Barack, Hillary, and Obama on the WWE

These Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama lookalikes took part in a WWE Raw match on Monday. John McCain and Bill Clinton lookalikes were also there. All three actual candidates taped a message for the show:



This could be useful for a discussion about the effort to appeal to the much-discussed blue-collar voter. The WWE crowd--and probably the need to appear "non-elitist"--has become so important that every candidate felt it necessary to take part in this.

Also, Barack Obama just wasn't funny. I'm just sayin'.

Thanks to Larry H. from The Daily Mirror (an L.A. Times blog) for sending this one along!

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Connecting Golf and Sex

The text on the lower photo says, "A golf magazine that raises your blood pressure as well as well as your game." I think this image is interesting because the rest of the people in the magazine were white, but here you have the non-white (maybe African-American) woman in an animal print dress. Portraying non-white women as animalistic is a very common motif when they are sexualized. For another example, see here.

From Vegas Golfer.

Commentary on Lebron James/Gisele Bundchen Vogue Cover

Here is a link to an MSNBC segment on the Lebron James/Gisele Bundchen Vogue cover. Thanks, Carmela Z.!

"Score" Big at Sports Bar

An ad for a bar at the Monte Carlo casino in Las Vegas. I found it in Las Vegas Living.

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!

Energy Drink for Girls

I saw this energy drink this morning at a gas station. Notice that it's sugar-free. According to the website, a portion of proceeds goes to fight breast cancer, though it's unclear if they mean a portion of the profits of the drink, or just things bought at the online store. Another example of the idea of doing good through consumption, not by just donating money directly to an organization addressing an issue you care about (for other examples see here, here and here). Also, the website says Go Girl is not a rehydration drink (such as Gatorade), but a "functional beverage," whatever that is.

Where Sports Scholarships Go

Those of you teaching classes in sports or education might find this graph useful (click to enlarge). It shows which sports receive the most money in sports scholarships (Division I and II men's and women's teams) and what percentage of a full scholarship, on average, students in each sport are awarded. The take home message of the accompanying New York Times article is that while students and parents work tremendously hard to get sports scholarships, they rarely pay off in the long run, even when they get them. In the meantime, students are overworked on the field and suffering academically.

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.

Men's Bodies Are Allowed To Grow Up

Just try to imagine this advice aimed at a woman:



How I dream for the day that I, as a woman, get permission to buy a bigger shirt and forget about it.

In Honor Of The Superbowl...

...Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction (Superbowl 2003).

Here's the video (don't blink!):



I use this story along with this image to illustrate agenda setting. Because the media made such a huge deal about this, it was something that most people talked about with at least one other person and an issue on which most people formed an opinion. (I like the two-second video because it shows just how quick it was.) I contrast it alongside some genuinely newsworthy event that no one noticed because it didn't get covered and no one, now, remembers. (Richard mentions, by the way, that there were a ton of erectile dysfunction commercials during the superbowl that year that did not attract media outrage.)

Thanks to Ang! I stole the picture and the idea of using this issue to talk about agenda setting from her years ago.

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.

Blaming Jessica Simpson: Women Sap Men's Strength

This is a picture of Jessica Simpson in her pink Tony Romo (Dallas Cowboys quarterback) jersey at a recent game. In case you didn't know, they are dating. This was the first time she went to one of his games and actively acknowledged their relationship.



The Cowboys lost. And here's the fascinating thing: She was immediately blamed for the loss. This photo, where she looks sort of pouty and upset, has popped up everywhere, though there are photos available where she looks happy and is cheering. Here is a Dallas Morning News column addressing the blame put on Jessica Simpson.

These two Jessica masks are available here; the idea is that fans of the teams the Cowboys are playing should take them to games to throw Romo off so the Cowboys will lose (another mask is available at RuinRomo).
This whole story of Jessica causing the Cowboys to lose was a big enough deal that yesterday, while sitting in a restaurant, I saw ESPN announce that she will not attend the upcoming Cowboys game against the New York Giants. FOX News added the story to their website. This is news! In this article, Romo insists he is focused on the game, not Jessica.

This fits in with a long line of women being seen as a threat to men's performance in male-dominated arenas (sports, the military, and police forces in particular). When I taught Sociology of Sport we discussed how in the early 1900s single women who attended baseball games would be harassed, spit at, and sometimes removed from the game by other fans who felt they were going to distract the players and make them lose. There's also the long-standing belief that men shouldn't have sex before a game. Women sap men's strength (think Sampson and Delilah in the Old Testament), and men who become romantically/sexually involved with women risk becoming weak (i.e., feminine) and failing in the masculine world.

This story might be a good addition to the pictures of pink athletic team jerseys.

Pink Sports Team Clothing: Making a Masculine Arena Safe for Women

I found all these here.

Corporate Plantation

This image was passed along by a colleague's student.