This ad reminds women that they need to get their bodies ready before Rehab–and no, not that kind of rehab; it’s a big party being put on here in Vegas. Without new boobs, you simply won’t be “ready”–i.e., attractive enough–for this event. This could be useful as a really extreme case of ads that try to make people feel inadequate and provide a solution in the form of a product or service.

And as far as I can tell, what you’re supposed to be “ready” for is to be sexually available–she’s pulling her bikini bottom down and has a seductive look on her face.

Also, notice the doctor is having a “buy one, get the second 1/2 off” special if you bring in a friend. So women should encourage each other to feel uncomfortable about their bodies.

From Las Vegas Weekly.

I have a feeling this ad is not meant for lesbians (the other half of the page showed a half-naked woman; both were for mainstream, non-lesbian-oriented clubs). This might be useful for discussing different attitudes toward gays and lesbians–it is difficult to imagine an ad of two men kissing aimed at straight women. In this case, women kissing is not about THEIR sexual pleasure, but about that of the audience–presumably straight men. The assumption accompanying images such as these, of course, is that the women are not actually lesbians–they’ll still be sexually available to men. This is another difference in cultural views of gays and lesbians–lesbians’ sexual orientation is often doubted (they just need to find the right man) in a way gay men’s usually isn’t.

From Las Vegas Weekly.

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!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1LPf9mnyU[/youtube]

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.!

Jeff G. sent in links to several articles about the game, if you’re interested. Here’s one with the director, and here’s an article about a British government censorship agency officially ruling the game isn’t racist.

NEW! Ryan sent in an image of a character from the game:

Ryan points out it’s another example of non-White women being portrayed as exotic or animalistic. Thanks for the image!

Thanks to Alicia T. for sending us the link!

UPDATE: According to Tim at Ad Freak, the model in this photograph, ex-Miss Universe contestant Erin McNaught, was not pleased with the copy added to her image. Tim wrote:

[She said:] “I wasn’t thrilled with what that line was implying,” she says. The vineyard has stopped short of apologizing, saying it e-mailed all of the campaign’s lines to McNaught—and never heard back. McNaught says she was traveling and didn’t see the e-mails until it was too late. “You know, she is a bit of a cheeky thing,” says a Cockatoo rep. “But we certainly did not want to harm her image or ours.”

See the news story here.

In this nine and a half minute clip, Tim Wise describes the way in which race was invented by elites in early America in order to divide and conquer the working class… and is still used to do so.

Found here via Alas A Blog.

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.

Miguel in Barcelona sent us this government-sponsored poster aimed at promoting egalitarian relationships. He translates the text as:

The love has to be free
Free of machismo
Free of fights
Free of jealousy

This image, as a representation of idealized egalitarian love, is a nice contrast to the representations of love common in the U.S. (and in Spain?) that make power asymmetry sexy, desirable, and constitutive of love. Consider the love affair between this apple and pear and these two images (which look more like the fruit than Miguel’s image above):

Thanks to Miguel for sending us our first image from Spain!>

The new virgin/whore dichotomy: We should be both! But at different times, of course.

Text:

Color me naughty. Color me nice. MAXalicious naughty & nice gloss collection. Naughty or nice? Virtue or vice? Here’s a gloss for both sides of you. The MAXalicious Gloss Collection features naughty or nice shades, available in two finishes. Collect them all to express your dueling personalities.

See also this post about the virgin/whore dichotomy.