Emily sent me pictures of Hip Parade toys. They are figurines shaped like women’s bodies from the waist to just above the knees. There are various types and colors. They’re only $8!
This one is called “Active Girls” and for some reason says “cat” and has a picture of a cat on the butt. I don’t know what the connection between a cat and being active is.
Found here.
Found here.
This one is the “trading torso.” You can trade with others to collect all four!
Found here.
Thanks, Em! Sort of.
Miguel pointed out that AskMen.com collected a list of “worst male-bashing ads,” all of which represent men as morons or useless oafs. Here are some of them:
1st for Women, a South African auto insurance company that only insures women:
A Domino’s ad in which the wife laughs at her husband’s sexual overtures:
A Sony Cyber-shot ad that depicts men as a horse’s ass (it’s the first clip; for some reason there are some FedEx clips afterward):
Men as easily manipulated by flirty women:
These might be useful for a discussion of masculinity and portrayals of men as idiots and morons, especially regarding family life, which serves to reinforce the idea that men can’t be trusted to cook or clean or care for children because they’ll just mess it up. Although it doesn’t come up in these ads, it’s also good to bring in the class element we see in shows like “King of Queens,” “The Simpsons,” “According to Jim,” and “Married with Children,” which all have working-class, generally pot-bellied idiot husbands married to smart, gorgeous women who sigh and put up with their childish behavior.
Also see the earlier post of a Roomba ad that portrays the husband as a literal ass (this ad also made it into the AskMen list).
Thanks, Miguel!
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
As you may recall, we’re now occasionally adding to previous posts instead of creating new ones. Below is a list of our newly enriched posts for your perusal. Look for the bold, red “NEW.”
But first!
Ongoings that have been going on at Sociological Images:
Out of gratitude for your support, I put together a new page in which we link back to those of you who are linking to us. Please feel free to peruse those of us who find us link-worthy and, if you link to us and don’t find yourself on our list, please send an email to socimages@thesocietypages.org.
I was honored that Racialicious asked to republish my post on the anti-female genital cutting ads. I mention it here because it’s worth a look to see how differently my commentary was received on this versus that blog. It might make for an interesting discussion about audience and positionality.
You might like to know that Sociological Images was “news” in Iceland! Our post of an Icelandic cartoon featuring Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton caused quite the stir in the comments thread (a fascinating sociological phenomenon in its own right) and an Icelandic newspaper thought it worthy of coverage and commentary. (FYI: We personally think “news” is overstating our relevance to current events… but who are we to judge!)
And now!
Our enriched posts:
For context, we added a Wonder Woman comic book cover in which she claims to be “helpless” and uses her sexuality as a weapon to our post of a satirical Wonder Woman comic strip. Thanks to Brady for the link!
It turns out the pseudo-feminist rescuing of women from the drugeries of housework without actually allowing them to opt out isn’t anything new.
Toph sent us a second Canadian Club ad that we added to this post illustrating hegemonic masculinity. The second ad is useful for demonstrating the sexual double standard.
To our post about the way in which women were made to personify STDs during World War II, we added another poster, a matchbook, and a fascinating pamphlet that was passed out to soldiers. The pamphlet features “Gonnie” and “Syph,” two “gals” who “travel around arm-in-arm with ‘easy’ women.” All were submitted by Marc. Yay!
If you enjoy our posts about the social construction of girlhood, you’ll enjoy the two T-shirts we added to this post that have sayings that depict little girls as future spoiled divas (scroll down). Sent in by aa bb. Thanks!
Craig T. sent in a Nestle Quick ad that we added to our post on “subliminal” sex in advertising (scroll down a ways). Thanks Craig!
We added a second example to this post about the way in which “scoring” with women is equated with success at sports.
A recent PETA protest included women in bikinis posed as “chicks” in cages. We added the image to our post about the way in which PETA sacrifies the humanity of women and men in order to save animals. Is it too strong to say that PETA “sacrifies the humanity” of men and women? I’m not sure. Isn’t that what objectification is? And what does it mean when they dress women up as animals and put them in cages? It’s your call. Visit the post (scroll about halfway down). Found thanks to Feministing.
Meghan B. sent us another Svedka fembot ad. This one calls for us to “support socialized plastic surgery” and features a grossly disproportionate “robot” version of an idealized female body.
If you “enjoy” Axe ads, check out our newest one here, sent it by Krystal-Lynn M.
To this post about the use of spread legs as a repetitive design motif, we added this very different image of Michelle Obama as seen through Barack Obama’s legs… a very interesting comparison!
We added a second commercial in the Carl’s Jr. it’s-hot-to-be-covered-in-condiments theme to the x-rated Paris Hilton one. This one involves eating a hamburger while on a mechanical bull. Sexily, of course.
As if we didn’t have enough on the conflation of hot women with hot food, we added a commercial for Pot Noodle in which the woman literally becomes noodles to one of our posts on the sexualization of food. We also added a coffee ad from the Netherlands to this post about gender and food (you gotta scroll way down for that one). Thanks to Penny for that last one!
We added three more ads to this post about gender and “meanness” in car ads. They are useful for illustrating, as Gwen points out, “that advertisers have many different motifs and meanings to draw from when creating marketing strategies, and that the ones they pick are just that–CHOICES among many, many different ways you could advertise a product, none of which are necessarily more ‘obvious’ or ‘natural’ than others.”
This McDonald’s Is All Out Of “Boy Toys,” via The Consumerist
Found here, here, and here thanks to Erin H. Thanks!
Erin writes:
This brings together the awful hypersexualisation of toys for young girls (recommended: ages 4 – 8 ) with the often bizarre and sometimes disturbing anthropomorphisation of animals. In this case, Bratz dolls (complete with impossible footwear and freakishly large eyes) meet My Little Ponies in an unholy combination of hinted-at cleavage, age-inappropriate costuming / accessories and come-hither glances! So many shades of ick. What would the equivalent for young boys be, I wonder?
Speaking of, is anyone else nostalgic for my little ponies and carebears? Sigh.
NEW! In a similar phenomenon, I present you the Tini Puppini (found here via Jezebel):
Worldmapper offers maps in which the actual land area is morphed to represent various disproportionalities across the globe. The website has over 300 maps! Thanks 73man for the tip!
I borrowed a few examples and pasted them in below. The first map is an actual land area map for reference.
Territory size shows the proportion of worldwide net exports of toys (in US$) that come from there. Net exports are exports minus imports. When imports are larger than exports the territory is not shown.
Territory size shows the proportion of worldwide net imports of toys (in US$) that are received there. Net imports are imports minus exports. When exports are larger than imports the territory is not shown.
Territory size shows the proportion of carbon dioxide emissions in 1980 that were directly from there.
Territory size shows the proportion of all territory level decreases in carbon dioxide emissions between 1980 and 2000, that occurred there.
Territory size shows the proportion of state military spending worldwide that was spent by that territory in 2002.
Territory size shows the proportion of species worldwide that became extinct between 1500 current era and 2004, that became extinct there.
Territory size shows the proportion of all people over 15 in the world living with diabetes who live there.
Territory size shows the proportion of all people aged 15-49 with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) worldwide, living there.
See more alternative maps here.
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These images came to us from Dianne who saw this on BoingBoing and dug deeper to find all these great examples!
Illustrating the way in which whiteness is taken-for-granted and others are always, well, other, Plan Toys sells these doll sets labelled “Ethnic Family,” “AsianFamily,” and, “Doll Family.”
They also sell a “farmer” and a “farmer’s wife.” Dianne notes: “Women don’t farm, apparently, they just marry men who do.”
They also sell this generic “Native American set” of which they write:
“Children can create imaginary stories with the Indian figures, camp, teepee and authentic accessories. They can learn about the traditional American tribe and their lifestye.”
Notice how American Indian tribal difference is erased with the phrase “the traditional American tribe.” Diane pointed out that the set actually combines teepees and totem poles which were traditions of tribes in the plains and on the west coast respectively.
In the “How to Play” section, it says:
“Children can imagine and tell stories about Red Indians, helping to stimulate their imagination and expanding their horizon.”
Yes they really do say “Red Indians.”
Diane notices that, just like the doll family is obviously white, “here again, apparently the default child is white, who can ‘imagine… stories about Red Indians.'”
Ironically, the company claims that they are “socially & environmentally responsible” and promote “good values.”
Thanks so much Diane!
NEW: Kirsten D. sent us this link to a series of Playmobil toys. All of the non-white characters are given racial designations, but the white characters are not. I included some examples below.
African/African American Family:
Asian family:
Grandparents:
Medical Team and Patients:
Prince and Princess:
Also in the neutral and the marked: men are people and women are women and from pale to pumped with racial stereotypes.
A friend of mine, Jason Schultz, took this picture of this sign being sold in a toy store:
Jason suggested that it re-affirmed the notion that men and women are inherently at odds in a zero sum game
It is certainly androcentric in that it suggests that, in this case, girls should be proud of what they do insofar as they do what men have “traditionally” done.
And, to tie these two thoughts together, that girls should be proud when they take away what is “traditionally” men’s.
What do we really think about “girl power”?
