Tressie McMillan Cottom (Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina’s School of Information and Library Science) appeared on The Opinions–a New York Times podcast–discussing the role of masculinity and messages about gender in the Trump administration. Following Trump blaming a recent plane crash on D.E.I. initiatives, Cottom commented: “I actually think that D.E.I. in that context, while it sort of primed some racial energies, it was really doing its most effective work as a broad dismissal of women. I think one of the reasons that works is because we worked really hard — especially in the last like 15 years — to develop and deepen the repertoire that Americans have to talk about race and racism. I will be honest with you, I’m not sure that we did as good a job of developing that capacity when it came to gender.” Cottom also commented on how strongman politics works “by giving people a scapegoat, giving men a scapegoat — is that it says not only are women the enemy, are people of color and minorities the enemy, but the government is protecting them.” Strongman politics thus facilitate delegitimization of the government.
Yolande Strengers (Digital Sociologists and Professor of Human Centered Computing at Monash University) appeared on Switched On Australia to discuss the energy industries flawed assumptions of consumer behavior and her work on the Digital Energy Futures project. Strengers commented that the energy industry expects consumers to act like ‘mini-economists’ or ‘mini-engineers,’ thinking of their households as a market. However, Strengers examines daily household practices and motivations, finding that consumers often think of energy as a means of comfort and entertainment, or a way to care for others.
The Credits interviewed Brazilian sociologist Ana Paula Sousa (Film Professor at the Higher School of Advertising and Marketing in São Paulo) about I’m Still Here, a film about a family living during the period of military dictatorship in 1970s Brazil. Sousa commented that the film “exposed the roots of our violence – social, institutional and physical. For a long time, we have been shrouded in the haze of the idea that we’re a country of parties, of joy, of the “way things are” and fed by the illusion that we’re the “country of the future.” I’m Still Here shows that perhaps we are still the “country of the past,” in the sense that we need to deal with our old problems, including torture and slavery.”
Bonnie Zare (Professor of Sociology at Virginia Tech) spoke to the Irish Star about the cultural relevance of The Substance, a modern body horror film. “I feel the movie is able to capture this feeling that we’re constantly under scrutiny, that we’re constantly trying to do the impossible, which is get rid of our imperfections, and this sort of self loathing that would accompany that that we’re not talking about,” Zare said. She described the film as a great teaching example of “how we can start to question the norms around us and the policing and disciplining of our bodies, hair and faces.”
Matthew Desmond (Professor of Sociology at Princeton University) appeared on The Daily Show, discussing American poverty and ways to address it and build worker power in the U.S. economy. “I think a lot of us do benefit from poverty in ways we don’t realize,” Desmond commented. “We soak the poor in the labor market or the housing market. We continue to have a government that gives the most to families that need it the least, by subsiding affluence instead of fighting poverty. We continue to live in segregated lives. A lot of us are connected to that problem, but it also means we’re connected to the solution.”
Singapore Management University ran a story on EurekaAlert! featuring Jacqueline Ho’s (Assistant Professor of Social Science at Singapore Management University) work on parents’ perceptions of inequalities in the Singaporean education system. Ho explained: “I find that what the ‘Every School a Good School’ rhetoric is doing is, not so much convincing parents that every school is worthy in its own way, but more that it’s comforting to parents who can’t compete. It’s helping parents to exit the competition with more peace of mind, and less sense of guilt about whether they’re making the right choice for their kid.”
On a recent episode of Normal Gossip, Kelsey McKinney (Author and Journalist) discusses her new book, You Didn’t Hear This From Me, and how she thinks about the functions of gossip. “I was reading a lot of studies by sociologists, and one thing that they talk about a lot is that we use gossip as a tool not only to understand our society, but to understand ourselves,” McKinney said. “So it’s like when I’m talking to you about something I might surprise myself by, like, and instinct that I have or someone I think is a villain in your story and realize, “Oh, this is a like, underlying bias that I have in my life.””
