Archive: 2012

I have just what you were wishing for: an overview of the electoral college. Yooooor welcome.

Also from CGP Gray:

• A Case Against the Penny
• What the Bleep is the United Kingdom?!
• The Economics of Royalty
• The Social Construction of the Continents

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.

At the Washington Post, John Cohen and Rosalind Helderman report:

The 2012 election is shaping up to be more polarized along racial lines than any presidential contest since 1988, with President Obama experiencing a steep drop
in support among white voters from four years ago.

They compare data from a recent poll with exit interviews from 2004 and 2008.  The results show that, while Obama is overwhelmingly the favorite among non-whites, he trails him among whites by 23 percentage points.

Cohen and Helderman say that Obama has lost support among whites even just recently.  Meanwhile, a whopping 91% of Romney supporters are believed to be white. We are, truly, a deeply divided nation.

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.

Larry Harnisch, of L.A.’s The Daily Mirror, let us know that 4th Estate analyzed the racial and ethnic breakdown of reporters covering the presidential election for 38 major print media outlets. The analysis included front-page articles published between January 1st and October 12th of this year.

Here’s the key for all of the following images:

For every major topic, the overwhelming majority of front-page articles were written by non-Hispanic Whites, while racial/ethnic minorities were underrepresented compared to the overall U.S. population:

Major newspapers varied in the diversity of those writing their feature articles. The Dallas Morning News was the most diverse, with a particularly large percentage (18.8) of front-page stories written by African American reporters. The San Francisco Chronicle had the least diversity; 100% of its feature political stories were written by White non-Hispanics:

Overall, 93% of the feature articles analyzed in the database were written by White non-Hispanics, 4% by Asian Americans, about 2% by African Americans, and less than 1% by Hispanics. Compare that with each group’s proportion of the overall U.S. population:

These numbers clearly matter in terms of career opportunities and exposure for minorities within the industry. But they also should concern us readers. What does the lack of diversity mean in terms of the issues covered, the political contacts and average-Joe-voters spoken to, the topics seen as important enough to cover?

Also see our earlier post on the gender of those quoted in news stories about the election.

Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.

Amie G. sent along a five minute documentary in which a series of artists and entrepreneurs talk about why the Day of the Dead has become so popular in parts of the United States.

While they don’t discuss issues of cultural appropriation (like at Halloween), they have some interesting things to say about why it is so appealing to a broad audience. A professor of Art History, Ray Hernández Durán, for example, traces it to the growing Latino demographic, the way media has changed, and a history of the U.S. being open to cultural influence.

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

SocImages News:

It’s been a busy month at SocImages!

Gwen’s photographs of a small town in her native Oklahoma were featured in a Business Insider photo-essay about the economic aftermath of an oil boom.  It’s pretty great!

Some of our Halloween archives informed a Huffington Post Parents slideshow about the changing nature of costumes: “from silly to sexy.”  They quote me using the word “extremification,” so that was fun.  And I was pleased to be a part of a piece on race and Halloween costumes at USA Today.

We put together a Halloween-themed Pinterest page, so you can peruse our entire collection of images and click through to our posts if you like.  Browser beware!

Finally, I was part of a CNN radio story about the pressure young people are under to make themselves desirable college applicants: The Teenage Pressure Cooker (listen).

And I did a segment for the Los Angeles NBC affiliate about sexy Halloween costumes.  I don’t say much of note, but I did manage to say that Halloween was a “gender display ritual,” even for kids and that it a lot in common with a high school prom.  I also do an awkward stride through the Occidental College library.  Ah, local news.  :)

Upcoming Lectures and Appearances:

I have three talks scheduled for Spring so far. If you’re in Boston or Akron, I’d love to schedule a meet up!

• Western Political Science Association (Hollywood, CA, Mar. 28-30): panels on “Public Intellectualism” and the “Twenty-First Century Sex Wars”
• Harvard University (Women’s Week, Mar. 8-14): “A Feminist Defense of Friendship”
• University of Akron (Apr. 19): “Anatomy of an Outrage: Female Genital Cutting and the Politics of Acculturation”

Social Media ‘n’ Stuff:

Finally, this is your monthly reminder that SocImages is on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest.  We’re inching up towards 20,000 followers on Facebook, so that’s pretty exciting!

I’m on Facebook too, and most of the team is on Twitter: @lisadwade, @gwensharpnv, @familyunequal, @carolineheldman, @jaylivingston, and @wendyphd.

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.

A few years back I posted an photograph of two costumes side-by-side: labeled “Beer Man” and “Beer Girl.”  I wrote that the practice of using “man” alongside “girl” “reinforces a gender hierarchy by mapping it onto age.”  We see this outside of a Halloween context too, like in this vintage ad for pens.

Sara P. found another example, this time from iparty.  The flyer puts a girl and a boy side-by-side in police officer costumes.  The boy’s is labeled “policeman” and the girl’s is labeled “police girl.”

This phenomenon is an example of just how mundane and ubiquitous gender messages can be.

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.

It’s officially a tradition.  Here is our annual post featuring sexy costumes that we think are just… bizarre.  When sexy “overtakes all reason,” you can sexualize just about anything.

Sexy snowy owl:

Sexy gnome:

Sexy macaw:

Sexy tootsie roll:

Sexy skunk:

Sexy Ernie(submitted by Chrissy Y.):

Sexy  hamburger:

Sexy Chinese take-out:

Costumes from Party City, Halloween Express, and Yandy.

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.

As evidence of how mainstream and taken-for-granted dressing up like Native Americans for Halloween (not to mention as a general fashion trend) is, Kari sent in this photo of a costume store, where Native American is a sufficiently popular costume category that it deserves prominent signage:

Via Yo, Is This Racist?

Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.