'Cute, Quaint, Romantic' By Jean Baudrillard

995 Words4 Pages
Evolution of consumerism has been discussed by different authors, I have come across two writers who have different ideas, however they both share the same critical yet sophisticated way of thinking about consumers society. “Cute, quaint, romantic” by Daniel Harris and “consumer society” by Jean Baudrillard are 2 books taking about the reasons behind people purchasing goods and the objectivity of the product to a person. The two believe that consumers are being deceived in many different ways under the title of utility, they are manipulated by objects not by the utility. Although they have dissimilar ways to describe the theory, they both think that manufacturers and marketers are displacing a system to fool people to buy products. Aesthetics of consumerism, the reason behind people buying products is the aesthetics it claims to give them, this was what Harris always believed that the market is cruel to a person’s emotions not to his needs. He started to pick up products from the market that are always sold for the aesthetics of cuteness, innocence or attractiveness. He had a vision that although those products may be physically appealing they actually involve sad emotions, they are linked to grotesque, deform, unhappiness and helplessness, they even represent aesthetics of sleepiness and docile. They are not created with an aim to drive emotions of contentment, but of pity and seduction. The aesthetics of cuteness is now converted to aesthetics of sympathy, marketers are