Using American Indian Genocide To Spread Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Marcello sent us this really fascinating example of political propaganda from an anti-immigrant party in Italy. He translated the text as:

They suffered immigration
Now they live in reserves
Think about it

The implication is, if they let immigrants into Italy, the current residents will suffer the same fate as American Indians.


Marcello writes:

Beside the obvious racist concept i think it's quite ironic that they identify
themselves with people they would probably discriminate [against] if they ever
met any american-native people here in italy and the fact that they criminalize
the role that the very same "western civilization" they stand for (against the
"bastardization of culture from muslim heretics", their words, not mine) played
in the american-native genocide.

Original post, by Marcello, here. Thanks!

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Using Racial Stereotypes To Remind Women That Housework Is Their Responsibility

This Italian ad for fabric dye draws on the idea that black men are physically and sexually superior to white men:



Whereas this follow-up ad, with a surprising twist, manages to remind us that women are always responsible for the laundry:



I found this first commercial via Elizabeth A who found it at Feministing. Nice find!

Also in women are responsible for cooking and cleaning: women love to clean, homes of the future, what's for dinner, honey?, liberation through quick meals, and my husband's an ass.

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Calling All Social Psychologists

This clip, from the newly televised This American Life, shows what happens when (mostly) black women and (mostly) white men living in racially-segregated Chicago are brought together and the social rules of decorum are suspended. It is highly, highly disturbing. I'd love it if some social psychologists could comment on what we see happening here!

From Pale To Pumped With Racial Stereotypes

If whiteness is the neutral category (that is, people of color are commonly understood to be raced while white people are not), then to be non-white is to be different in some way. The "bad" difference is the deviant (for example, the "welfare queen," the "thug"), while the "good" difference is the exotic, the interesting, the hip, the cool. Those that do difference in this good way add a certain spice to life. This two-page spread beautifully illustrates the way in which whiteness, since it is neutral (that is, nothing) is sometimes characterized as boring, bland, vanilla, whitebread, while being of color is, quite literally, more exciting.



Notice the way the ad goes from black-and-white to color, from a white model to a model of color (but not too dark-skinned), from straight to curly (but not too curly) hair, from a rather plain dress to one that looks vaguely ethnic, and from awkward standing to dancing (of course).

Masculinity Summed Up

Truthfully, I don't think I have ever seen so many symbols of masculinity mobilized in so short a time. I had to watch it three times:



Thanks a bunch to Christine who recommended this in our comments.

White As Beautiful, Black As White

I use these truly amazing images to illustrate the way in which black women are expected to look white in order to qualify as beautiful. The images are powerful because the black models look almost identical to the white models, but also because they are ads for make-up. So the ads are literally selling beauty.

Athletes and Models

This is a cover of Vogue featuring LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen. Notice the postures: LeBron as the hulking, angry black man, and Gisele as arm candy. Apparently this issue has a whole section on "the World's Top Models and Star Athletes." Hmmm, I wonder what the gender breakdown is?

Thanks to Carmela Z. for sending this image along!

Which Military Would You Join?

This quick video presents an American and a Swedish military recruitment commercial back-to-back.

Maybe Wendy can comment on the differences in recruitment techniques? There certainly seemed to be a lot more glory in the American version, and a lot more holy-crap-war-sucks in the Swedish version.

Via Spiked Humor

Thanks to Julie C. for this tip!

Racism In Disney's Fantasia

The centaur scene in Disney's highly acclaimed cartoon Fantasia (1940) clearly communicates gendered expectations for men and women, but there are also racial politics. First, note that, in the film as released, all of the centaurs end up in color-matched heterosexual pairs:



Also, most people do not know that the original centaur scene included a pickaninny slave to the centaur females:



Below are parts of the original centaur scene (in three clips) that have since been suppressed:







Don't miss our post showing bugs bunny in blackface, too.

Who Gets To Be African?

How do we feel about this campaign, by Keep A Child Alive, to encourage people to donate money to Africa on the basis that we are all African? (Apparently we only care about ourselves, so if we suggest that Africa is ourselves, then we'll donate?)


Dp Americans, many of whom are white people with privilege based in race, class, and nation, get to claim Africa as theirs? Do white people now get to have blackness too? Is this insulting? Some people think so. Here is a larger version of the poster with Gwyneth Paltrow (scroll down for a response):



I borrowed this image from Blackademic.

"Married With Accessories," A Fashion Spread

Because when you're doing household labor, it is of the utmost importance that you are hot, in high heels, and headless.

(I especially like the one where she is trapped between the washer and dryer. What? Also, if I were her, I'd be trying to desperately and quietly cry for help, too. Get is? S.O.S.)

This post goes nicely with this recent one. And those little tow-headed children remind me of these.

From Marie Claire March 2005.

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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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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)?

Maps And Perceptions Of The World

When I was in grade school, I remember having one of my first sociological "aha moments" during geography. We were starting a unit on Latin and South American countries and each of us had to draw a map showing the countries and capitals to show how much we already knew. We all had those school issued atlases of the world, but we had to draw the map of Latin and South America without using the atlas.

What I ended up with was similar to most kids at my table-- a huge United States with a skinny little piece of land under it, just barely larger than Florida and then a larger piece of land under that about the size of Alaska. As elementary school kids in Maine we obviously knew very little about anything south of say, Washington D.C. and this was reflected in the little pieces of land we drew. I opened up my atlas and looked at how large Latin and South America really were and was shocked. It was nearly as large as Africa, and certainly larger than the the U.S.

How things are measured makes all the difference and cartography (map making) has a fascinating history in colonial empires and imperialism (charting "unknown" far off lands filled with "savages" etc.). So when SWS member Jeanne Flavin sent me a link to the ODT Maps website I had to share some of them here.

Let's start with a pretty "typical" North America-centered map of the world--

Now how about this equal area ODT map?

© www.ODTmaps.com

And how about an actual equal area Pacific-centered map from ODT?

© www.ODTmaps.com

And how about this South-up map, challenging North-South perceptions (how do we know which end of the world is "up" anyway-- who decides that?).

© www.ODTmaps.com

And my favorite-- the population map.

© www.ODTmaps.com

There are more maps and resources for the classroom on the ODT website. Thanks Jeanne!

Individual Versus Group Attribution

Found here thanks to Jason.