In thinking about this map, remember that obesity is a social construction and the Body Mass Index (upon which this map is based) is a controversial measure. See this really interesting flickr collection of people posing with their BMI scores.
I am curious as to your guesses as to what might cause this variation. I know that obesity is related to poverty (because healthy food is more expensive and more difficult to find than unhealthy food). Any other guesses?
Click here to watch a 1 1/2 minute segment about Dr. Matlock and vaginoplasty. It’s TOTALLY SURREAL. (And not safe for work.)
Also, and this drives me crazy, the proper term is “vulva,” not “vagina.” To call the whole thing a vagina reduces women’s genitals to where the penis goes in/baby comes out. There is a lot more going on down there!
In her famous video, Killing Us Softly, Jean Kilbourne mentions that women are often told to let their appearance “do the talking.” And, in another post, we’ve talked about how women are encouraged to do anything, as long as they look good doing it. Which brings me to this page from this month’s Seventeen:
Text:
Make a big impression! On the first day of school, tell everyone about yourself without saying a word: Just pick the look that makes the right statement for you!
And:
17 Tip: To make your eyes look really open and awake [I guess ’cause class is boring and you were out late partying last night?], line both your top and bottom lash lines with gold shadow.
And:
Focused! Subtle shadow lets people know you’re serious about school.
Jezebel reviews this month’s Seventeen magazine, chock full of anxiety-inspiring questions that all essentially translate into: “Are you sure you’re good enough?”
NEW (Jan ’10)! Helene V. sent in these two Danish ads for Cult. In addition to potentially encouraging you to use alcohol to get sex, do you see the splooge halo around the bottles?
NEW (Mar. ’10)! Dmitriy T.M. sent in this flyer advertising a techno party:
ALSO NEW! (Mar. ’10): Kristyn G. sent us this commercial for an Australian internet company, which was pulled from the air after compaints (found at the Daily Telegraph):
This Korean ad for a newspaper nicely illustrates the social constructedness of “breakfast” food. That is, that there is nothing inherently a.m. about eggs, bacon, or toast. But coffee, well that’s another story.
Text:
The smell of coffee? The taste of your favorite breakfast? Whatever wakes you up… have it with The Korea Times!
Like many ads on this blog, this Australian commercial threatens men with a loss of masculinity if they don’t obey the rules. But this time, instead of punishing men if they are not stereotypically masculine (i.e, men should not know about ballet, hug or sit improperly, drink the wrong drink, go to the bathroom together, smell like flowers, or eat tofu), this ad punishes men when they are stereotypically masculine. But, at the same time that the ad attempts to redefine masculinity, it maintains the stringency of the rules and the consequences of breaking them. (Also see here for a postsecret about the pressures of following masculinity rules.)
Remember when FOX News first got all entertain-y and we were all horrified by how unprofessional it was and then, next thing we knew, even CNN was all entertain-y and it was the beginning of the end?
Well, apparently, like all news went the way of FOX, all men’s hygiene product companies are going the way of Axe. Consider this Edge commercial (and compare it to the first Axe commercial in this post):
Sociological Images encourages people to exercise and develop their sociological imaginations with discussions of compelling visuals that span the breadth of sociological inquiry. Read more…
