The critiques on society have remarkably been provided by the leveraging revolutionary story of James Tiptree Jr.’s “The Girl Who Was Plugged In.” Considering that this piece of literature was published in 1973, it reflects the modern application of the society. Tiptree's work focused on the obsession of youths who idolize celebrities replicating their culture and also articulated the powerful influence of corporations in the society like Global Transmissions Corporation (GTX) which is powerful enough to violate state laws. The paper seeks to look at how corporations command society in terms of attractiveness and beauty.
The novella gives a dystopian world where the aggressive advertising of commodities has become outlawed. Tiptree narrate that, "All the media and most of the landscape was taken up with extravagant competing displays. The thing became uneconomic." Corporations through advertisements are creating a generation of celebrities who are artificially in 'Placental Decanters and controlled by 'Remotes.’ To ensure they sell their products, they use celebrities to persuade customers but these celebrities have to be remotely controlled. P. Burke who has been described as the ‘ugly of the world,’ because her features are unredeemable and she is deformed becomes remote. GTX intervened in the life of a desolated, lonely and deformed girl in a world where she is ignored, abused and shunned and who was desperate for human kindness, compassion, and love that led her to attempt suicide. She is matched with a remote robot by GTX Corporation manipulating advertising the company products with the ideology that she is serving humanity. She has to kill her character and replicate the remote character by animating an empty doll shell that has an impeccably satisfactory appearance as opposed to P. Burke’s distorted one. P. Burke is forced to live a double life. Cantle tells P. Burke that she is a walking billboard for GTX is a “solemn social duty” meaning her responsibility is just to inform the public about the company’s products.
If corporations do not advertise their products, Cantle indicates that the economy and society would be destroyed. This ideology connects to the reasons why corporations have to go the extra mile to ensure that they manipulate the public. Through the application of technological innovations, corporations like GTX have plunged themselves into situations that shape and influence government policies but when they are unable to change them, render them meaningless and subvert them. The realism of technology gives P. Burke an illusion of an achievement that she could never have achieved with her appearance. P. Burke is forced to invest her emotions into a body of an attractive, rich and beautiful woman for the success of GTX. This is to help customers feel more connected to GTX products through celebrities. Customers want to be attached and accept products if they are pleased with their adverts and can relate to them.
The modern world of advertising is devious and underhanded this is why corporations emphasize on product placement and advertising for financial gains regardless of ethics and morality. Product placement is significant because it preys into people's admiration, for instance, a movie, TV show or even a celebrity. Companies are using these ways to advertise for instance in the movie Transformers, it showed up the Mountain Dew Products. These are ways in which companies have resorted to advertising their products. P. Burke is given a telepathic control of Delphi a body surname. It is all about the public consumption of celebrities that human beings show.
The introduced Huckster laws are used to ban advertising but corporation though social attention celebrities they bypass these bands to sell their products. Delph always wears new products and latest fashion where GTX Corporation advertises its products by exploiting her celebrity position. The position of Delphi in modern society can be equated for instance to the status worlds of Ellen or Kim Kardashian. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian are used to advertise company products in this fictitious world. Even though these celebrities do not use these products or have never tried them, they are used to convince their customers because most of them are idolized by the public. This is how the modern world is working and this approach to advertising has not been banned. Concerning product placement and customer culture, the modern world functions similarly to the Tiptree story. Tiptree argues that even if traditional advertising was banned, consumer culture would still thrive.
Celebrities have changed customer culture a problem that Tiptree has recognized in her story. People depend on these icons for guidance. Millions of people would listen to Ellen for instance on which shoe to wear. Celebrities are or maybe dishonest in what Tiptree feels like the banned advertisement. Though the approach to an advertisement is what improves the economy and creates social stability. It is through an advertisement that the people get to buy products creating a health economic structure which is significantly important. Although this is the case, Tiptree presents a world of illegal advertisements where corporations resort to public adoration and product placement for celebrities to market their products.
