…and more in this 3-minute TED talk by Derek Sivers, sent in by AJ S.   As AJ points out, the examples show that “…just because something is different doesn’t mean it is not logical in context.”

• Suffragettes Delay Thanksgiving Dinner
• Holding Women Responsible for Holidays (pictured)
• Thanksgiving Poca-Hotness
• The Happiest Day of the Year!

In this vintage ad, smoking tobacco is linked with a (rewritten) Thanksgiving history:

See also our vintage ads marketing cigarettes with Christmas.

From Vintage Ads.

The Centers for Disease Control report that pregnancy rates for U.S. girls age 15-19 vary quite significantly by state: from 66/1,000 in Mississippi to 20/1,000 in New Hampshire (dark and light green represent states with teen pregnancy rates lower than the U.S. average; dark and light purple represent states in which it is higher):

The map shows that, on average, southern states tend to have higher teen pregnancy rates than others.

The Centers for Disease Control reports that the disparity can be explained, in part, by the fact that Blacks and Latinos tend to have higher rates of teen pregnancy than other racial groups such that states with higher proportions of Blacks and Latinos would have higher rates.  However, rates among different racial/ethnic populations also vary quite tremendously by state.  Among white teenagers the teen pregnancy rate ranged from 4/1,000 (in the District of Columbia) to 55/1,000 (in Mississippi), among Black teenagers, it ranged from 17/1,000 (in Hawaii) to 95/1,000 (in Wisconsin), and among Latinas it ranged from 31/1,000 (in Maine) to 188/1,000 (in Alabama).

Race, then, doesn’t predict differences in rates of teen pregnancy all by itself.  In fact, White teenagers are more likely to get pregnant in some states than Black and Latina teenagers in others.  There must be something region- or state-specific driving teen pregnancy rates.

The CDC doesn’t mention sex education, but Mike Lillis at The Hill compared teen pregnancy rates to a sex education policy report by the Guttmacher Institute.  He writes:

All five states with the highest teen birth rates have adopted policies requiring that abstinence be stressed when taught as part of sex education, HIV education or both, the group found. Only one of the five states (New Mexico) mandates that sex education be a part of students’ curriculum.

Of the four states with the lowest teen birth rates, none requires that abstinence be stressed to students, according to Guttmacher.

For your perusal, the CDC data, by state and race (# of pregnancies/1,000 girls 15-19):

Hat tip to Annie Shields at Ms. magazine.

Elizabeth McM. sent in this Life magazine ad from 1936 in which Camel cigarettes are argued to facilitate digestion.  Accordingly, you should smoke at least one between every course!  The ad (text below):

I am hard pressed to imagine that such an ad would fly today.  That these ads would not only be un-palatable, but impermissible, is evidence that the power of corporations is not absolute.

Text:

Thanksgiving Dinner… and then the peaceful feeling that comes from good digestion and smoking Camels!

OFF TO A GOOD START — with hot spiced tomato soup.  And then–for digestion’s sake–smoke a Camel right after the soup.

THE MAIN EVENT — The time-honoured turkey of our forefathers–done to a crisp and golden brown–and flanked by a mountain of ruby cranberry jelly.  By all means enjoy a second helping.  But before you do–smoke another Camel.  Camels ease tension.  Speed up the flow of digestive fluids.  Increase alkalinity.  Help your digestion to run smoothly.

DOUBLE PAUSE — First–for the crisp refreshment of a Waldorf Salad–then–once again, for the sheer pleasure of Camel’s costlier tobaccos.  This double pause clears the palate–and sets the stage for desert.

WHAT WILL YOU HAVE FOR DESSERT? Reading in a circle, there’s luscious Pumpkin Pie… Mince Pie a la mode… layer cake with inch-deep icing… a piping-hot Plum Pudding… and Camels to add the final touch of comfort and good cheer.  For when digestion proceeds smoothly,  you experience a sense of ease and well-being.

SO TO A HAPPY ENDING — over coffee and your after-dinner Camels.  Enjoy Camels–every mealtime–between courses and after eating–and you can lean back in your chair feeling on top of the world.

FOOD EDITOR — Miss Dorothy Malone says: “It’s smart to have Camels on the table.  My own personal experience is that smoking Camels with my meals and afterwards builds up a sense of digestive well-being.”

“THE BEST MEAL I ever ate would be a disappointment if I coldn’t enjoy Camels,” says William H. Ferguson, salesman. “I smoke Camels as an aid to digestion.  There’s nothing like Camel’s to set you right.”

Good food and good tobacco go together naturally!

Right down the line–from explorers living on “iron rations” to the millions of men and women who’ll heartily enjoy a big Thanksgiving dinner–it is agreed that Camels set you right!  You enjoy more food more and have a feeling of greater ease after eating when you smoke Camels between courses and after meals.

Enjoy Camels all you wish–all through the day.  Camel’s costlier tobaccos as supremely mild.  Steady smokers say that Camel’s never tire the taste or get on the nerves.  And when you’re tired, try this: get a “lift” with a Camel!

COSTLIER TOBACCOS

Camels are made from finer, MORE EXPENSIVE TOBACCOS . . . Turkish and Domestic . . . than any other popular brand.

FOR DIGESTION’S SAKE — SMOKE CAMELS

Black women and Latinas are more likely to die from breast cancer than white women.  This is, in part, because white women are more likely to have health insurance.  New research, however, illustrated by Philip Cohen at Family Inequality, suggests that even we control for types of insurance and whether women are insured, black women and especially Latinas wait longer than white women for a diagnosis of cancer after the discovery of a breast abnormality:

The authors of the study, Heather Hoffman and colleagues, did not attempt to explain the cause of the disparity.

See also our posts on racial disparities in life expectancy for people with Down’s Syndrome, rates of asthma, and kidney failure.

Amanda S. sent in a great example of the assumption that only women care for children, this one from a government agency. The photograph is of a section of the California Department of Motor Vehicles Driver’s Manual. It specifies that one might want to give a little bit of extra street-crossing time to older people, disabled people, and “women with young children” (apparently dads are never in public with their children… or else they hurry those slowpokes right along):

What I like about this example, in particular, is that it shows that gendered assumptions about parenting (mostly the assumption that women do it) isn’t just something that advertisers and other cultural producers do, it is also reflected in official government business. And, while this mistake doesn’t have any concrete consequences, if it is easy for this sort of thing to go unnoticed in this context, you could imagine it going unnoticed in materials that do, in fact, affect public policy.

Anita Sarkeesian, at Feminist Frequency, starts from the beginning.  How is contemporary advertising to children gendered today?  And why does it matter?  With a special discussion of girls and technology.  Enjoy:

(Transcript after the jump.)

Transcript

Song: “I’m a Barbie girl in a fab world”

I recently spent some time watching afternoon cartoons on Nickelodeon and the Cartoon network, and look what I found.

“Nerf’s N-Strike arsenal has a specialized blaster for any mission”
“4 Ever Kidz pets. It’s snap on fashion play”
“Dirt, mud, we don’t care. These trucks go almost anywhere”
“…Barbie girls and we’re making the scene. Our jammin’ jeep wrangler is one glam machine”

Holy crap! What is going on here!?

Clearly it’s been a while since I’ve raced home after school to watch cartoons but I was amazed how highly gendered these commercials were. Have they changed or did I just not notice them before?

The messages being promoted in these commercials are deeply restricting and severely limit the development of boys and girls in different ways. The ads are actively demonstrating that boys and girls have different social roles and skills that are highly stereotyped and just outright sexist. So let’s take a closer look at ads targeted directly at boys.

“Battleground. Prepare to attack. Fire”
“Whose gonna win? Whose gonna win? YA”
“Arc light powered up. 3 in 1 repulser. Ready for action.”
“Close combat pistol. Rapid fire blaster”
“Always ready for action, G.I. Joe. Are you in?”
“Defend the castle! Imaginx Adventure”

Boys have power and get to be active and destroy things, YA!  These commercials directed at boys value competition, being in control, having power, and conquering and commanding. Those values restrict the acceptable options for what boys are allowed to express emotionally, I’ve yet to see a commercial where see boys being nurturing or caring.  They are limited in examples of how to react to problems and how to solve conflicts. They are taught to fight, to be competitive and to be aggressive.

I noticed that there are also a few other reoccuring messages embedded in ads targeted at boys.

“Bat cave building power. Trio building system lets you build the ultimate Trio bat cave. YA!”
“You can build the massive Neptune sub.”
“You can build up and customize your heavy duty truck with tons of parts”
“You decide how much firepower to arm your ships with then build your fleet and battle your way to victory.”

These ads encourage boys to build new worlds, use their imaginations and be creative. They are actively making and constructing.  These are the training blocks for creative and fulfilling adult lives.  The confidence that is fostered through the act of making and building and doing is something that is almost entirely lacking in girl’s toys commercials.

“The Liv girls have a flair for hair”
“I can make my own magic snow”
“Change the colour, change the style, ad the gel and look at the glitter”
“The easy way to make designer cakes. Bake your cake in the microwave in 30 seconds.”
“… beauty of the bride, share the gown and light up ring, handsome groom and everything”
“Go Go with me we’re walking round, Go Go with me we’ve hit the town.”
“Baby alive is so real, you can feed her. ‘I made a stinky.’ And then she leaves an uh-oh in her diaper.”

So girls get to play with sparkly glitter and bake cakes and changing stinky diapers, how fun! Commercials targeted at girls heavily focus on teaching child rearing, homemaking, domestic work, popularity, self image and an obsession with beauty. This restricts their imagination of what women are capable of and prioritizes appearance over intelligence.  They are not encouraged to be creative, to build and construct and really take control of there environments.  Girl’s toys are generally unimaginative and lack the creative element of play that is critical in the development of young people.

We can see this even in the way the same basic product is marketed differently to boys and girls.

“Moon Sand is the amazing moldable, squishable, buildable, demolishable sand that never dries out.”
“Moon Sand is the amazing moldable, holdable, decoratable sand that never dries out.”

Clearly this isn’t a coincidence since advertisers spend $17 BILLION dollars a year marketing to youth. That’s billion, with a ‘B’.  Young people are seeing more than 25,000 advertisements a year on television alone, and that doesn’t even include product placement which is so common on popular television shows. The enormous amount of money advertisers are spending isn’t just on producing and airing ads, it’s also spent on the latest neuroscience research to find out EXACTLY what images, feelings and representations will appealing the most to developing minds.

Although many factors influence our socialization such as family, peer groups, churches and schools, the media plays a highly critical role.  Advertising aimed at youth is especially dangerous because young children are unable to differentiate between television programming and commercials, they are still developing the necessary critical skills.

Youth may have a hard time recognizing that these commercials are teaching them what is expected, what is desired and what is possible for their genders, for their careers, for love, relationships and creative endeavors in the future.  These messages are so manipulative, deeply embedded and carefully crafted that it’s even hard for us as adults to recognize them.

As someone whose really interested in promoting and encouraging the use of technology in young women, I found a stark difference in the way technology is marketed to boys and girls.  Girls get a fun little purple computer that’s “hot” or a program that can help them cook and look pretty.

“It’s the Bratz laptop with over 100 games, you can have fun learning.  It’s fun, smart and hot.”
“In my fashion mall, make pizzas, do makeovers and more, and throw the ultimate pajama party.”

Whereas boys get to go online and play adventure games.

“Become a pirate and join thousands online. Captain your ship and command the sea.”
“Now you can be the hero and join your friends in an epic online adventure.”

One of the reasons that the gender specific marketing of technology is so concerning is when we look at the statistics of adult women in technology fields. Only 3% of open source programmers are women and only 11.5% of video game developers are women.

Although as I stated, there are many factors that affect the jobs and careers people enter, it is not hard to connect gendered advertising at such a young age to the socialization of women who don’t feel confident or supported within heavily male dominated and male identified tech fields.

I was originally going to say that “We need to hold the media accountable for what they are teaching our young people” but no, really, advertising directed specifically at young people needs to STOP altogether, no exceptions.  A precedent has already been set to implement these types of restrictions. Quebec has banned print and broadcast advertisements for youth under the age of 13 and Sweden has banned advertisements for youth under the age of 12.

In the mean time we need to encourage critical media literacy skills in people of all ages. I’ll leave you with an amazing remix created by some female youth at Reel Grrls during a workshop with Jonathan McIntosh. They were able to actively resist these harmful media messages and really begin to talk back to the media by simply swapping the audio and video of gendered commercial.  The results are hilarious and very illuminating.

“Nerf’s N-Strike arsenal has a specialized blaster for any mission.  You can improve your blasting speed with the maverick rapid fire blaster.  While the night fighters night beam targeting system allows for pin point accuracy.  And you can nail targets from long distance with Nerf’s long shot blaster.  Two blasters in one, quick fire clips and detachable scope, everything you need to blast your skills to the next level.  N-Strike, blaster sold separately, batteries not included. Nerf.”