Via Slate.

I just discovered the entirely excellent website Asian Nation, run by C.N. Le and full of great information about the Asian American community. Here are some tables showing what percent of various Asian American groups are married to spouses of the same or other groups, updated as of October 2007 using Census data (an explanation of the three columns follows):

Ok, now to explain the three columns of numbers. The first one presents data for all marriages that include at least one Asian American spouse–this will include large numbers of immigrants who were married before they moved to the U.S. The second column includes only those marriages where at least one spouse was raised in the U.S., defined as either born here or moved here by age 13. The third column includes only those marriages where both spouses were raised in the U.S. According to Le, this group represents less than 25% of all marriages including an Asian partner, but “…has the advantage of including only those who were raised and socialized within American society and its racial dynamics. It is this U.S.-raised population that best represents young Asian Americans, since they are the ones who have the most exposure to prevailing American cultural images and media.”

Not surprisingly, endogamous (in-group) marriage rates drop off significantly among U.S.-raised Asian Americans. There are other interesting gender patterns as well. Notice, for instance, that Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Filipina women are quite a bit more likely to be married to a White partner (the most common out-group spouses) than are men, and for the remaining groups, women are slightly more likely to be married to a White spouse. You might discuss the social and historical factors that might cause that pattern, and compare it to the trend in marriages with a Black and a White spouse, in which the gender pattern is usually reversed–Black men are more likely to be married to Whites than are Black women. It might also be worth noting that Korean and Filipina women are significantly less likely to marry endogamously than the other Asian American ethnic groups.

In this video, Campbell Brown analyzesGov. Ed Rendell’s comments, overheard due to standing too close to an open mic, that Janet Napolitano is perfect for secretary of Homeland Security because she has no family (you can also see the video here if the CNN site doesn’t play correctly).

In fact, the wage gap between men and women is made up, almost entirely, by the comparison between men (fathers or not) and mothers. Women without children make significantly more money than mothers. Conversely, fathers make slightly more than men without children.

Women without children do pretty well at work in the U.S. Of course, about 90% of adult women are mothers.

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.

Here’s a vintage Fleishmann’s Yeast ad (found here), which presents yeast as the answer to the horrors of pimples–awful, hideous pimples!

I don’t know in what world high schools have movies, but whatever. Clearly, the message is “pimples = social death and eternal loneliness.” It’s not just that Davy can’t be in the movie due to his horrible affliction; if he can’t play the lead along with his girlfriend, he faces the possibility of losing her to a leading man with a clear complexion.

Given such messages about the importance of clear skin, it’s no wonder teens and their families were willing to shell out enormous sums of money on skin-care products. Apparently yeast didn’t catch on as a treatment, though.

For other examples of vintage ads playing on teens’ fear of facial blemishes, see here and here.

Kay W. sent us a link to an archive of cigarette advertising and other historical materials.  Among the many interesting things there were some internal documents circulated by tobacco companies. I include some below:

Product placement contract:

Targeting youth:

Script for Frank Sinatra:

Directing scientific research:

Cristoph B. sent in this image (found here) of a woman who was supposedly paid by Kodak to “assvertise” at a trade show by wearing Kodak panties and… (well, it’s not safe for work):

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Kona Grill specializes in “imaginative meals.”  In their ad campaign (discovered here), they sexualize their mixing of usually segregated culinary traditions (“East meets West”).  Here they put a fork and chopsticks in bed together:

Their food, apparently, is like interracial sex.  This is interesting in itself, but the copy goes further.  It reads:

A restuarant.  A bar.  A place where opposites attract.  Visit konagrill.com for a little taste.

So not only are East and West (or Asians and Americans) different, they’re “opposites.”  Such advertising not only fetishizes interracial relationships, but it reinforces the idea that race and culture are such powerful and defining characteristics that people from the East and the West could not possibly have anything in common (except sex, of course).

I’ve never been able to find a picture of it, but when I was in graduate school (not so long ago) and living in Madison, Wisconsin, there was an ad for Bacardi on the side of a city bus that said: “Bacardi, the Ultimate Wingman.”  A wingman is a friend who helps you get laid, so the not-so-subtle message of the ad was: “get’er drunk and she’ll do ya!”

Here are two ads that have, essentially, the same message (the first was given to me by my student, Bo; the second was found here).

This one could be interpreted as, “Drink Heineken so you won’t be nervous,” or, “Drink Heineken so you’ll get what you want without any trouble.”

In this ad for Bud Light, with the copy “Endless Opportunities,” the man and the viewer of the ad exchange a conspiratorial gaze, while the woman glances to the side or, perhaps, back at him.  Is the message, “If I’m drinking Bud Light, anything could happen,” or “If she’s drinking Bud Light, anything could happen”?

See also this ad for, ostensibly, a date rape drug.

An anonymous commenter pointed us to billboard below advertising Southern Comfort as a “liquid panty remover.”  Before we get our panties in a bunch, I should point out it’s a hoax (thanks, Vidya):

So this is a hoax.  It still trivializes trying to manipulate women by getting them drunk (at best) and date rape (at worst), but it could have been produced by any yahoo with a computer.  Yahoos with computers can do anything they like, I’d be more concerned if it was circulated by the company that markets Southern Comfort.

That said, in looking it up to discover it was a hoax, I discovered about a dozen recipes for mixed drinks called “Liquid Panty Remover.”  Here are some screen shots:

So I guess there was good news and bad news.

NEW! In this ad, sent in by HighJive of MultiCultClassics, the brandy is the “producer.”  The producer is the person who makes a film happen.  Thus the sexy scene that is about to ensue is attributed to the alcohol.  (Also notice the linking of the product with pornography.)

Also in sexualizing alcohol: “nice cans,” “she loves a cockatoo,” sexy robots (see here and here), “aged longer, tastes smoother,” and, um, this one.