Food And The Environment

This graphic from the New York Times illustrates the different environmental costs of meat and vegetable production (click on image to enlarge):

Ad Warns Moms Not to Let Themselves Go

Here is a link to TV ads for Suave shampoo (sorry, I can't figure out how to embed it; click on the "Beauty" tab on the left, then the "Advertising: TV ads" link). The first one claims that having kids makes both your hair and your breasts flat. The third ad says that "89% of women" say they have "let themselves go," but then announces that with Suave, "100% can get themselves back."

Here is a link to a report on a survey Suave conducted, titled "Can Motherhood and Womanhood Coexist?" Here are some excerpts:

A whopping 84 percent admit they’ve let their appearance slide since
becoming a mom and that taking care of their appearance has become more of a
wish than a reality. The majority (66 percent) say guilt is one of the barriers
to self care.

The brand’s 360 degree 'Say Yes to Beautiful' integrated marketing
campaign reminds moms that beauty has a place amongst the dirty dishes and piles
of laundry that are an inevitable part of motherhood.

Neighborhood Demographics Website

Here is a website where you can quickly get U.S. Census Bureau data for a particular zip code. I use it to get information for my classes to help students make a connection to things we're talking about sometimes. It has things like racial breakdown, educational levels, and average income.

Racial Categories As Historical Artifact

This is a page out of an old school book, Maury's New Complete Geography (1906). The plate is labeled "Race Types." See the key at the bottom to which images are "caucasion," "mongolian," "malay," and "ethiopian." (You should be able to click on the image to see it larger.)



Found here thanks to lawgeek.

Clicking And Browsing Your Way Down The Aisle

This is a fun image from today's New York Times article about online dating sites that might be a nice background to a discussion of online dating or social networks more generally (or an illustration of the normalization of heterosexual marriage):

"Be A Mind-Sticker"

Super creepy TAB commercial:



Another doozy from Molly M!

Here's another on the same theme (youtube says it's from the '60s):



Here's another from 1982:



And this one, from 1984, cannot be beat for it's essential '80s vibe:

Sexist Eyeglasses Ad

Coverage Of Race- And Ethnic-Themed Parties

Click here to watch a two-and-a-half minute video on CNN that addresses last year's spate of race- and ethnicity-themed parties (see here). What is perhaps most amazing about it is the unbelievably impoverished analysis of what is happening and the fact that the video for some reason decides to end on an uplifting note ("their classmates had an important lesson on the danger of stereotyping").

Thanks to Richard for this lead.

Framing Genetically-Modified Food

The coining of the term "frankenfood" to refer to genetically-modified food is an excellent example of the way in which words matter. As of today, a search for the word in google returns about 57,000 hits. It's been quite an effective frame for the anti-GM food activists. Here are some examples of their work:




Sources, in order, Green Acres Farm, Monsterzine, and Democratic Underground.

Word Art

By James Buyayo

The Fetishization Of Black Women's Behinds

These advertisements, the first two for a brand of jeans called Apple Bottoms, all fetishize black women's behinds:



NEW:



Underneath Beyonce's name it says: "The body, the booty, the backstabbing."



In this two-page spread, the body isn't necessarily black... but it might be an interesting question as to whether the viewers assume, or might be expected to assume, it is.



Text:

MY BUTT is big
and round like the letter c
and ten thousand lunges
have made it rounder
but not smaller
and that's just fine.
It's a space heater
for myside of the bed
It's my ambassador
to those who walk behind me
It's a border collie
that herds skinny women
away from the best deals
at clothing sales.
My butt is big
and that's just fine
and those who might scorn it
are invited to kiss it.

I think it's interesting the way this poem pits "skinny women" against women with a big butt... so valorizing the big butt but only by taking down the skinny (white?) girl.

Divide and conquer.

You might pair these images with this post about a Pilates DVD.

The Willful Wife And The Hen Pecked Husband

This product nicely captures the fallacious ideas that (1) to be a "liberated" woman is to do what men do and (2) that "liberated" women necessarily emasculate men in a zero sum game.

Thanks to my awesome student, Molly M!

Women as Gold Diggers and Sex Providers: FOX News Commentator's Book

Rudov is a regular commentator on FOX News. Here is the text from the website selling this book:

"Are You Wining & Dining Her for Sex?

Most men pay their girlfriends and wives like prostitutes—cash, dinners, vacations, jewelry, cars, homes, and clothing—in exchange for sex. Not only unnecessary and emasculating, such stupid male behavior induces “purchased and entitled” women to fake their orgasms.

Like a car, a woman will take you where you guide her—assuming she’s a good match and you’re a good driver. Ignore her pings and rattles, and she’ll stop operating, strand you, or put you in a ditch.

Marc Rudov's new book—Under the Clitoral Hood: How to Crank Her Engine Without Cash, Booze, or Jumper Cables^TM—helps men avoid golddiggers, learn what really turns women on, and end self-destructive chivalry. This provocative and hilarious book is a perfect sequel and companion to The Man's No-Nonsense Guide to Women. There's no book like it in the world."

Here's a companion graphic about gold-diggers:

"I Put On Ten Pounds, Three Ounces!"

Sociological Images reader Julie C. found this awesome ad in a newspaper from the 1960s:


The text:

“If skinny, thin and underweight take improved WATE-ON to help put on pounds and inches of firm, healthy looking flesh. WATE-ON supplies weight gaining calories plus vitamins, minerals, protein and other beneficial nutrients. Clinically tested. Fast weight gains 4, 6, 10… as much as 20 and 30 pounds have been reported. No over-eating. Helps make bustline, cheeks, arms, legs fill out, helps put firm solid flesh on skinny figures all over body. Helps fight fatigue, low resistance, sleeplessness and nervousness that so often accompany underweight. Underweight children and convalescents can take WATE-ON. It’s a clinically tested, pleasant formula sold around the world. Buy some today and start putting on weight FAST. Satisfaction from 1st bottle or price refunded. At drug stores everywhere.”

Thanks Julie!

Muslims in Europe

Click here and scroll down for a map showing the number and % of Muslims in various European countries. From NPR.

Gender Roles and Weddings

An ad for a floral shop: "He chose her. She chose us."

Found in Zions Bank Community magazine, January/February 2008 issue.

Inequality Among Affluent Nations

This bar chart puts the United States as the dubious front runner with the highest income inequality among 20 wealthy nations. With the exception of Japan, all the countries have European heritage. In 2000 the United States’ inequality stood well above all other rich nations. At the other end of the scale the Nordic countries plus the Netherlands had very low inequality ratios. Most Western European nations, as well as Australia and Canada fell in between.

These data come from the Luxembourg Income Study, the most rigorous data source for cross-national income and wealth. The chart’s income gap indicator in each country is the disposable (after tax) annual income of the top 10% divided by the disposable income of the bottom 10%. In other words, the income gap is the ratio of the 10% of persons with the highest income to the 10% with the lowest. For instance, in the USA the income of the top-earning 10% was 5.5 times that of the bottom 10%.

The statistics in this chart can be found on page 4 of a document on the Contexts website: http://www.contextsmagazine.org/resources_vol6-3.php That document is a supplement to an article by Peter Dreier, “The United States in Comparative Perspective,” in the Summer 2007 issue of Contexts.

Some may read these statistics and say “inequality in the US is overblown” because the bottom 10% live better off than most people in the rest of the world. That is true if Americans are compared to countries where the average income is less than a dollar a day. But if the American poor are compared to the poor in other wealthy countries, American poor are far worse off.

Kenya’s Carnage

As if the world needed another battleground, peaceful Kenya slipped into a civil war as post-election demonstrations turned to riots, and riots to rampages. Kenya’s December 27th elections could have ended as a model for party transition, but instead it became the worst possible scenario.

EU observers agreed the vote processes were flawed and results were denounced as rigged by the main opposition party. Protesters were shot by police leading to rioting and repeated demonstrations. Hundreds of thousands of Kenyans fled their homes and hundreds lie dead as the conflict became an ethnically charged civil war.

Two years ago I had the good fortune of spending four days in Kenya. To my amazement Nairobi’ downtown felt like a Midwestern city: orderly, friendly, uncongested, clean, and mostly absent of beggars. But Nairobi has over three million people, a half million of which live in Africa’s largest slum.

Poverty in many rural villages was evident, but the Kenyan people, especially the women, work very hard. In the first photo is a typical rural scene where the women do back breaking work in the fields.



During our brief stay the papers headlined several major political events: President Kibaki, who is still the uncompromising president, fired his entire cabinet. The next day he suspended all of parliament. On the third day, major public demonstrations took place in the streets by the opposition party calling for new presidential elections.

I watched these demonstrations on the streets of Nairobi and felt the tension and anger. The demonstrations, however, ended without incident. But apparently it has not been uncommon for people to die in Nairobi demonstrations.

I took the 2nd photograph of the demonstrations in the central city. Notice that it could pass for football game day in a small US city.

What can sociology add to help us understand Kenya’s tragic, unfolding story? Here are three perspectives that may help:

Social Class Perspective: The images we are given by the American network media are suggestive of warring savages. In fact, the riots and ethnic strife are phenomena of the poverty class, not the wealthy and middle classes, although the leaders of both warring factions are wealthy politicians. Sharp inequality and festering poverty lay beneath the surface of this formerly peaceful country.

Historical Conflict Perspective: The British spent decades trying to keep the Luo and Kikuyu divided to preserve colonial order. (Now these are the two major warring ethnic groups.) During the decolonization process the British drew electoral boundaries to cut the representation of groups they thought might cause trouble. This only fanned the flames of tension among these groups. In the past few years tribal factions fighting over cattle rights in the Rift Valley have left over 100,000 refugees. These conditions helped ignite recent spontaneous rioting, looting and killing.

Race/Ethnicity Perspective: Both sides of the conflict are accusing the other of genocide, and both may be right. It will take months if not years to assess the horrendous damage. Ethnic hatreds run deep and prolonged, but the first cause of this war was political. It was the common practice of rigging elections followed by a refusal of the President to negotiate a coalition government.

What other sociological perspectives help to explain what is happening in Kenya and what might happen in the future?

Tao Nighclub: The Sexualized Asian Body

This is an ad for Tao Asian bistro and nightclub in Las Vegas. The tagline is "Always a happy ending." Note the naked woman's body with the presumably Chinese characters on her. And of course a "happy ending" is often associated with Asian massage parlors...

Race, Ethnicity, And Hair

These three confessions, from Post Secret this week, illustrate that "ethnic" hair carries meaning (in the first authenticity, in the second ugliness, and in the third it's left open) and how some women feel about that:

Teens As Objects Of Control

I find these posters to be gut-wrenchingly horrible. They are designed to scare teenagers into taking precautions against pregnancy by demonizing teenagers who get (someone) pregnant. The way in which teens are portrayed in these images suggests that the organization, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, doesn't care about teenagers, only in controlling their behavior.

Each poster is followed by its text.

"I had sex so my boyfriend wouldn't REJECT me. Now, I have a baby. And no boyfriends."

"Now that I'm home with a baby, NOBODY calls me anymore."

"All it took was one PRICK to get my girlfriend pregnant. At least that's what her friends say."

"Condoms are CHEAP. If we'd used one, I wouldn't have to tell my parents I'm pregnant."

I want to be out with my friends. Instead, I'm changing DIRTY diapers at home."

Southern Hospitality?

Image via: Sports Image Times

The U.S. Border Patrol is focusing its new recruiting efforts in the Southeast, the region that just happens to have had the largest Hispanic population growth over the last few years.

How is the U.S. Border Patrol marketing itself to possible recruits in Southern states? Yup, by sponsoring the #28 NASCAR race car.

Blackface Candies

These are Italian candies with chocolate inside. You can read a description of them here (scroll down the page quite a bit). I'm not sure what the point of the shiny dot on the forehead is.

Thanks to Denise H. for finding this image!

anti-Hillary Clinton sexist images

Despite all kinds of "truces" and "promises" in the media lately about "leaving race and gender out" of the democratic primaries, gender and race are obviously a part of this presidential election cycle.

But, here's a newsflash: even when the candidates are all white men, gender and race are STILL a part of the decisions made about who should be president.

Think back to 2004 for a moment-- remember all those political cartoons criticizing Kerry for being too "French" (as opposed to American Cowboy) and generally feminizing his image (feminine = bad for politics) in political cartoons. Here are 2 examples:


I'm fascinated by the anti-Hillary Clinton facebook groups. There are dozens of these groups, but four groups have the most members.

• Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich-- 30,000+ members
• Anti Hillary Clinton for President '08-- 65,000+ members
• Stop Hillary Clinton: One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary-- 700,000+ members
• Life's a Bitch, Why Vote for One?-- 14,000+ members
  

So this morning I spent some time looking at the images that dominate these groups. The images these groups use to criticize Clinton as a presidential candidate make it pretty clear that sexism is alive and well (beyond the protesters asking Clinton to iron their shirts)-- and that gendered ways to talk about politics are as cogent as ever! Here's a smattering for you-- there are so many I couldn't possibly post them all!













And the intersection of race and gender...

Misogynist Slang I Didn't Even Know Existed

Thanks to Laura K. for bringing my attention to UrbanDictionary.com, a site where users provide definitions for slang terms and examples of their usage. Here's a real gem:

Life support system for a pussy: Any human being that is female. Good lord, woman, all you are is a life support system for a pussy!

That's...great. Note the tags on the post too--equally charming.

Excellent find, Laura K.!

Knowledge About The Clitoris And Orgasm For Women

Shameless self-promotion... and some really interesting findings regarding knowledge and frequency of orgasm in a non-random population of undergraduates. This first graph shows the percent of male and female respondents who (1) correctly located the clitoris on a map of the vulva and (2) correctly answered a series of true/false questions about the clitoris.

You'll see that there is surprising little difference between men and women (considering that women have had access to a clitoris all their lives and men have had access only recently, if at all), though you'll see that men are more likely to think most women will have an orgasm from penile-vaginal sex (most women don't) and women are more likely to think the g-spot is another name for the clitoris (it's not). These two cancelled each other out such that the average knowledge score for men and women was statistically the same. The same!

It's this next graph that's the real kicker. This graph shows the relationship between how well a woman scored on the clitoral knowledge tests (on a 0-5 scale) and how frequently she has an orgasm during masturbation and with a partner. You'll see a nice positive relationship between knowledge and orgasm in masturbation and no relationship at all between knowledge and orgasm with a partner. (For fun, notice that the average score on the clitoral knowledge measure for women who'd never had an orgasm with a partner and who always do is the same. Also notice that there are 124 women in that never category, it's not just a handful of women who are somehow "dysfunctional.")

So, for some reason (feel free to speculate), even when women know about their own bodies, they either keep it to themselves, or have partners that don't want to hear it, or both.

If you want to see the paper, here's the cite:

Wade, L., E. Kremer, & J. Brown. 2005. The Incidental Orgasm: The Presence of Clitoral Knowledge and the Absence of Orgasm for Women. Women and Health 42, 1: 117-138.

Email me at lwade@oxy.edu if you'd like a copy.