"The Girl Who Was Plugged In"

"The Girl Who Was Plugged In" was a very interesting read.I think it is very interesting that James Tiptree is a woman. When first reading I thought that I man had written the story. I thought the story was confusing until we went over it in class. I thought that we had very interesting discussions about gods as celebrities, parents living through their kids such as P. Burke living through Delphi. I think that people look at magazines like US, In Touch, etc... partly because they are bored with their life and think that a celebrities life is so much more exciting. Another reason people read those magazines is because they want to be them; they want the fame, fortune, and recognition that comes with celebrity. But people do not realize that with fame and fortune, comes a price. Loss of privacy is one big disadvantage of being a celebrity. Being a celebrity is also temporary because a person is rarely famous their whole life. People do not stay the same age throughout their life and do not necessarily have the same talent throughout his or her life for example, professional athletes get older and are not as athletic as they used to be, i.e. baseball players, soccer players, and any other sport have only a short period that they can play. Some will be famous throughout their whole life after their sport is over(Mickey Mantle) but some will fade away after time and new younger stars come into play. There are some people that are lucky! I think our society has become too obsessed with beauty because of the shows like The Swan, Extreme Makeover, and Dr. 90210. That is the reason so many girls are so insecure and turn to plastic surgery, anorexia, and bulimia. In other cultures women are not supposed to be thin, in cultures in Africa, women are considered wealthy and healty if they have meat on their bones because that means that they can afford to buy food. But now in the news, the rate of eating disorders in Africa has gone up incredibly because of Western influence. According to an article, there has been a 200% in eating disorders in South Africa because of the media's influence. I think that it has become a problem because many parents are living through their kids and the kids aren't having a real childhood doing what they would like to do. It is addressed in the movie, Center Stage, and many others like it. I enjoyed reading "The Girl Who was Plugged In" and discussing the many issues involved with the story.