Has True Romance Disappeared in Consumer Society ? A Morinian and Baudrillardian Reflection of the Acute Crisis of Simulation
the gap that exists between these prepackaged signs of love and the real thing .
In a misguided attempt to attract a partner , many people force themselves to fit into a manufactured archetype representing a Hollywood facsimile of romance . Not only has the consumer citizen been conditioned to look for a companion that speaks , dresses , and behaves in accordance with simulations of love , but Morin also emphasizes that millions of individuals fall prey to the trap of “ training ” their partners to be more faithful representations of screen-based images . In this regard , the philosopher asserts that romantic simulacra associated with stars are not innocent fantasies . As Keith Moser explains in his Baudrillardian investigation of hyperreal romance in the film Don Jon , the aforementioned teenager studied by Morin is an actual “ victim of erotic simulations ” ( 79 ). In Western civilization , Morin outlines how signs of romance have further problematized the elusive quest for love in this sense . In his dissertation entitled “ What ’ s Love Got to Do with It ? Diamonds and the Accumulation of De Beers 1935 – 55 ,” David Troy Cochrane traces the historical origins of social conventions related to engagement rings . In particular , Cochrane reveals that an aggressive De Beers marketing campaign created arbitrary rules regarding how much money should be spent on a diamond ring . As Cochrane uncovers , “ De Beers ’ efforts to transform the diamond engagement ring tradition were very successful . Diamonds became the singular symbol of a couple ’ s engagement . The aspirational component , which was intended to counter a trend toward smaller , cheaper diamonds , has become contained in the widely quoted ‘ two months salary ’ benchmark for what a man should spend on an engagement ring ” ( 265 ). Although this fabricated “ tradition ” should have been dismissed immediately by everyone as an overt form of manipulation , Co-
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