Drugs And Society

In the late 1930s, the movie Reefer Madness dramatized the effects of marijuana abuse (watch the entire video here). In the 1970s, it was ridiculed as hysteria and propaganda.

In light of this, and without trivializing meth addiction (which I understand to be devastating... but where does my information come from?), what do we think of these anti-meth PSAs from the Montana Meth Project? (You can also find television commercials there to go with these print ads.)



Hat tip to copyranter for bringing my attention to this ad campaign.

MIssissippi Law Would Ban Obese People from Eating at Restaurants

Click below to download the text of Mississippi House Bill 282, which would prohibit restaurants from serving individuals defined as obese by the State Department of Health guidelines.

DOWNLOAD FILE

A summary with a link to the complete text is also available here. MHB 282 is currently before the State Legislature. The author admits it is unlikely to pass but that he is bringing attention to the issue of obesity.

This could be useful for a discussion of our views of fat people, how it is ok to ridicule or openly stigmatize fat people in a way that is not acceptable for other social characteristics, and the way fat has been turned into a sign of a weak character (i.e., a fat person just doesn't, or won't, have the self-control to stop eating).

Thanks for the tip, Kelly V.!

The Male Gaze Does Not Allow For Boy Nipples UPDATE

The men in this Wrestlemania billboard, if you look closely, have no nipples. They were photoshopped out supposedly because of a law in Florida that prohibits the display of nipples.* Since men's nipples are not sexualized in the same way that women's are, the authors of the law were likely thinking of women's bodies as they penned this ban. It may illustrate that it is women's bodies that we think of when we think of bodies on display because of the adoption (by men and women alike in this culture) of a (heteronormative) male gaze.



Image and info found here via copyranter.

* UPDATE: The interesting follow-up to the story (and I just realized a commenter caught this too) is that it turns out the mayor was wrong: his city actually doesn't have a law against displaying nipples. It is unclear if he knew this at the time (i.e., was lying) or really thought there was. And apparently some posters in town DO have nipples.

What does this additional information add to an interpretation of this image?

"Sex with a Child is a Crime" HIV Awareness Poster

Christine M. sent in this photo of a poster she "took in Zambia in May 2006 while I was visiting the compound of a child sponsoring organization called Children International. It speaks for itself in a country that has a high rate of HIV infection. The very fact that such a poster is needed is chilling."

Is the child at the top supposed to be Asian? I can't tell.

Thanks, Chris!

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.

Website Lets You Create Tailored Maps to Display Data about U.S.

Here is a link to a government website where you can create a map to show all kinds of basic demographic, environmental, and other information--crime rates (broken down by several types of crime), race/ethnicity, poverty rates, median income, climate information, Superfund sites, toxic waste facilities, agricultural information, and so on. I especially enjoyed looking at how many tornadoes there were in Oklahoma.

Anti-Child Abuse PSAs

We are on a PSA kick at Sociological Images lately (see our posts on anti-statutory rape and anti-teen sex PSAs)!

Here are the latest: anti-child abuse ads. There appears to be some confusion as to whether they are actually from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the UK (which is the attribution on the ads themselves). In any case, they do appear to have been used.




These, below, however, are on their website and, I think, in the same theme:

Insult Comedy

This comic, Lisa Lampanelli, is a very successful comic whose entire act involves aggressively offending every possible group and congratulating herself on getting us to lighten up. The audience thinks it's great. Gwen and I saw her on Comedy Central tonight doing her own special, so this is mainstream comedy.

So how do we analyze this sociologically? Gwen and I are too demoralized to formulate a coherent response at this time. But at least we now know that it's not rape if he's good lookin'.

There Are No Business Travelers, Only Male And Female Business Travelers

Chris M. noticed something bizarre on the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) website.

If you scroll about 1/4th of the way down this page, there is a list of pdfs and videos about security on airplanes. There are separate videos for the female and the male "business traveler." They both show liquids in a plastic bag, but apparently only men carry laptops and women are relieved from having to take off their shoes.

Chris thought it was especially interesting to see this on a .gov site. Nice find Chris!

World Statistics

Click here for a "world clock" (by http://www.poodwaddle.com/) that constantly updates the total number of, well, lots of stuff: births, abortions, deaths of different types, prisoners, marriages, divorces, extinct species, gallons of oil pumped, and computers, cars, and bicycles built. You can choose to display it by how much has happened in the last year, month, day, or even from a moment, like right... now.

Thanks, Mom!

Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership

Anti-gun control propaganda (found here) aimed at EVERYBODY.

What you might expect from the pro-gun lobby:

















For kids!





Pro-gun feminism?





Guns are for fags:

Gun control is racist:

Also see this post.

Posters Opposed To The Criminalization Of Prostitution

These posters were made by Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE), an association for sex workers' rights.

Abortion Laws Around The World

Race And Crime

This campaign ad from 1988 is part of the larger politicization of the black underclass. "Willie Horton" and the "welfare queen" both emerged as symbols during this period with which to demonize poor blacks for political clout. Ultimately, using the name Willie Horton became a powerful tool to criticize politicians for being weak on crime and not protecting the innocent white population from the guilty black population.



Ultimately, increasing toughness of the criminal justice system led to a situation, today, where about 1/2 of all black men are in the prison system.

See an interesting entry on Willie Horton on wikipedia here.

Tobacco Use As Male Bonding

In this ad chewing Skoal provides a male bond that gets the guy out of a speeding ticket.

Denigration With Femininity

Apparently in Thailand they are punishing cops that break little rules by forcing them to wear pink Hello Kitty armbands. The article doesn't say WHY this would be humiliating, only that it is.

If it were in America, this would illustrate how it is humiliating for men to be in any way feminine... but I don't know anything about Thai culture. The image, though, is fascinating:

Following Positions To Their Logical Conclusions

Click here for a fascinating 7 minute video in which a man interviews pro-life activists and asks: "If abortion was illegal, should women who have abortions go to jail?"