Comments on: Power and the Paradox of Writing Against Inequality

By: BroadBlogs

BroadBlogs — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 21:37:00 +0000

I agree that it’s two steps forward and one step back, yet it’s the only way you can go forward as far as I can tell. If we don’t stop and critique the images — and provide the images and discussion so that people know what you’re talking about — it all stays subconscious. It can’t come out in the open to be questioned. And stuff that stays in the subconscious is more likely to be taken for granted as normal. The only way you can create social change is to create awareness and criticism around an issue.

By: Stacey

Stacey — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:17:00 +0000

Yes. I was actually thinking I could get my 8yr old daughter to read that series of posts until I realised that in doing so I would be exposing her to images I normally protect her from as much as I am able. It’s frustrating to be a mother with daughters and yet have so little access to age appropriate resources that discuss these issues, because they are mostly targeted at adult women.

By: Learned Last Week (31st/32nd of 2012) | All Across Learning

Learned Last Week (31st/32nd of 2012) | All Across Learning — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:50:46 +0000

[…] “Power and the Paradox of Writing Against Inequality” “Coming to our blog is, for these reasons, a scary proposition. Because we sometimes talk […]

By: Marianne

Marianne — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:18:00 +0000

Thank you for this great article. I agree
with Sarah and I will try to explain it, in English.

I love this website and I’m very
interested in feminism and women’s issues but as Sarah says, seeing those
little pics of sexualized women’s bodies always makes me feel uncomfortable. It is one thing to analyze and
criticize images with a strong and thoughtful thinking but quite another to use
those images to summarize or illustrate an entire reasoning.

In that case reasoning about various
gender issues, which is quite a tough subject!
In my sense, the excellent articles of Sociological Images shouldn’t be simply reduced
to the incriminated pictures they’re dealing with. Indeed, the entire website goes far beyond the
superficial aspect of facts and aim to highlight the complex processes
occurring in our societies.

I understand when Lisa Wade explains “So
our posts drawing attention to and criticizing the phenomenon also reinforce
it. It’s two steps forward and one step back, plus or minus a step”. Still from
now on, without totally removing exposure to sexual objectification in its
articles, Sociological Images could make the
effort to avoid inappropriate images in thumbnails. Just like a “Trigger Warning”.

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 23:39:00 +0000

I’m surprised they haven’t realized that and made it a policy to always make sure the first image in each post is appropriate. Unless they prefer the thumbnail pics being provocative and attention grabbing

By: oldarney

oldarney — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:48:00 +0000

I would suggest making the images black and white, or better yet, invert their colors which reduces their impact.

By: Balancing Jane

Balancing Jane — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:54:00 +0000

I had someone comment on my pin asking me why I thought it was good idea to perpetuate the damage. It shook me a little, as that was the opposite of what I intended. At the end of the day, though, I can’t believe that ignoring it does anything to fix it. I wrote about it at the time: http://www.balancingjane.com/2012/03/pinterest-intention-and-making.html

By: Lisa_Wade

Lisa_Wade — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:40:00 +0000

We’ve noticed this happening at our Pinterest pages too.

By: Balancing Jane

Balancing Jane — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:31:00 +0000

I had a similar issue when I was pinning an article about the use of sexual abuse in advertising (that Belvedere Vodka ad) on Pinterest. I pinned it connected to an article analyzing it and talking about the work we needed to do to move away from this kind of stereotyping. I pinned it to a board called “Problematic Visual Media.” Then I saw that it was getting repinned to boards titled things like “Funny” or “Haha.”

Writing against inequality requires dealing with the inequality, but when it can be boiled down to a simple one-liner (or image) there’s always the risk of spreading the problem.

By: snuhfoo

snuhfoo — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:17:00 +0000

there is a search option. Look at the top right (next to the blog title)

By: Dianna Fielding

Dianna Fielding — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:17:00 +0000

Going back and fixing all those posts would take… A long time. It would be doable, but they would probably run out of images or have to switch around the blog post, essentially re-writing the post.

By: sarah

sarah — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:09:00 +0000

Could you please add a search option?

By: Japaniard

Japaniard — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:03:00 +0000

You think they don’t realize this? The thing is, these objectifying thumbnails attract page views and ad revenue, so while there is a very simple fix, since it would affect the viability of the site nothing is going to change.

By: LapinMalin

LapinMalin — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:23:00 +0000

You see the thumbnail of the first image. An obvious solution would be to add a 100×100 image at the very beginning of the post if the first image is going to be weird. You can then have a lighter picture.

By: Tom Megginson

Tom Megginson — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:14:00 +0000

Interesting. I have a similar challenge with Work That Matters (http://workthatmatters.blogspot.ca/).

When you blog critically about issues around sex and sexism in advertising, the posts with the most salacious titles get hit the most. Check out my “Week’s Most Popular Posts” sidebar…