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For Baudrillard, a Simulacrum is a sort of simulation of a simulation that no longer directly relates to reality in any real way. Usually this is about how the media presents a shared reality to us, often about things like war. A mundane example might be something like grape flavored candy. You might notice it doesn't really taste much like grapes, also it doesn't use any grapes in the production of it. We can assume it originally was designed to taste like grapes, however supposedly the type of grape it was simulating is no longer around, so grapes we buy at the store don't taste like what the first candies were even going for. So if a new candy is coming out today they probably try to make it taste like "purple grape flavor" rather than grapes itself, because that's what the consumer is actually expecting. The connection to reality is therefore severed, and grape flavor is a pure simulacrum.

The same, I think, more or less goes for diving in football. Players seem to show behaviors to me that are totally unique to the sport for simulating pain. They roll around in a very particular way, have certain shared mannerisms, etc. I believe they are for the most part no longer showing a simulation of pain, but rather a simulation of other football player's behavior when trying to draw a foul. You can see how this situation would come about, obviously. When football started players began to notice that the refs would award fouls more easily if they visibly displayed their pain, so they began simulating pain. Then they probably began to notice that some players were better at drawing fouls, so they would simulate how those players acted. Over a hundred years of diving the performance has become its own art form, with little to no connection to reality: a simulacrum. Interestingly enough, they perform this simulacrum whether or not there was a foul, and whether or not they are actually in pain. This is because they aren't trying to display pain, even if it is real, they are trying to show the referee that a foul has a occurred, so they perform the act of "footballer in pain" even as they are actually in pain, and in fact are often in a weird way even masking their genuine natural reaction to the pain to do so.

For Baudrillard, a Simulacrum is a sort of simulation of a simulation that no longer directly relates to reality in any real way. Usually this is about how the media presents a shared reality to us, often about things like war. A mundane example might be something like grape flavored candy. You might notice it doesn't really taste much like grapes, also it doesn't use any grapes in the production of it. We can assume it originally was designed to taste like grapes, however supposedly the type of grape it was simulating is no longer around, so grapes we buy at the store don't taste like what the first candies were even going for. So if a new candy is coming out today they probably try to make it taste like "purple grape flavor" rather than grapes itself, because that's what the consumer is actually expecting. The connection to reality is therefore severed, and grape flavor is a pure simulacrum.

The same, I think, more or less goes for diving in football. Players seem to show behaviors to me that are totally unique to the sport for simulating pain. They roll around in a very particular way, have certain shared mannerisms, etc. I believe they are for the most part no longer showing a simulation of pain, but rather a simulation of other football player's behavior when trying to draw a foul. You can see how this situation would come about, obviously. When football started players began to notice that the refs would award fouls more easily if they visibly displayed their pain, so they began simulating pain. Then they probably began to notice that some players were better at drawing fouls, so they would simulate how those players acted. Over a hundred years of diving the performance has become its own art form, with little to no connection to reality: a simulacrum. Interestingly enough, they perform this simulacrum whether or not there was a foul, and whether or not they are actually in pain. This is because they aren't trying to display pain, even if it is real, they are trying to show the referee that a foul has a occurred, so they perform the act of "footballer in pain" even as they are actually in pain, and in fact are often in a weird way even masking their genuine natural reaction to the pain to do so.