Notes on Simulacra And Simulation.
Disappearing grandpa of Postmodernism, Jean Baudrillard wrote Simulacra and Simulation in 1981. Baudrillard talks about our questionable relationship with reality and how representations have superseded the real. What sticks is how relevant his critique of contemporary media is.
Complex like every postmodern text has the right to be, here’s a quick glossary of some Baudrillardian terms:
Simulacrum : a copy without an original. (kylie jenners entire face.)
Hyperreality : Simulation that is more real than the real, or replaces the real. ( Just like the Paris filter that gave birth to the 5 step, 10 step, 20 step “glass skin” skincare routines.)
Sign value : an extension/addition to Marx’s value, exchange value and use value, sign value is the value commodities possess outside of their necessity, adding value to the commodity only by differentiation from other commodities. (How smashbox, becca and too faced are cruelty free but bobbi brown, clinique and mac aren’t but are all owned by the same parent company estee lauder.)
The orders of simulacra :
First order, the faithful copy where the awareness of it being a copy of something real exists. (an image)
Second order, a mask that hides reality, an unfaithful copy. (an edited image)
Third order, entrance into the hyperreal, a “reality” based on a faulty/unfaithful reality. (feeling more comfortable or “yourself” with make up than without)
Fourth order, pure simulacrum, blurred lines and no distinguishable reality or simulation. (the entire visual world of beauty, facetune, filters and all our seemingly real life needs when it comes to the female aesthetics)
A great summary of Baudrillard’s theory and its relation to the point I am trying to make with a critique of todays cosmetics industry is an episode of south park, the one where Wendy photoshops a photo of Lisa Burgers and Butters is thrilled that his girlfriend is a pawg. (S17E10)
If I failed at briefing you about Baudrillard, maybe I should let you know what note he starts off his book just to prove that I did try my best to water it down.
“The simulation is never what hides the truth — it is the truth that hides the fact that there is none.
The simulation is true.”
My best guess is that the entire book is a fever dream and I spent a months worth of my time trying to decode it.
But now let’s talk about these Baudrillardian concepts in a language we do understand, the Kardashians. Kim and her implants could fit into the third order of simulacrum, where the real and the representation has merged to form the entity that is KKW. The fourth order then is her brand skims, a shape wear line that is based on achieving the body of third order Kim. The same can be said of Kylie and her lips and her cosmetics range that we all know started with a lip range. The skims equivalent for Kylie is the proliferation of lip fillers, acceptance of photoshopped images, and the addition of the term “Juvederm” into our lexicon. But the fourth order of simulacra in this case cannot be single handily credited to Kylie, because here the fourth order is the online world of makeup bloggers. The precision of the simulacra comes about in its repetition, in the imagery of excess of material wealth and the only logical way to end it will be a revolt in the styles of abandonment just like potrayed by Chuck Palahnuik (Fight Club) and Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho). This means the problems of the hyperreal will be dealt not in reality but in the hyperreal itself.
The alluring attainability of the fourth order simulacrum is not something Baudrillard talks about maybe because his morbid nihilism didn’t allow him to want anything or maybe this kind of ease of attainability did not exist in a pre social media world.
Baudrillard expresses his general distrust in the mass media in his writings “The Gulf War Did Not Happen” (1991) as much as it does sound like a reddit conspiracy thread, it is not, but I have to defend Baudrillard on his edge lord-esque essay titling styles. Baudrillard goes on to explain how the realities of the war and the news rooms are not the same, proving that one is hyperreal and the hyperreal won, and has overtaken the real.
In the same fashion the “realties” of the depictions of war by the journalists preceded in importance the realities of the war on ground, the “realities” of social media precede the realities of the female form and aesthetics. This is seen in the demands of the masses for more inclusive advertisements and more visual representation of whatever is thought to be as under represented. There is an increase in content by changes in the hyperreal.
But however serious the realities and simulations of the Gulf War was/is, the realities and simulations of selfies may not be. The third and fourth order of simulacra have had an upgrade post Baudrillardian times though and that upgrade is interaction.
Just like video games interact with the consumer, who was previously just an observer, the world of beauty interacts with a previously passive audience. This is the outcome of the metamorphosis of the media which leads to the metamorphosis of the fourth order.
The language of the hyperreal (in context of the beauty industry) has been warped into a feminist nightmare. The key terms used in the space of the cosmetics industry are “equal”, “diverse” and “free”, mixed with the tokens of presence and absence of certain objects that brands define themselves with, creating an illusion of a clean mission statement for brands. The emotional charge that the advertisements consist are another great example of fourth order simulacra. This is propelled by all the beauty influencers that exist. The mention of brands and functionality of tools etc by these beauty influencers remind me of Brett Easton Ellis’ 1991 book American Psycho where pages are dedicated only to describe the things people, and especially Patrick Bateman own. The blogger/influencer is commended for their skills and talents and visual appeal but it’s all the same (or like the narrator in fight club says, a copy of a copy of a copy.) because their performative “girl bossary” fits the rough guidelines of brands that shower them with sponsorships.
The Indian brands and beauty gurus are another can of worms. Copying a successful model of online fame that has worked oversees. We get the representation we deserve! (read into this sarcasm or leave). The one girl from Kohima, the one girl who is ambiguously South Indian accompanied by five other “aryan” looking girls dawn advertisements on cosmetic e-commerce portals. Growing up in Mumbai in a vaguely South Indian household and surrounded by a diverse neighbourhood, I did notice the disdain for vanity in South Indian households and the celebration of vanity in North Indian households. (statement made by observation, not to be taken as a gross generalisation), maybe it was internalised colourism or the fact that parents killed the dreams of dark skinned girls because they knew if they did try to enter the world of glamour and film they wouldn’t last a minute because that world didn’t work in their favour. You have Indian brands basing their stories on American ideals of integration and everybody is buying into this hyperreality. There are pride colours on every Indian brands instagram page but no acknowledgement of the culture significance of LGBTQ+ disingenuous efforts all of which fall under the category of fourth order simulacra.
The polemics of beauty, in my opinion should not be expressed through a feminist lens, but a class lens. There is no critique (that I know off) or even any collective class consciousness that disapproves the doings of the beauty industry. The blatant celebration of the imagery and aesthetics of the beauty industry in the name of self love, acceptance and the prowess of female rights and abilities to make her own decisions are pretty shocking. Normalising make up, face tune, fillers and plastic surgery means investing in make up, face tune, fillers and plastic surgery, which also means eliminating people who cannot indulge in it. But according to me the question of culture and aesthetic is one that should not have an entry fee to. The celebration of Bella Hadids beauty, nose job and eyebrow lift and all, the celebration of Kylie Jenners beauty, surgery, make up and photoshop and all is a betrayal of the middle class by the middle class.
Look up the conspiracy theory that India won Miss World and Miss Universe in 1994 because brands like Maybelline and Lakme wanted to enter the Indian market.
Before I end this I would like to share my favourite quote from Jean Baudrillard’s writings:
“The objects are no longer commodities: they are no longer even signs whose meaning and message one could decipher and appropriate for oneself, they are tests, they are the ones that interrogate us, and we are summoned to answer them, and the answer is in the question.”
The solution does lay in consuming less, shoping local (and maybe shoplifting at the nearest sephora) and in a discourse about the aesthetics, morality, how we have lost complete agency over the visual medium and of the female condition, but devoid of the influence of the language of cultural imperialism.
A lot of negative things have been said so I want to end by saying something positive, which is, I do like and support Kay beauty by Katrina Kaif because in my opinion anybody who dated Salman Khan should be allowed to do anything without public scrutiny.
Disclaimer: Individual actors are not to blame, this is not my shining glorious messiah complex shaming anybody who uses cosmetics or gets cosmetic procedures done.
