Please enjoy these posts from Father’s Days past:
Stereotyping Men on Dad’s Day
Also…
Originally posted in 2009. Re-posted in honor of Women’s History Month.
Larry Harnisch, of the Los Angeles Times blog The Daily Mirror, sent in this image, published in The Mirror in 1959, that illustrated how women’s bodies were judged in the Miss Universe contest:
Text:
ALL FIGURED OUT–This chart is used by judges as [a] guide in picking Miss Universe. First six show figure flaws, seventh is perfectly proportioned. (1) Shoulders too square. (2) Shoulders too sloping. (3) Hips too wide. (4) Shoulder bones too pronounced. (5) Shoulders and back hunched. (6) Legs irregular, with spaces at calves, knees, thighs. (7) The form divine, needs only a beautiful face.
(I had no idea that I have irregular legs until I saw figure 6. My self esteem is taking quite the hit. I can’t tell if there’s anything wrong with my shoulders, though–I’ll have to ask someone else for an opinion.)
Two points:
First, some people like to suggest that men are programmed by evolution to find a particular body shape attractive. Clearly, if judging women’s bodies requires this much instruction, either (1) nature has left us incompetent or (2) cultural norms defining beauty overwhelm any biological predisposition to be attracted to specific body types.
Second, the chart reveals the level of scrutiny women faced in 1959 (and I’d argue it’s not so different today). It made me think of my years in 4-H. I was a farm kid and I showed steers for several years and also took part in livestock and meat judging competitions. I was good at it, just so you know. Anyway, what the beauty pageant image brought to mind was the handouts we’d look at to learn how to judge livestock. Here are some examples, from Kansas State University’s 4-H judging guide (pdf here):
This poor pig has a low-set tail–how dreadful:
It’s almost as if, like superior livestock, beautiful women are a desired cultural product in which we should all invest and be invested. You might compare these to some of the images in our post about sexualizing food that come from Carol Adams’s website.
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
Liz B. let us know about Slim Jim’s Spice Loss ad campaign, which features a number of commercials about men suffering from the horrible condition of spice loss, also known as emasculation. As Liz explains, “Apparently you need processed meat to stimulate your ‘man gland’, and give you ‘brolectrolytes’ for your ‘menergy’.” The ads feature themes that are common when marketing to men — a very circumscribed version of acceptable masculinity and the idea that women, and feminized things, are threats to masculinity.
Things that endanger men’s lives or just generally sap their will to live, according to the ads:
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/42300742[/vimeo]
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/151574343[/vimeo]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmApg3M5LNY[/youtube]
It’s fascinating, really: femininity is depicted as weakness, the sapping of strength, yet masculinity is so fragile that apparently even the slightest brush with the feminine destroys it. This entire ad campaign — and the discourse about masculinity it draws from — is just an adult version of the game of cooties, with men fleeing the symbolic pollution of femininity.
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
Father’s Day advertisements are a peek into what we think dads are all about. As cultures change, advertising shifts too, giving us a peek into the social construction of fatherhood.
Karl Bakeman pointed us to a series of vintage Father’s Day ads at Retronaut. They label them with the range from 1943 to 1981. Perhaps we can have fun guessing which was when. According to these ads, great gifts for dads include recliners, whiskey, cologne, and a pack of smokes. Today the perfect Dad’s Day gift appears to be meat and meat.
Ties were timeless, until 1981:
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Please enjoy these posts from Father’s Days past:
Stereotyping Men on Dad’s Day
Also…
Here’s a fun one for our series on the social construction of flavor!
See also:
And the list wouldn’t be complete without our Jell-O posts:
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
It’s been way too long since we’ve talked about one of my favorite foods-lost-to-history: vegetable flavored Jell-O. I added some more examples to the end. They’re truly awe-some.
Another great example of how tastes are shaped by history: JELL-O in the flavor of celery, seasoned tomato, mixed vegetable, and italian:
A box of various flavors:
What do you do with it? Well, fill it with things like chopped celery, olives with pimento, and squares of… something:
Or, um, tuna…
Don’t forget the hard-boiled eggs:
See also our post on aspic, meat-flavored gelatin foods. And, for fun, here’s a history of JELL-O that includes a brief description of how you would have to make it if you had to make it from scratch, which will leave you wondering how we ever bothered to invent and make gelatin to begin with.
(Ads found at here, here, here, here, and here.)
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Dolores R. sent us the newest message from associated with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Sponsored by both PETA and the Ministry of Waxing (a pubic-hair removal site), the ad features a fur-covered “wallet” (via Ms.):
I guess it’s just an ad for waxing your pubes, but the logic is so convoluted that I’m having a hard time getting my head around it. The fur of slaughtered animals is gross/unethical, so you should shave off your public hair? Pubic hair is gross and that’s how you know wearing animal fur is gross? Shave your public hair as a token of your objection to wearing fur? Skin yourself, not animals?
Or perhaps my problem is looking for a logic in the first place.
UPDATE 1: A reader sent in a clarification regarding the relationship between PETA and the Ministry of Waxing, one with its own sociological lessons about social movement organizations. It appears that the Ministry has donated money to PETA for the privilege of using the “PETA Business Friend logo.” While PETA has apparently made a deal with the Ministry of Waxing, they legally disclaim any responsibility for how their logo is used and it’s possible that they did not approve this ad. Details on the program here.
UPDATE 2: Another reader, though, argues that the logo on the ad isn’t the “Business Friend” logo (see below), but the “real” PETA logo. He links to a page on the PETA website where they endorse the program. This reader writes:
…PETA isn’t somehow being used against their knowledge; they’re co-promoting it. There’s no disclaimer, no weaseling out, no “we didn’t know about it”; this is 100% PETA-approved.
Also in PETA: women packaged like meat and imagined as meat, and in cages, women who love animals get naked (men wear clothes), the banned superbowl ad, and a collection of various PETA advertising using (mostly women’s) nudity.
See also our post on leftist balkanization, or the way that leftist social movements tend to undermine each other.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
