*updates

Screenshot_3SocImages Meet Up in Minnesota!

Today I’m enjoying a visit to Carleton College and looking forward to spending the next two days at Macalester.  If you’re in the Twin Cities area, I’ll be at the W XYZ bar at the Aloft hotel in Minneapolis (900 Washington Ave S) on Thursday Oct. 3 at 8:30pm.  I would love to meet you and, more importantly, I would love to introduce you to each other!

Posts that Killed It:

We had an extraordinary month in September thanks to Sezin Koehler’s post on the lyrics of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.”  Many had called the song “rape-y” and the video misogynistic, but Koehler took it a step further, aligning the song’s lyrics with the words of actual rapists.  This struck a chord, making stark the discomfort many felt with the song.  The post has 163,000 “likes” and 1,600 comments and counting.  It was also cross-posted or discussed at Al Jazeera, Ms., Feministing, xoJane, Pacific Standard, and Jezebel.

We had some other super popular posts this month too!  Here are the highlights, starting with Koehler’s amazing work:

And y’all seemed to like our list of professors’ pet peeves too (5,000 likes)

New Course Guides:

You can see all of our course guides here.  We hope they’re useful!

Elsewhere on the Net:

This month I had the fun opportunity of writing two original essays for Salon and one for Alternet.

Social Media ‘n’ Stuff:

Finally, this is your monthly reminder that SocImages is on TwitterFacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest.  Lisa is on Facebook and most of the team is on Twitter: @lisawade@gwensharpnv@familyunequal@carolineheldman, and @jaylivingston.

In Other News…

Contributor Philip Cohen can cross another thing off his bucket list.  And the rest of us will live vicariously.  His pup was featured at the joy-spreading Cute Overload.  I’m so jealous!

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Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Happy end of August!

SocImages News:

I had the opportunity to publish essays in Politico and Salon this month.  The first was a response to an accusation that progressives refuse to talk about race, genetics, and intelligence, so I did in “Yes, Let’s Talk about Race and IQ.”

The second sounds like it belongs better in Cosmopolitan, but I promise there’s good sociology in there: “5 Reasons Your ‘Sexual Peak’ Might be Fake.”

Backstage at SocImages, we put together a new Pinterest board aimed at collecting examples of women being presented as catty and jealous of one another (e.g., “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful”).  We call it the Mean Girls Meme.  We’re excited to add additional examples!

Finally, Gwen and I offered some advice to new college students.

Top Posts:

Elsewhere on the Net:

This month SocImages or its authors were quoted in articles at:

Cross-Post Highlights…

Upcoming Lectures and Appearances:

My fall schedule is falling into place.  If any readers are in the Twin Cities or Salt Lake City, I’d love to schedule a meet up!

  • Citrus College (Sept. 10, 2013): “A Feminist Defense of Friendship”
  • Carleton College (Sept. 30, 2013): TBD
  • Macalester College (Oct. 2-3, 2013): TBD
  • Westminster College (Mar.  11, 2014): “‘The Night Overall Wasn’t Bad’: What College Students Really Think About Hooking Up”

Social Media ‘n’ Stuff:

Finally, this is your monthly reminder that SocImages is on TwitterFacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest.  Lisa is on Facebook and most of the team is on Twitter: @lisawade@gwensharpnv@familyunequal@carolineheldman, and @jaylivingston.

In Other News…

I enjoyed a drive to Key West thanks to my mom, Kay West.  It was pretty:

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Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Six years ago today we posted our very first images: a re-touched magazine cover featuring Faith Hill and two almost identical Skyy Vodka ads that appeared in Maxim and Cosmo (hint: it’s in the nipples).

While people often congratulate Gwen and I for coming up with the idea for the blog, we never actually intended the public to read it.  We initially started the site as a place for the two of us to share images that we used in teaching.  The rest is history.

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Thanks to everyone who has visited over the last six years!  Almost 5,000 posts later, you’ve changed our lives and careers in unexpected and delightful ways!

Here are some highlights from the year! All deserving exclamation points!

Here’s to you and here’s to another great year!

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

SocImages News:

I didn’t catch the moment, but suffice to say we reached 25,000 Facebook friends and counting.  Hello to all our friends out there and thanks so much!

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New Logo!

Congratulations to Avery Wagner, Grace Wong, James Dunphy, Letta Page, and Laura Bertocci!  These were the five finalists in our logo contest!  Keep your eyes open for a new logo, currently being polished by Letta and Laura.

Elsewhere on the Net:

Gwen Sharp’s post featuring photographs of Victorian women stoicly breastfeeding their babies struck a nerve! It received over 6,500 likes here, was featured at Jezebel and the Daily Mail, and was cross-posted at the Huffington Post.

I did an unprecedented number of TV/webcast programs this month, appearing on National Geographic’s Taboo, in a Huffington Post Live debate about food stamps, and in a Bloomberg News short on sexual assault on college campuses.

Cross-post highlights!

Nathan Vanderford kindly featured me in his project tracing the career trajectories of people with PhDs. A neat idea offering great perspective!

Finally, I had the pleasure of contributing to stories at CNN, the LA Weekly, The Raw Story, and Opposing Views.  Some of this was ongoing interest in our advice that college students shouldn’t try to follow their dreams.

Upcoming Lectures and Appearances:

I am on sabbatical writing in earnest, but I’d love to use my flexible schedule to do lots of public speaking as well.  Visit my website if you’d be interested in having me.  I’ve already scheduled my first talks for next year: Westminster College in Utah and Macalester College in Minnesota.  Looking forward to it already!

Social Media ‘n’ Stuff:

Finally, this is your monthly reminder that SocImages is on TwitterFacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest.  Lisa is on Facebook and most of the team is on Twitter: @lisawade@gwensharpnv@familyunequal@carolineheldman, and @jaylivingston.

In Other News…

Here’s a picture I took of lava entering the ocean on the big island of Hawaii. I am lucky to have family there and the opportunity to hike out to the flow. It was extraordinary and felt as dangerous as it looks!

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Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Summer means writing!

We’re all breathing a sigh of relief now that the semester is over!  Gwen and I are both looking forward to making lots of progress on writing projects over the summer!  Myra Marx Ferree and I should be finishing our sociology of gender textbook within months and I can hardly wait!

Twitter love:

We reached a milestone on Twitter.  12,000 followers and counting!

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12,000 followers means lots of love!

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We freaking love you too, Eli!

Upcoming lectures and appearances:

I am officially on sabbatical and writing full time, but I’d love to use my flexible schedule to do lots of public speaking as well.   I have great talks on the value of friendship, the biology of sex differencesthe politics of genital cutting and, of course, hook up culture.  And I do a pretty decent AKD induction ceremony/commencement speech.

I’ve already scheduled my first talk for next year. I’ll be part of the Bastian Diversity Lecture Series at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.  Looking forward to it already!

Virtual friends:

We continue to be thrilled to see SocImages’ posts cross-promoted on other sites.  Here are some graduation season-themed highlights of the month:

New Pinterest board on rape culture:

In response to the sudden public interest in sexual violence, we decided to begin a rape culture Pinterest board.  I recommend visiting with a stiff drink in hand.  If you’re sensitive to images of sexual violence, I wouldn’t go at all.

SocImages has 25 Pinterest boards and some of them aren’t horribly depressing!  You can visit our new guide or check out some of our more popular themes: sexy toy make-overswhat color is flesh?gendered housework and parenting“subliminal” sexual symbolism, and violence in fashion.

The national movement against sexual assault:

SocImages continues to follow the national movement to use Title IX to reform sexual assault adjudication on college — and now, rumor has it, middle school and high school — campuses.  Dartmouth, UC Berkeley, and USC, among others, are the most recent schools to file complaints with the federal government.

This month we posted about the role of social networking in the movement and covered the faculty votes of “no confidence” in higher level administrators at Occidental College.  I also had the opportunity to give a 12 minute interview to KPFK about the developments at my campus (you can listen here, starting at 28:30).

Social media:

SocImages is on TwitterFacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest.  Lisa is on Facebook and most of the team is on Twitter: @lisawade@gwensharpnv@familyunequal@carolineheldman, and @jaylivingston.

In other news…

I thought I’d share this nice shot from just after commencement at Occidental College.  To my left and right are two of the professors who have joined with students to lead the national movement against sexual assault: Dr. Caroline Heldman and Dr. Danielle Dirks.  In other words, some badass chicks right there.  Follow them on twitter @carolineheldman and @danielledirks!

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Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

SocImages News:

Updates on Image Guides

We are super excited to have a new Image Guide!  UCLA graduate student Calvin N. Ho has collected and organized our posts on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.  His excellent guide joins our others:

If you’d be interested in writing a guide on one of the other racial/ethnic groups — or on anything at all! — we’d be glad to make it available.  We’re even happy to have duplicate Guides, since every instructor is different.  Analytics show that thousands of professors visit these guides every year, so we’re eager to be able to offer more.

New Pinterest Board

We also have a new Pinterest page: the social construction of flavor.  If you’ve never heard of cucumber Pepsi, celery-flavored JELL-O, seaweed Pringles, whiskey toothpaste, or the delicious combination of ham and jelly, then this board is for you!

We’ve got 24 Pinterest boards, including sexy toy make-overs, what color is flesh?, gendered housework and parenting“subliminal” sexual symbolism, and violence in fashion.  Maggie particularly likes “Women vs. People,” which collects images that expose the fact that men are usually the default human (thanks Maggie!):

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Elsewhere on the Net:

This month SocImages or its authors were quoted in…

Cross-post highlights…

Upcoming Lectures and Appearances:

I go on sabbatical next year to write in earnest, but I’d love to use my flexible schedule to do lots of public speaking as well.  Visit my website if you’d be interested in having me.  I have great talks on the value of friendship, the biology of sex differencesthe politics of genital cutting and, of course, hook up culture.  And I do a pretty decent AKD induction ceremony/commencement speech.

I’ve already scheduled my first talk for next year; I’ll be part of the Bastian Diversity Lecture Series at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.  Looking forward to it already!

Tweets of the Month:

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Aw shucks.

Social Media ‘n’ Stuff:

Finally, this is your monthly reminder that SocImages is on TwitterFacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest.  Lisa is on Facebook and most of the team is on Twitter: @lisawade@gwensharpnv@familyunequal@carolineheldman, and @jaylivingston.

In Other News…

I want to send a shout out to all the great people I met at the University of Akron this month!  Here are two pictures: one of my ascent out of Los Angeles and the other from the airport on my way home, waiting for the white-out to clear.  Oh earth, you play such tricks!

Los Angeles:
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Ohio:

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Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

TODAY WE HAVE THE BEST NEWS EVER!

Sociological Images founder and author and, more importantly, my Best Friend is now tenured!  Congratulations Gwen Sharp!  You are a genius, a damn good person, and you make people laugh.  Nevada State College is incredibly to have you.  Everyone else should follow you on Twitter!

SocImages News:

Tomorrow we’re launching a competition for a new logo.  The top five sketches will receive $50 each and the winner will be invited to work with us to design a polished logo for $500. We hope you can help us spread the invitation far and wide!

Someone liked our post on high heels as a marker of distinction among women enough to cross-post it at Alternet.  Us?  We’re just happy to spread the word of good ol’ Pierre Bourdieu.  In any case, we hope it’s the first of many!

I’m quoted, starting with the phrase “Let’s be frank,” in an article at Bitch about an administrative reluctance to take steps to improve the sexual assault policy at Occidental College and the ongoing efforts to make us a leader in this regard.

Speaking of sex at Oxy, a video recording of my talk on hook up culture at Occidental College is available here.  The sheer enthusiasm of our wonderful students makes up for the bad lighting.  You’re the greatest y’all!

Thanks to PolicyMic, the Huffington Post, and Jezebel for featuring our posts on everything from data on porn stars to vintage baby cages and our fight at Oxy.

Updates on Image Guides:

Sociology doctoral student Calvin Ho put together a set of his favorite SocImages posts about Asian and Asian America.  It’s a great collection and we’re hoping he’ll revise it into an Image Guide.

I organized our a selection of our vintage stuff for Women’s History month and have published it here.

If you are a graduate student or professor who would like to make an Image Guide, we would love to hear from you!  It requires picking a topic, browsing our archives, pulling out the most compelling posts, and arranging them in ways other instructors would find familiar and convenient.  The guides can cover entire courses or be designed to help illustrate a theory, article, or book.  Only the most fabulous sociologists do it.

Upcoming Lectures and Appearances:

The semester is starting to wind down and I enjoyed giving campus-wide talks at Harvard, Queen’s University, Pomona College, and my own lovely Occidental.  Just two more before the semester is up:

  • Apr. 2 — Citrus College — “The Promise and Peril of Hook Up ‘Culture’” (11:30am Handy Campus Center East Wing)
  • Apr. 19 — University of Akron — “Anatomy of an Outrage: Female Genital Cutting and the Politics of Acculturation”; AKD Induction Ceremony Speech

I go on sabbatical next year to write in earnest, but I’d love to use my flexible schedule to do lots of public speaking as well.  Visit my website if you’d be interested in having me.  I have great talks on the value of friendship, the biology of sex differencesthe politics of genital cutting and, of course, hook up culture.  For Akron this year I’m doing an AKD Induction Ceremony Speech.  Who can think of something nice to say about sociology? I can!!!

Tweets that Make Us Blush: 3Thanks Cassie!

Also, may we take a minute to have a giant nerd crush on Shankar Vedantam? He tweeted us twice this month!  TWICE!

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Social Media ‘n’ Stuff:

This is your monthly reminder that SocImages is on TwitterFacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest.  Lisa is on Facebook and, sigh, Google+.  Most of the team is on Twitter: @lisawade@gwensharpnv@familyunequal@carolineheldman, and @jaylivingston.

In Other News…

Gwen Sharp has decided to use the new protection of tenure to start the Cockroach Liberation Front (CLF), dedicating to refurbishing the invertebrate’s image and fighting for their equal rights (recognition and redistribution).

The CLF’s first mission is to oppose the use of the cockroach in scientific experimentation. To that end, they staged a protest at the laboratory of a biologist at a local college, publicly exposing the senseless torture of these sensitive and complicated creatures.

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Sociological Images stands with the CLF. Anyone who likes TV shows and cake is a friend of ours… and they should be a friend of yours too.

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

I just got home from a great visit to Ontario.  A huge “thank you” to the Health, Counseling, and Disability Services folks at Queen’s University. I had such fun sharing my research and learned a lot!

More Talks!

I’m looking forward to going back to Harvard in a couple weeks to give a lecture that’s close to my heart, “A Feminist Defense of Friendship.” It’s got a wonderful message and, equally importantly, it’s the cutest talk I have!  Really!

Then it’s Pomona College on March 27th, the Western Political Science Association the next two days, and the University of Akron for a special Sociology Department Keynote and Commencement Address.  What an honor!  I get to talk about my research on American discourses about “female genital mutilation” and what it can teach us about the future of progressive, multicultural democracies.

Next Year?

This month I got word that I will be on sabbatical next year and I would love to do lots of traveling, so please feel free to consider bringing me out for a visit!  Among the others, I have a new talk I’m dying to work up titled “Hook Up Culture: A History.”  It’s a wild ride through some crazy and surprising American history and explains everything.

New Pinterest Page:

I was inspired by the response to our post on the male neutral — i.e., men and people and women are women (2,000 likes!) — to make it a Pinterest page.  Check out the 48 pins at our Women vs. People board.

In the News:

Speaking of…

On the heels of publishing our post calling out the sexualized insult — e.g., “you suck” — Bess S. sent us the following screenshot.  “Note the headline up top,” she wrote.

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Social Media ‘n’ Stuff:

Finally, this is your monthly reminder that SocImages is on TwitterFacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest.  Lisa is on Facebook and most of the team is on Twitter: @lisawade@gwensharpnv@familyunequal@carolineheldman, and @jaylivingston.

Tweet of the Month:

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Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.