Conservative T-Shirts

These t-shirts are all available here. The site has the following definition:


Presumably the fact that I'm posting these means I don't understand humor. Of course, these could also be useful for a discussion of what is "funny" and who gets to decide that.



Liberals are emasculated sissies; conservatives are real men:



Torture is funny:

So is lynching:

Some about guns:



Thanks to Breck C. for sending us the link!

Horribly Misguided Anti-Animal-Cruelty PSA Uses Images of Domestic Violence

Stumblng Tumblr sent along this PSA from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, along with this comment:

I am confident that the animal-protection video to which I've linked in this
post...will astonish you.

Indeed it did.

Thanks, ST!

Take Their Money And Run

We here at Sociological Images have been less-than-positive about efforts by companies to co-opt activism by linking the purchase of their products to (tiny) donations (see here, here, here, and here). For an alternative to the typical strategy, see this really awesome South African commercial announcing a collaboration between Samsung and POWA (People Opposing Woman Abuse). It might make a nice illustration of how such collaborations could be different.

Thanks to Marinus for sending this along!

Axe Skin Contact Shower Gel Ad

I just saw the American version of this Axe ad (here in French) while watching Comedy Central:



This could be interesting for a discussion of how media portrayals imply that "hot" sex is extremely athletic and may include rough-housing or mild (or not-so-mild) violence.

Guns Protect Women Better Than Men

What's interesting about this image is the comment on masculinity--the implication is that "pacifist" men (whatever "pacifist" is taken to mean) aren't "real" men because they can't or won't fulfill their role of protecting women. The gun becomes a replacement for sissified men.

You can find the image here. You might compare it to this post.

Thanks, Bill F.!

Bumper Stickers

I found all these stickers for sale at ChopperStickers. All the misspellings are theirs.

"I'm all for gay marriage as long as both bitches are hot!"

"Women are like guns...you keep one around long enough and your gonna want to shoot it."

"Great Legs!! What time do they open?"

"It is customary to pay for motorcycle rides with oral sex." This one was posted in both the "for the guys" and "for the ladies" section.

"My nipples get harder than most men's dicks!"

"No matter how good lookin' she is somewhere some guy is sick of her shit!"

"Girls wanted. All positions, will train!"

"I may not have the cherry but I still have the box it came in" (From the women's section.)

"You remind me of my wife except you're not buried in the back yard."

"Don't ask to ride my bike and I won't ask to ride your bitch!"

"The quickest way to a woman's heart is thru her fuckin' rib cage!"

I don't even understand that one.

"9 out of ten women are battered. I'm still eatin' mine plain!"

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.

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!

Resident Evil 5: Africa Is the Dark Continent

Here is the trailer for Resident Evil 5, which is not yet on the market:



The player is the sole white person in a dismal, threatening city, apparently in Africa. The locals engage in torture (which we see in some detail) and gleefully cheer at a hanging. At one point the hero is accosted by an angry mob, all of whom just make gutteral, animal-like sounds. In a beleagured voice he tells us he just doesn't know "if it's all worth fighting for. Who knows?" Oh, the white man's burden, indeed!

Thanks once again, Patrick C.!

Femdefence Anti-Rape Device

One of my students pointed me to the Femdefence site, based in Sweden. According to the site,

The project Femdefence is an attempt to contribute to the debate on men’s sexual violence against women in society, using the esthetics of design, and the semiotics of marketing.

Here is a schematic of their hypothetical "rape prevention device," found here:



Here is a video made as a part of this project. The second half is probably not safe for work.

It's sort of along the lines of the whole pseudo-Freudian "vagina dentata" idea. The video really freaks me out.

Just to clarify, this isn't an actual product, it's an art/commentary project. I assume this is too.

Thanks, Velanie W.!

Passion or Attack? UPDATE

I posted this first image back in October:

This ad is disturbing because you can't really tell if it's consensual or an attack. And the perfume is called "Unforgivable."

UPDATE: One of my students recently pointed out the ad for Unforgivable for Men:

Could provide a really interesting discussion of differing images of masculine and feminine sexuality and power.

And here's a video of another ad for Unforgivable for Men, clearly linking sex and power:

Durex Condom Marketing: Subtlely Linking Sex And Violence

These are subway turnstiles so, whether you like it or not, you have to smack your pelvis against the images to get into the subway. DJ Nelson at All Diva Media, from whence these images came, notes that at the bottom text reads "there are better things to hit" (which, I note, is a metaphor for violence):

And this image suggests that women would or should be willing to stretch their mouths until they crack and bleed in order to give a man with a big dick a blow job:

Thanks to Caroline H. for sending these!

Promoting A Date Rape Drug?

If not, why the martini?


Found here.

"Spear an Indian, Save a Fish": Racial Conflict over Natural Resource Use

In the late 1980s a controversy erupted in northern Wisconsin over spearfishing by the Chippewa nation. The Chippewa are guaranteed a certain number of fish each year under a treaty they signed with the U.S. government. In the late '80s the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reduced the annual harvest available to both American Indians and non-Indians. When non-Indians (overwhelmingly whites) saw Indians out spearfishing they were furious, since the number of fishing permits they could get had been reduced. Protesters showed up at the lakes where the Chippewa were spearfishing, carrying fake spears with plastic Indian heads on them and holding signs saying things like, "Spear an Indian, save a fish." This poster also appeared.

Sexualized Violence

Sarah says she walks by this image (found here) on her way to the subway and it "unnerves" her:

I concur.

Would it be going too far to suggest that the goblet of wine simultaneously stands in for an ejaculating penis and a weapon drawing blood? And, if that isn't going to far, then aren't we all seriously disturbed right now?

Thanks for the suggestion Sarah!

Um. What?

If you don't eat this snickers bar I'm going to smash your bleeping face in.

Get some nuts, fool!

Janet Jackson On And In BlackBook

I guess her new album is called "Discipline" and these images are supposed to invoke sadomasochism, but it just looks like another picture of a Black woman in bondage to me.