Simulacra and Simulation by Baudrillard explains how certain media artifacts can replace the original meaning of an artifact and alter it, such that the real is no longer the real; “A new morphogenesis has appeared,
which comes from the cybernetic kind (that is to say, reproducing at the level of the territory, of the home, of transit, the scenarios of molecular control that are those of the genetic code), and whose form is nuclear and satellitic” (Baudrillard, 1981, pg.77). In other words, for my project, the simulation of what the toys represent, societally, changes when the digital age comes around and continues to perpetuate such norms in more hyperrealistic ways. When it comes to toys like Barbies, Brats, action figures, etc, they come off as just ‘play things’. However, they actually are perpetuating idealized gender norms. When children play with them, they begin to internalize these models. This model becomes the blueprint for identity. For young girls, it can mean specific beauty expectations. When reality continues to mesh with the hyperreal, we begin to move to other phases to continue to push these models in different media forms. Different filters or modification apps that change the way your face looks to be more ‘ideal’ in terms of online beauty standards, you aren’t just reflecting beauty ideals; they are creating and continuing them. In other words, as children grow up seeing these gender models perpetuated in toys, what is real (personal identity) loses its hold to these simulacra that model.
This is important to my project because I am talking about the relationship between hypererality and gender pushed identity formation. In other words, what it looks like being pushed by toys to be a certain identity, then perpetuated by digital modification apps to further want to become that.
This week for my project, I have finalized my research question, created a timeline, and begun rereading the articles I have read and reading my articles I haven’t read.
Baudrillard, J. (1981). Simulacra and Simulation. https://0ducks.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/simulacra-and-simulation-by-jean-baudrillard.pdf