In today's class discussion, we went over a few phases of the image and looked at examples while trying to identify which picture fit where. We focused heavily on images connected to the USA Military, so I wanted to explore different avenues and focus a little more on the topic of reality TV as we touched on in class. I found it interesting and slightly frustrating that reality TV could be seen as both evil and sorcery. It's just something else about Baudrillard's theory that is so complex. However, in taking a bit more time to think this over I've found that it's starting to make more sense to me.
In the reality TV show "The Bachelor" we see women competing with one another to win the love of a single man. Throughout the season we see the performed version of each of these women and the bachelor himself. This, along with the scripting and editing that goes on behind the scenes contributes to the denaturing of reality. They are masking anything authentic and tailoring their behavior and language into something they think is more profitable. I think that the aspect of sorcery, or masking the absence of reality, comes in with the overall messaging the show is portraying to its audience. For most women, they are not going on group dates to fight for the partner they want, neither would they live in a house with the people who are their competition. However this is how the show operates, and in the end, there is only a single rose to give out, and in theory, they'll go on to live a happy life together. This succumbs to the same trap Disney produces in its earlier princess films. That once you've got a man (or a partner in general) you've finally won at life and everything will be good from then on out. Perpetrating this ideology as a reality TV show is masking the absence of reality because not everyone can achieve love through the show and everything isn't magically perfect in either contestant's life now that they have officially gotten together.
I'm still not confident that that fully encompasses what Baudrillard is trying to communicate but I plan to try watching a few episodes of reality TV this weekend to see if I could distinguish any examples as I'm watching.
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