated signs of beauty that represent an impossible standard , Baudrillard laments , “ For women , beauty has become an absolute , religious imperative , being beautiful is no longer an effect of nature or a supplement to moral qualities . It is the basic , imperative quality of those who take the same care of their faces and figures as they do of their souls . It is a sign , at the level of the body that one is a member of the elect ” ( The Consumer Society 92 ). A few pages later in The Consumer Society , the philosopher reiterates , “ If a woman does , in fact , consume herself , this is because her relation to herself is objectivized and fueled by signs , signs which make up the feminine model , which constitutes the real object of consumption ” ( 96 – 97 ). Similar to Morin , Baudrillard contends that the dominant feminine ideal of beauty
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