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.

In response to Condoleeza Rice’s comments that contemporary racial relations reflect an American “birth defect,” Lou Dobbs offered a dismissive monologue in which he tried to deny that there is really any problem to talk about. In a truly beautiful moment of irony, he accidentally lets slip a good part of the slur “cotton-pickin’” in reference to Black leaders.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y0W19-N3Ik[/youtube]

* Title stole from Jessica’s post over at feministing.

Also awesomely ironic: Dr. Watson is more black than most.