Popular Songs Represented In Figures And Charts
This post is dedicated to Gary Sandefur and all my other long lost UW karaoke kids.
If you teach methods, you might find these figures will add a little pizzazz to your discussions of how to present findings. They may not all be exactly, perfectly, like totally accurate. :)
Nelly - Air Force Ones:
Beck - Where It's At:
The Beatles - All You Need Is Love:
Aqua - Barbie Girl:
Prince - When Doves Cry:
Various Artists - Don't Cry For Me Argentina (why not Sinead O'Connor?)
Simon and Garfunkel - 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
Notorious B.I.G. - Mo Money Mo Problems:
Kelis - Milkshake:
Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive:
Beastie Boys - Three MC's and One DJ:
Naughty By Nature - O.P.P.:
50 Cent - In Da Club:
All these and more can be found here and here.
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Incarceration Rates In the U.S. And Elsewhere
According to today's New York Times, the incarceration rate in the U.S. continues to rise. One in 99 American adults is now behind bars. Hispanics and Blacks are incarcerated disproportionately: One in 36 Hispanics one in 15 Black adults is behind bars.
Here we are in comparison with some other countries:
Via the Bureau of Justice.
Disney Princess TV
I saw this TV on sale at Circuit City once. I use this picture when I talk about gendering products and how we inscribe ideas of gender onto the physical world.
Oh, and this is targeted at pre- and early teen girls.
Kitchen Cabinets with Naked Woman on Front
Susanne T. sent me this image. She is in Latvia and walks by a furniture store every day that has this set of kitchen cabinets visible from the street.
I think it's especially interesting that, unless Latvia has a much more egalitarian division of household labor than the U.S., it would be primarily women using this cabinet to do dishes. Susanne, any information about gender and housework in Latvia?
Production, Consumption, And Reproduction
This post is dedicated to my pregnant friends. You should buy this t-shirt.
In class this week my students and I are talking about the triple threat of production, consumption, and reproduction that characterizes modern capitalism. I use the cultural imperative that women have and raise babies (reproduction) and be beautiful and sexy while doing it (consumption), all of which is paid for by someone who is busy earning money at a job (production). Below are some of the images I use.
Be beautiful while pregnant (images from A Pea in the Pod and covergirls Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera):
Running in high heels while in the third trimester? Why, of course!
Get your body back as soon as possible (as demonstrated by Gwen Stefani and Tori Spelling):
If you're not sure how, buy some books (all the better)!
Resort to suspicious drugs if you need to:
Or get a Mommy Makeover. Extensive cosmetic surgery, that is:
Recommended by Parenting Magazine!
"Isn't It Time Women Stood Up?"
This is a nice short clip by Media Watch pointing out how women seem to be constantly "on their backs" in the mass media:
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Commodifying the Women's Movement
"The new women's movement. Freedom from seams and stitches."
This is another ad Lisa sent me years ago. I use it when discussing the de-politicization of social issues, and the commodification of freedom--it's just something you buy. I also use this one from Lisa:
The Jeep Liberty--notice on the right it says "Glass Ceiling" and has an arrow pointing down below; so structural inequality at work is trivialized, and again, "liberty" is something we can purchase.
These ads go nicely along with the old Virginia Slims campaign, these other "liberated women" themed ads Lisa posted previously, and the "right hand ring" ad I posted.
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REQUEST: Marxist (?) Poster About The Reproduction Of The Worker
There is a poster out there somewhere that illustrates the reproduction of the worker in an capitalist industrial society. I think it is based directly on Marx. It shows all the unpaid work that women do behind the scenes that allows a man to invest his days in paid work. She feeds him, helps him relax, cleans his clothes, makes sure he can sleep comfortably and stuff, and then pushes him out the front door the next morning well-rested, in clean clothes, and with a bag lunch. If anyone can find this poster, I'd be so excited!
(Wisconsin Soc people... This poster was in the radical posters room on the 7th floor of the Sewell building at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Do you remember it?)
1936 Plastic Surgery Ad
The caption to the photo said, "New York plastic surgeon Jacob Sarnoff drew this vision of total transformation--entitled 'diagrammatic illustration of common deformities amenable to plastic surgery'--in 1936."
I found this in Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery, by Elizabeth Haiken (1997), page 13.
"Sexy Stilettos"
In this ad, the imprint of a woman's stiletto is her own body. Creative? Or creative and creepy?
Via Adverbox.
Differential Use Of E-Networks Across The Globe
Apparently we don't live in a global e-village, so much as some regional ones (click the image to enlarge, fake your French to figure it out).
Is there a social networks person out there who could speculate on implications?
Thanks to John L. for this one, via Le Monde!
Downturn In Real Wages
This graph, from yesterday's New York Times, shows a decrease in real wages in the past year in the face of 4% inflation.
Mental Illness Steals Your Child's True Self
The images below are fake ransom notes designed to encourage parents to get their children into treatment for autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, asperger syndrome, and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (click image to enlarge). They were commissioned by the New York University Child Study Center, but quickly attracted enough outrage that the campaign was abandoned (see a summary of the controversy at Mental Illness Watch). They are interesting to me as a sociologist because of the way they construct mental illness (like a kidnapper who steals your child... so the child you have is not your "real" child), pharmaceuticals (the only way to get your real child back), and parenting (you are a bad parent if you don't do what the experts tell you). It's fascinating the way they use threats to "help" ("ignore this and your kid will pay,"this is only the beginning," and "It's up to you now").
Text: We have your son. We will make sure he will not be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning. -Autism
Text: We have your daughter. We are making her wash her hands until they are raw, every day. This is only the beginning. -OCD
Text: We have your son. We are destroying his ability for social interaction and driving him into a life of complete isolation. It's up to you now. -Asperger Syndrome
Text: We are in possession of your son. We are making him squirm and fidget until he is a detriment to himself and those around him. Ignore this and your kid will pay. -ADHD
French Ad Uses Sex to Argue for Changing Housing Policies
This ad came from an issue of the English version of the Spiegel. According to SocProf, it was "created by a French student union...to underline the issue of housing shortage for students," which is forcing many French students to continue living with their parents.
Thanks, C.M.!
1927 Wimbledon Ad: Using Women's Progress to Sell
These two images were used in a 1927 ad for Wimbledon. Lisa actually sent them to me a couple of years ago but has never posted them, so I'm doing it. The point of showing the two images next to each other was to stress how liberated women were by 1927--they aren't wearing stuffy old dresses to play tennis, and men aren't shocked by the sight of a leg.
I use these, along with some of the "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" Virginia Slims ads, to show how "women's liberation" is used by advertisers to sell products, as well as to imply that "now" (whenever "now" is) is always better than "then" (some indeterminate point in the past) and that the struggle for equality and freedom is over.
Cornel West On MTV
The 30-second (or so) videos below have been interspersed with MTV's regular programming as part of Black History Month. MTV got Cornel West to be their superstar academic and expert on the Black American experience. The videos serve as the occasion for some interesting questions:
First, how do we evaluate the use of Black musicians, actors, and personalities by MTV? Is "representation" enough? Or does contemporary representation look uncomfortably like the representation of the past? (If you haven't seen it, watch Spike Lee's Bamboozled.)
Second, what does it mean that Cornel West signed on with MTV with what is, in effect, a mutual endorsement? Do we approve of Cornel West using his significant influence and importance in this way? Is this good from a reformist perspective? Problematic from a radical perspective? Did he "sell out"?
Third, how effective are these spots? I know little about the audience of MTV, but I imagine there are a lot of people who do not know who Cornel West is and are not inclined to offer him immediate respect. Cornel is idiosyncratic. Does your average MTV viewer see a gap-toothed, afro-wearing guy with odd mannerisms called "Professor" (which, we know, could mean anything) as authoritative? Or a buffoon?
Further, what do we think of the spots themselves? Is their content helpful? Do they teach us anything? Do we like what they teach us? Or is it just more empty lip-service to Black Americans?
Watch and tell us what you think (click here for a link to all the clips):
Thanks to Richard for the heads up on this one.
Manipulated Women And High Fashion
Today's New York Times fashion slide show (permalink) offers image after image demonstrating our society's bizarre infatuation with posing women looking awkward, even deformed, frightened, compromised, uncomfortable, even in pain (click through on the arrows on the upper right).
I am unsure what to make, particularly, of the interest in images in which women are in dirty and uncomfortable, even painful, places and positions (see the "Maiden Voyage" spread with women in the shipyard in the NYT slide show linked to above). I included some of those images that I've collected below. Do we hate women that much? Or is it about something else (also)?
Ritalin for Moms
Before ADD/ADHD, ritalin was prescribed to tired, overworked mothers. This 1967 ad claimed that ritalin could cure "Tired Mom Syndrome":
Amazing!
Thanks to my friend, Jake L!
Kudos
Everyone please give a tip of the hat to our member blogger and website manipulator extraordinaire, Wendy! She's responsible for our recent make-over and all our new bells and whistles.
Thanks Wendy!
Pursuing Sex with a Caddy
Another Cadillac ad using Kate Walsh. The text at the bottom says, "Life. Liberty. And the Pursuit."
It's A Brave New World
New (or new to me) body modification trends (the first four found here):
Look like a dragon (found here):
Likes spikes (found here):
Eyebrows (found here):
Boob job (found here):
This one is braille (found here) :
It might be interesting to discuss the different reactions to the body modifications... that is, people might think the braille one is kind of sweet, but the boob job one as disgusting. How do we decide which body modifications are good or bad, neat or stupid, etc?
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