Popular Culture Review 30.2
spond to this predominate model . Knowing that they will be ultimately evaluated according to their ability to replicate simulations of what sexy females are supposed to look like , many women spend a lot of time and energy trying to duplicate these screen-based images of femininity . In this regard , Baudrillard observes that the “ ascetic practice of ‘ dieting ’” or what he calls “ the aggressive drive against the body ” was already a million-dollar industry in the 1960s ( The Consumer Society 142 ; 142 ). The fact that unscrupulous companies like It Works ! still generate millions of dollars in revenue from gimmicks like body wraps that exploit an individual ’ s need to be accepted and loved by someone else proves Baudrillard ’ s arguments related to simulations of romance .
In Seduction , the philosopher pinpoints another manner in which signs of sexuality have created unrealistic expectations that a partner is likely unable to fulfill . As opposed to condemning pornography on classical ethical and philosophical grounds , Baudrillard denounces it as a crime against reality . Explaining that the pornographic industry transmits an idealistic vision of sexual gratification that real lovers can never hope to achieve , the philosopher asserts , “ The same occurs with hard core and blue porn : the sexual organ , whether erect or open wide is just another sign in the hypersexual panoply [ ... ] the more immersed one becomes in the accumulation of signs [ ... ] the more enclosed one becomes in the endless oversignification of a real that no longer exists , and of a body that never existed ” ( Baudrillard Seduction 32 – 33 ). Summarizing Baudrillard ’ s unconventional stance about pornography , Richard King affirms , “ Telesex constructs a domain in which all the women are beautiful , always ready and always satisfied , a space in which the men are skilled lovers , with large pricks and beautiful bodies [ ... ] There are no hesitations , doubts or failures : disease , discomfort , lack
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