Dmitriy T.M. sent us a link to Jezebel’s analysis of the inclusion of models of color at New York fashion weeks.  The post author, Jenna, begins:

…in the fall of 2007 that fully one-third of shows in New York had 100% white casts. Two years later, we calculated that 18% of spots in show lineups were booked by models of color — a real improvement in the representation of black, Latina, and Asian faces in the crucible where the beauty standard is forged.

This season, fashion took a step back.

…

Of 4,095 turns on the runway, only 662 went to models who weren’t white. That’s barely 16%.

More:

Most of the shows that took place used some models of color — just three designers, A Détacher, Alice + Olivia (full disclosure: an old client of mine), and Preen, chose exclusively white casts — but many used very few. Well over 60% of the shows, in fact, used casts that were 85% white, or more.

Most of the shows that took place used some models of color — just three designers, A Détacher, Alice + Olivia (full disclosure: an old client of mine), and Preen, chose exclusively white casts — but many used very few. Well over 60% of the shows, in fact, used casts that were 85% white, or more.

More details on the data, and the models, at Jezebel.

Mihai L. sent in a Romanian commercial for wafers that suggests that women have been slowing down progress and re-writing history since the cavewoman days!

With subtitles:

Claire P. and Jessica Sherwood, of the Sociologists for Women in Society, sent in a link to some data, from OK Cupid, on women’s preferences for frequency of sex by county.  The uptake: Women’s preferences for the incidence of sex goes up as they age.  You can check out the interactive map, or just check out my screen shots below.

Preferences at age 20 (red = higher preference for once a week; blue = higher preference for once a day; white = in the middle):

Preferences at age 25:

Preferences at age 30:

Preferences at age 35:

Preferences at age 40:

Also from OK Cupid: the racial politics of dating, what women want, and men’s preference for younger women.

Dmitriy T.M. reminded me of this classic performance of the song “America” from a classic American musical, West Side Story (1961; it won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture).  The song features white New Yorkers and Puerto Rican immigrants debating about the benefits of living in America.  The “streets paved with gold” mythology is articulated by the women at the same time that the white men remind them that they face racism and poverty.

Also, Rita Moreno is awesome:

UPDATE: Commenter Jesse W. says,

…as a theater nerd, I wanted to point out it’s not a debate between white New Yorkers and Puerto Ricans, I think you just get that impression from the bad casting. They’re all supposed to be Puerto Rican; it’s more of a battle of the sexes between the men who wanted to stay in the old country and the women who wanted to come to America.

And Laura says,

…the women are arguing with the men that America is great, and they prefer it to Puerto Rico, and the men are arguing that America is racist and oppressive.

Fun Fact #1: Female figure skaters are required to wear skirts and men must wear “full-length trousers: no tights.”

Note: This isn’t true anymore; “this rule was repealed in 2004, allowing women to wear tights, trousers, or unitards” (http://www.frogsonice.com/skateweb/faq/rules.shtml)

Sonja Henie, of Norway, is credited with introducing the short skirt to women’s figure skating.  She won gold medals in 1928, ’32, and ’36:

According to Abigail Feder, in her article ” ‘A Radiant Smile from the Lovely Lady’: Overdetermined Femininity in ‘Ladies’ Figure Skating”, the International Skating Union (ISU) introduced a rule requiring that women wear skirts after they were scandalized by Debi Thomas’ unitard at the 1988 Olympics:

(source)

An NPR slide show explains:

Today, according to the ISU, figure skating’s governing body, “Ladies must wear a skirt. The Ladies dress must not give the effect of excessive nudity inappropriate for an athletic sport. Men must wear full-length trousers: no tights are allowed and the man’s costume may not be sleeveless.”

So, just to be clear, the performance of femininity and masculinity, as defined by the ISU, is required if one is to be a competitive figure skater… all skills aside.

—————————–

Fun Fact #2: People used to make their costumes by hand; today they are high fashion.

The 1976 Olympics were the last in which figure skating costumes were mostly handmade.  Here Dorothy Hamill competes in a costume her mother made for $75:

Today, costumes frequently cost thousands of dollars.    Michelle Kwan and Nancy Kerrigan both competed in Vera Wang (who, in 2009, was inducted in the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame for her designs).  Kerrigan:

Katrin noticed something interesting about the coverage of the Farmer’s Weekly competition for Britain’s sexist male and female farmer, Pete Mortimore and Anna Simpson.

The coverage focused almost exclusively on Simpson.

She writes:

Of the (so far) 12 newspapers mentioning this, 11 focus solely on Anna Simpson: She’s the only one mentioned in the article’s title, there are huge pictures of her, videos of her and there is NO picture of Pete Mortimore, he is barely mentioned at all, never in the title (in some of the texts there is a half sentence in the middle of the article mentioning him: “Pete Mortimore, 25, has been voted Britain’s sexiest male farmer”, but that’s ALL).

For example, the Telegraph:

More examples of the focus on Simpson include the following headlines:

Blonde is UK’s Sexiest Farmer (the Sun)

Blonde Named Sexiest Female Farmer (UPI)

Welly-Wearing Blonde Named UK’s Hottest Farmer (GardenXL)

The Barnyard Beauty… UK’s Sexiest Farmer (Express)

Katrin continues:

The single exception, which has a tiny picture of him, is his own local newspaper.

Katrin thinks this is a great example of the way that the straight, male gaze shapes news coverage.  The coverage in these newspapers, ostensibly for both male and female, gay and straight readers, nevertheless covered the competition as if all of the readers are primarily, or only, interested in the hot chick.

Stan S. sent us a recent research report by Economist Kent Gilbreath.  He presents data illustrating gender differences in the starting salaries of college graduates with different majors, as well as data on the way in which gender differences have changed between 1998 and 2008.  The findings are in the direction you might expect, but with quite a bit of variation!

First, Gilbreath summarizes the data.  Of all of the majors he surveyed, males have higher starting salaries 63% of the time; women have higher starting salaries in the remaining 37%:

Here are the details by major; net differences (far right column), when positive, reflect how much more money men are making than woman and, when negative, reflect how much more money women are making than men (the variation is quite amazing!):

And here’s the data for the sciences, though the format is off:

Gilbreath then looks at change in the gender difference between 1998 and 2008.  Again, a summary shows that, in 58% of the cases, men’s advantage over women is growing and, in the remaining 42%, women’s advantage is growing:

The details show which majors have shown a better growth rate for men or women.  A positive average annual growth rate (far right column) is a gain for men over women and a negative one is a gain for women over men.

This is great data because it shows that, overall, men receive higher starting salaries than women, and their advantage is growing, but the advantage that accrues to men is not even.  It depends, very much, on what their major is.

Anyone see any interesting trends or have any stories from the field?

Nathaniel Rogers of The Film Experience tracked down the age at which all Oscar winners in the Academy’s 82 year history won their awards.  He found that men who won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor were typically in their 30s and 40s.  In contrast, women who won were typically in their 20s or 30s.

Men:

Women:

Looking at it another way, 55% of the women who have been awarded Oscars were 35 and under, whereas only 14% of men were the same:

Perhaps we’re seeing an age bias in award nomination and granting.  It’s reasonable to expect that older actors would be much more likely to win awards, given all their years of experience acting.  But this is not what we see for women or men.  Alternatively, there is an age bias in casting such that the only men and women available for an award are in these age groups.  Disaggregating the data by decade might also reveal some interesting patterns or trends that are invisible in this data.  There is, then, much room for speculation.