Rachel M. sends us this story: The cover for the 1976 Scorpions album “Virgin Killer” apparently not considered problematic enough for censorship at the time, was pulled from a Wikipedia webpage for being “a potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18.” The image, included after the jump, features a naked prepubescent girl in a provocative pose:
Search results for disney
These ads, for a “fashion brand for teenagers” (according to Adverbox), use the trope of colonial taxidermic collection, to promise death to the tween love of Hello Kitty, Snoopie, Minnie and Mickey Mouse, teddy bears, unicorns, Bugs Bunny, Pinnochio, and more.
As a kid who hated Hello Kitty more than life itself and as an adult who just doesn’t get a life-long love of Disney, these ads appeal to me. As a sociologist, their colonial trappings disturb me. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Cross posted at Racialicious.
In many places in the midwest the American Indian is very present, but in other places in the U.S., like in California, Disney’s Pocahontas is as close as we get to “Indians.” The idea that American Indians are gone comes, in part, from the ubiquitous representation of them with feathers, buckskins, and moccasins. These anachronisms are everywhere (see, for example, here, here, here, here, and here).
American Indians are as modern as the rest of us, why are representations of American Indians, as they live today, so unusual? And what effect might that have on the psyche of American Indian people?
Via PostSecret.
NEW! One of the commenters at Racialicious pointed us to a cartoon that illustrates how anachronistic images of American Indians may shape our ideas of what they are like:
Click here to watch a segment on Good Morning America about the upcoming movie, Tinkerbell.
The rather barf-tastic segment comes to you thanks to media consolidation. Good Morning America is on ABC which is owned by Disney which, of course, produced TinkerBell. So there you have it.
One topic we cover in my sociology classes is the way the nature vs. nurture debate treats those two categories as though they are completely separate entities: “nature” is this fixed biological reality and “nurture” is all the social stuff we use to tinker around with nature as best we can. I point out to students that biology isn’t as fixed as we often think it is, and that seemingly “natural” processes are in fact often highly influenced by social factors.
One good example of this is the age at which girls have their first periods (menarche). In the U.S. today, the average age at menarche is a little over 12 years (see source here), and that seems normal to us. But historically, this is odd; until quite recently, girls did not begin menstruating until well into their teens. Because girls have to develop a certain amount of body fat in order to menstruate, access to food affects age at menarche. And access to food is generally an indicator of all types of social factors, including societal wealth and the distribution of wealth within groups. In general, economic development increases access to sufficient levels of food, and thus reduces average age at menarche.
This graph of average age at menarche in France from 1840-2000 (found on the French National Institute for Demographic Studies website here) shows a clear decline, starting at over 15 years and now standing at under 13:
Below is a bar graph showing average age at menarche for a number of countries (found here; age at menarche is the grey bar); we see the oldest average age is 13 and a half years, in Germany. Note that the data are not all from the same year, and while most report mean age at menarche, some report median age, so though they show a general trend, they are not stricly comparable:
However, these average ages obscure the fact that access to resources is not equal within nations, and as we would expect, though average age at menarche has fallen for most nations over the past century, we continue to see differences in average age among groups within nations that seem to mirror differences in wealth. For instance, this graph (found at the Museum of Menstruation website here) shows differences in average age at menarche between urban and rural areas in several countries:
The example of the quite dramatic fall in average age at menarche, as well as continued differences within societies, is a very helpful example for getting across the idea that biology is not fixed. I explain to my students that though we have many biological processes (i.e., the ability to menstruate), social factors such as economic development and social inequality affect how many of those processes are expressed (i.e., how early girls being to menstruate, on average). For other examples of how social factors affect biology, see this post on average lifespan and this post on increases in height over time.
I’m currently pairing these images with the chapters “The Body’s New Timetable: How the Life Course of American Girls Has Changed” and “Sanitizing Puberty: The American Way to Menstruate” from The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, by Joan Jacobs Brumberg (1997, NY: Vintage Books) in my women’s studies course. Brumberg argues that the decreasing age of menstruation has created new social pressures as there is an increasing gap between girls’ biological maturity (that is, being able to get pregnant at age 12 or so) and their mental and emotional maturity (they’re still 12 year old girls), a point activists were trying to make in these misguided PSAs about statutory rape. Brumberg argues that just as this was happening, American cultural understandings of menstruation turned it into a hygiene problem, not a maturational milestone, meaning we give girls information about tampons and sanitary pads but not much about what these changes really mean.
Just for fun, here is “The Story of Menstruation,” an animated cartoon put out by the Disney company in 1946. Millions of girls learned about menstruation from it in the ensuing decades, including that they could throwing their schedules off by getting too emotional or cold and that it’s ok to bathe as long as the water isn’t too hot or cold. It illustrates Brumberg’s point about how discusses of menstruation turned to scientific explanations of what was happening and advice about what was and wasn’t ok to do while menstruating, while mostly ignoring it’s emotional or social significance.
I also like the explanation at the beginning of why we refer to “Mother” nature–because she does all her work without anyone even noticing, just like moms. How nice.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first presidential candidate to use television commercials. Below is one of his commercials, made by Disney, from 1952.
Eisenhower was skeptical about using television and his opponent, Stevenson, wouldn’t appear on television because he thought it demeaning to a man ascending to the presidency. Eisenhower won.
This and campaign commercials since can be found at The Living Room Candidate.
Cory D. sent us these pictures of gendered T-shirts for kids at Disneyland (see them here).
T-shirt text: “I rode [the Pirates of the Caribbean ride] and I spun around in a [teacup]. I ate some [ice cream] and yummy [popcorn]. But the best part of my trip is when I met [Goofy, er Pluto].”
T-shirt text: “I rode [the Carousel]. I saw [Cinderella] and went to her [castle]. I spun in a [teacup] and I ate [ice cream]. But the best part of my trip is when I met [The Little Mermaid].”
To see where Sociological Images and its authors are appearing around the internet and in print, visit our list of Interviews (podcasts, radio, and print), Reviews, Essays and Posts published elsewhere, and instances in which we’ve been Quoted (in news articles, industry pages, etc.).
- Wisconsin Public Radio, At Issue with Ben Merens, on gender and toys (listen)
- NPR’s Morning Edition, on gender policing and the Bic “Pens for Her” (listen)
- Sounds Familiar, Sex, Death, and Morals in Horror (listen)
- KPCC‘s AirTalk, on “gender profiling” men in children’s spaces (listen)
- Bitch, On Advertising (transcript)
- Contexts, Lisa Wade and Gwen Sharp on Public Sociology (listen)
- Change Marketing, Five Pointed Questions
- CKNW‘s Bill Good Show, on gender and children’s toys
- CKNW‘s Bill Good Show, on the sexualization of young girls
- Contexts, About Sociological Images
- WEOL am 930, Les in the Morning, on Disparate Pricing of White and Black Dolls
- Sociological Images: “Will You Marry Me?” by Peggy Orenstein (plus a Twitter mini review!)
- Visual Studies, thanks to Karen McCormack
- Teaching Sociology, thanks to David Mayeda
- Shinpai Deshau, thanks to Leah Zoller
- Bitch, thanks to the staff
APPEARANCES IN ONLINE AND PRINT MEDIA
- Huffington Post, Victorian Breastfeeding Photo Fad: Shifting Discourses of Motherhood
- The Daily Mail, Bizarre Pictures Reveal the Unlikely Trend for Photographs of Breastfeeding Mothers in Victorian-Era America
- Huffington Post, Occidental Faculty “No Confidence” Vote Rebukes Administrators for Handling of Sexual Assaults
- VitaminW, Occidental Faculty Stands Up for Victims of Sexual Assault
- BoingBoing, Why the Majority of People Now Favor Marriage Equality
- Bitch, How Not to Handle a College Sexual Assault
- Minnesota Public Radio, Nature vs. Nurture Continued, Throwing “Like a Girl”
- BBC, The Re-Birth of an Icon: She Can Do It
- Ad Age, In a Culture of Mass Shootings, the Ad Industry Shares the Blame
- Andrew Sullivan’s The Dish, Profiting Off Prisoners, Ctd
- BoingBoing, Girls’ Crappy Fake Toy Laptop is Pink, and Half as Powerful as Boys’ Crappy Fake Toy Laptop
- USA Today, Halloween Costumes and Defining the Line Between Playful, Offensive
- Huffington Post Parents, Girls’ Halloween Costumes Then and Now: The Evolution from Silly to Sexy
- Business Insider, This is What an Oil Boom Town Looks Like After it’s Gone Bust
- The Daily Beast/Andrew Sullivan, “There are Producers and Parasites,” Ctd
- The Daily Beast/Andrew Sullivan, The Gender Revolution for Boys
- The Daily Beast/Andrew Sullivan, The Creation of Color
- DisInformation, The Real Threat Posed by Counterfeit Goods
- Huffington Post, Women Deserve Spankings According to Old “Daily Mirror” News Clipping
- BoingBoing, Mitt Romney Doesn’t Know How Venn Diagrams Work
- Jezebel, More Than Half the Country Has “No Doubt” That God is Real
- Kansas City Star, Across Pop Culture, It’s the Summer of Lust by Women
- HuffPost Parents, LEGO Gender Gap: Sociological Images Blog Maps Toy Company’s Gender Marketing Through History
- BoingBoing, History of Gendering in Lego
- Neatorama, The Lego Gender Gap
- Rue69 (French), Je Suis « Nénés », Celui Dont on Riait à l’École Parce Qu’il Avait des Seins
- Multicultural Familia, “Biracial is Bad”: How KRAFT’s MilkBites Campaign Perpetuates Stereotypes & White Supremacy
- Business Insider, Three Decades of Thin: How the Fashion Industry Promotes Anorexia
- PhD in Parenting, From Toddlers and Tiaras to Sext Up Kids: A Dangerous Path
- i09, Doctors Say Fat People Can Live as Long as Thin Ones
- Phoenix New Times, Is Disney’s Princess Candy Packaging Insensitive?
- The Week, Disney’s Black Princess Selling Watermelon Candy, Racist?
- The Daily Meal, Disney Places First Black Princess on Watermelon Candy Packet
- BoingBoing, Bill O’Reilly Flunks Middle-School Math While Defending Fox’s Sleazy Hack Job on the Netherlands
- NPR: The Picture Show, A Lens on Life in the Kentucky Hollows
- The Mary Sue, Legos for Girls: A Reprise
- Her Circle, Becoming a Wife
- Babble, OMG: 2-Year-Old Baby Freestyling. Yes!
- CNN’s Geek Out, Nerds and Hipsters: The Ying and Yang of American Subcultures
- Inside Higher Ed, Sociologists in Sin City
- Feministing, Lisa Wade on the Real Problem with Hooking Up in College
- About, The Role of Race in the Arnold Schwartzenegger Love Child Scandal
- Newsy, Australian Supermodel with a Twist
- Huffington Post, Dove Ad Casts Spotlight on Madison Avenue Racism
- The Globe and Mail, Why These Car Ads Insult the “Used” Woman, not the Man
- Chicago Tribune, Abercrombie Retreats on Push-Up Bikini for Girls
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Abercrombie and Fitch Re-Thinks Marketing Provocative Bikini Tops to Tweens
- Columbus Dispatch, Abercrombie’s Padded Bikini for PreTeens Stirs Up Fuss
- ABC News, Born This Way: Childhood Photos of Gay Adults
- American Prospect, Rep. Giffords Has a Husband!
- American Prospect, What Color Was That Again?
- CNN, Disney’s ‘Princess’ is a Hop Toward Progress
- Psychology Today, Imagine all the Singlism: Prejudice in Pictures
- ABC News, Black Barbie Sold for Less Than White Barbie at Walmart Store
- The Telegraph, Walmart Under Fire for Selling Black Barbies at Half Price of White Barbies
- The Guardian, Just Don’t Say the A-Word
- San Francisco Chronicle, Monkey Business: Defenders of Controversial Chimp Cartoon Walk Familiar, if Dubious, Line
- Baltimore Sun, Eating Disorder Experts Criticize ‘Anna Rexia’ Costume
- Rue89, translated our post Go Where? Gender, Sex, and Toilets into French
- Adweek, Toy Pitches Half-Baked?
- The New Naturalista, Raising Natural Daughters
- The Star, Is Vogue Italia’s Oil-Themed Fashion Shoot Slick or Crude?
- Women’s eNews, What Sex Is Your Crossing Light? Check the Mural
- Demo Dirt, Not a Sex Kitten, Yet Not a Cougar
These ads, for a “fashion brand for teenagers” (according to Adverbox), use the trope of colonial taxidermic collection, to promise death to the tween love of Hello Kitty, Snoopie, Minnie and Mickey Mouse, teddy bears, unicorns, Bugs Bunny, Pinnochio, and more.
As a kid who hated Hello Kitty more than life itself and as an adult who just doesn’t get a life-long love of Disney, these ads appeal to me. As a sociologist, their colonial trappings disturb me. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Cross posted at Racialicious.
In many places in the midwest the American Indian is very present, but in other places in the U.S., like in California, Disney’s Pocahontas is as close as we get to “Indians.” The idea that American Indians are gone comes, in part, from the ubiquitous representation of them with feathers, buckskins, and moccasins. These anachronisms are everywhere (see, for example, here, here, here, here, and here).
American Indians are as modern as the rest of us, why are representations of American Indians, as they live today, so unusual? And what effect might that have on the psyche of American Indian people?
Via PostSecret.
NEW! One of the commenters at Racialicious pointed us to a cartoon that illustrates how anachronistic images of American Indians may shape our ideas of what they are like:
Click here to watch a segment on Good Morning America about the upcoming movie, Tinkerbell.
The rather barf-tastic segment comes to you thanks to media consolidation. Good Morning America is on ABC which is owned by Disney which, of course, produced TinkerBell. So there you have it.
One topic we cover in my sociology classes is the way the nature vs. nurture debate treats those two categories as though they are completely separate entities: “nature” is this fixed biological reality and “nurture” is all the social stuff we use to tinker around with nature as best we can. I point out to students that biology isn’t as fixed as we often think it is, and that seemingly “natural” processes are in fact often highly influenced by social factors.
One good example of this is the age at which girls have their first periods (menarche). In the U.S. today, the average age at menarche is a little over 12 years (see source here), and that seems normal to us. But historically, this is odd; until quite recently, girls did not begin menstruating until well into their teens. Because girls have to develop a certain amount of body fat in order to menstruate, access to food affects age at menarche. And access to food is generally an indicator of all types of social factors, including societal wealth and the distribution of wealth within groups. In general, economic development increases access to sufficient levels of food, and thus reduces average age at menarche.
This graph of average age at menarche in France from 1840-2000 (found on the French National Institute for Demographic Studies website here) shows a clear decline, starting at over 15 years and now standing at under 13:
Below is a bar graph showing average age at menarche for a number of countries (found here; age at menarche is the grey bar); we see the oldest average age is 13 and a half years, in Germany. Note that the data are not all from the same year, and while most report mean age at menarche, some report median age, so though they show a general trend, they are not stricly comparable:
However, these average ages obscure the fact that access to resources is not equal within nations, and as we would expect, though average age at menarche has fallen for most nations over the past century, we continue to see differences in average age among groups within nations that seem to mirror differences in wealth. For instance, this graph (found at the Museum of Menstruation website here) shows differences in average age at menarche between urban and rural areas in several countries:
The example of the quite dramatic fall in average age at menarche, as well as continued differences within societies, is a very helpful example for getting across the idea that biology is not fixed. I explain to my students that though we have many biological processes (i.e., the ability to menstruate), social factors such as economic development and social inequality affect how many of those processes are expressed (i.e., how early girls being to menstruate, on average). For other examples of how social factors affect biology, see this post on average lifespan and this post on increases in height over time.
I’m currently pairing these images with the chapters “The Body’s New Timetable: How the Life Course of American Girls Has Changed” and “Sanitizing Puberty: The American Way to Menstruate” from The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, by Joan Jacobs Brumberg (1997, NY: Vintage Books) in my women’s studies course. Brumberg argues that the decreasing age of menstruation has created new social pressures as there is an increasing gap between girls’ biological maturity (that is, being able to get pregnant at age 12 or so) and their mental and emotional maturity (they’re still 12 year old girls), a point activists were trying to make in these misguided PSAs about statutory rape. Brumberg argues that just as this was happening, American cultural understandings of menstruation turned it into a hygiene problem, not a maturational milestone, meaning we give girls information about tampons and sanitary pads but not much about what these changes really mean.
Just for fun, here is “The Story of Menstruation,” an animated cartoon put out by the Disney company in 1946. Millions of girls learned about menstruation from it in the ensuing decades, including that they could throwing their schedules off by getting too emotional or cold and that it’s ok to bathe as long as the water isn’t too hot or cold. It illustrates Brumberg’s point about how discusses of menstruation turned to scientific explanations of what was happening and advice about what was and wasn’t ok to do while menstruating, while mostly ignoring it’s emotional or social significance.
I also like the explanation at the beginning of why we refer to “Mother” nature–because she does all her work without anyone even noticing, just like moms. How nice.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first presidential candidate to use television commercials. Below is one of his commercials, made by Disney, from 1952.
Eisenhower was skeptical about using television and his opponent, Stevenson, wouldn’t appear on television because he thought it demeaning to a man ascending to the presidency. Eisenhower won.
This and campaign commercials since can be found at The Living Room Candidate.
Cory D. sent us these pictures of gendered T-shirts for kids at Disneyland (see them here).
T-shirt text: “I rode [the Pirates of the Caribbean ride] and I spun around in a [teacup]. I ate some [ice cream] and yummy [popcorn]. But the best part of my trip is when I met [Goofy, er Pluto].”
T-shirt text: “I rode [the Carousel]. I saw [Cinderella] and went to her [castle]. I spun in a [teacup] and I ate [ice cream]. But the best part of my trip is when I met [The Little Mermaid].”
To see where Sociological Images and its authors are appearing around the internet and in print, visit our list of Interviews (podcasts, radio, and print), Reviews, Essays and Posts published elsewhere, and instances in which we’ve been Quoted (in news articles, industry pages, etc.).
- Wisconsin Public Radio, At Issue with Ben Merens, on gender and toys (listen)
- NPR’s Morning Edition, on gender policing and the Bic “Pens for Her” (listen)
- Sounds Familiar, Sex, Death, and Morals in Horror (listen)
- KPCC‘s AirTalk, on “gender profiling” men in children’s spaces (listen)
- Bitch, On Advertising (transcript)
- Contexts, Lisa Wade and Gwen Sharp on Public Sociology (listen)
- Change Marketing, Five Pointed Questions
- CKNW‘s Bill Good Show, on gender and children’s toys
- CKNW‘s Bill Good Show, on the sexualization of young girls
- Contexts, About Sociological Images
- WEOL am 930, Les in the Morning, on Disparate Pricing of White and Black Dolls
- Sociological Images: “Will You Marry Me?” by Peggy Orenstein (plus a Twitter mini review!)
- Visual Studies, thanks to Karen McCormack
- Teaching Sociology, thanks to David Mayeda
- Shinpai Deshau, thanks to Leah Zoller
- Bitch, thanks to the staff
APPEARANCES IN ONLINE AND PRINT MEDIA
- Huffington Post, Victorian Breastfeeding Photo Fad: Shifting Discourses of Motherhood
- The Daily Mail, Bizarre Pictures Reveal the Unlikely Trend for Photographs of Breastfeeding Mothers in Victorian-Era America
- Huffington Post, Occidental Faculty “No Confidence” Vote Rebukes Administrators for Handling of Sexual Assaults
- VitaminW, Occidental Faculty Stands Up for Victims of Sexual Assault
- BoingBoing, Why the Majority of People Now Favor Marriage Equality
- Bitch, How Not to Handle a College Sexual Assault
- Minnesota Public Radio, Nature vs. Nurture Continued, Throwing “Like a Girl”
- BBC, The Re-Birth of an Icon: She Can Do It
- Ad Age, In a Culture of Mass Shootings, the Ad Industry Shares the Blame
- Andrew Sullivan’s The Dish, Profiting Off Prisoners, Ctd
- BoingBoing, Girls’ Crappy Fake Toy Laptop is Pink, and Half as Powerful as Boys’ Crappy Fake Toy Laptop
- USA Today, Halloween Costumes and Defining the Line Between Playful, Offensive
- Huffington Post Parents, Girls’ Halloween Costumes Then and Now: The Evolution from Silly to Sexy
- Business Insider, This is What an Oil Boom Town Looks Like After it’s Gone Bust
- The Daily Beast/Andrew Sullivan, “There are Producers and Parasites,” Ctd
- The Daily Beast/Andrew Sullivan, The Gender Revolution for Boys
- The Daily Beast/Andrew Sullivan, The Creation of Color
- DisInformation, The Real Threat Posed by Counterfeit Goods
- Huffington Post, Women Deserve Spankings According to Old “Daily Mirror” News Clipping
- BoingBoing, Mitt Romney Doesn’t Know How Venn Diagrams Work
- Jezebel, More Than Half the Country Has “No Doubt” That God is Real
- Kansas City Star, Across Pop Culture, It’s the Summer of Lust by Women
- HuffPost Parents, LEGO Gender Gap: Sociological Images Blog Maps Toy Company’s Gender Marketing Through History
- BoingBoing, History of Gendering in Lego
- Neatorama, The Lego Gender Gap
- Rue69 (French), Je Suis « Nénés », Celui Dont on Riait à l’École Parce Qu’il Avait des Seins
- Multicultural Familia, “Biracial is Bad”: How KRAFT’s MilkBites Campaign Perpetuates Stereotypes & White Supremacy
- Business Insider, Three Decades of Thin: How the Fashion Industry Promotes Anorexia
- PhD in Parenting, From Toddlers and Tiaras to Sext Up Kids: A Dangerous Path
- i09, Doctors Say Fat People Can Live as Long as Thin Ones
- Phoenix New Times, Is Disney’s Princess Candy Packaging Insensitive?
- The Week, Disney’s Black Princess Selling Watermelon Candy, Racist?
- The Daily Meal, Disney Places First Black Princess on Watermelon Candy Packet
- BoingBoing, Bill O’Reilly Flunks Middle-School Math While Defending Fox’s Sleazy Hack Job on the Netherlands
- NPR: The Picture Show, A Lens on Life in the Kentucky Hollows
- The Mary Sue, Legos for Girls: A Reprise
- Her Circle, Becoming a Wife
- Babble, OMG: 2-Year-Old Baby Freestyling. Yes!
- CNN’s Geek Out, Nerds and Hipsters: The Ying and Yang of American Subcultures
- Inside Higher Ed, Sociologists in Sin City
- Feministing, Lisa Wade on the Real Problem with Hooking Up in College
- About, The Role of Race in the Arnold Schwartzenegger Love Child Scandal
- Newsy, Australian Supermodel with a Twist
- Huffington Post, Dove Ad Casts Spotlight on Madison Avenue Racism
- The Globe and Mail, Why These Car Ads Insult the “Used” Woman, not the Man
- Chicago Tribune, Abercrombie Retreats on Push-Up Bikini for Girls
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Abercrombie and Fitch Re-Thinks Marketing Provocative Bikini Tops to Tweens
- Columbus Dispatch, Abercrombie’s Padded Bikini for PreTeens Stirs Up Fuss
- ABC News, Born This Way: Childhood Photos of Gay Adults
- American Prospect, Rep. Giffords Has a Husband!
- American Prospect, What Color Was That Again?
- CNN, Disney’s ‘Princess’ is a Hop Toward Progress
- Psychology Today, Imagine all the Singlism: Prejudice in Pictures
- ABC News, Black Barbie Sold for Less Than White Barbie at Walmart Store
- The Telegraph, Walmart Under Fire for Selling Black Barbies at Half Price of White Barbies
- The Guardian, Just Don’t Say the A-Word
- San Francisco Chronicle, Monkey Business: Defenders of Controversial Chimp Cartoon Walk Familiar, if Dubious, Line
- Baltimore Sun, Eating Disorder Experts Criticize ‘Anna Rexia’ Costume
- Rue89, translated our post Go Where? Gender, Sex, and Toilets into French
- Adweek, Toy Pitches Half-Baked?
- The New Naturalista, Raising Natural Daughters
- The Star, Is Vogue Italia’s Oil-Themed Fashion Shoot Slick or Crude?
- Women’s eNews, What Sex Is Your Crossing Light? Check the Mural
- Demo Dirt, Not a Sex Kitten, Yet Not a Cougar