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.

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.

This image demonstrates the disproportionality in the marriage market across the United States (found here). Basically, if you’re a single, heterosexual woman on the west coast or a single, heterosexual man in the New York area, you’re in luck!

NEW! This map is now available in an interactive form in which you can choose which age group to look at.  Below I’ve pasted in screen shots of my current dating pool (30-45) and what I have to look forward to (yikes!).  Click here to interact with the map yourself.

This figure demonstrates the shift from an economy dominated by manufacturing, to one dominated by information and services. As I understand it, it is this shift that is driving the shrinking of the middle class.

Image borrowed from http://www.whosyourcity.com/.

Then:

Then:

Now:

Thanks to Jason for sending along the first “then”!

It seems the food-and-sex-themed images just won’t stop coming! In these astroglide ads, women (and men?) are nothing but a slick, tasty slit and hole (found here):

And Andrew sent these Puma ads (found here) (look closely):

NEW (Feb. ’10)! Софи А. sent along a similar ad campaign:

Also in sexualized food: mustard and ketchup are sexy, do you desire white meat?, hot dog!, and a whole slew of examples.