Truthfully, I don’t think I have ever seen so many symbols of masculinity mobilized in so short a time. I had to watch it three times:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anl_7Q05C8c[/youtube]

Thanks a bunch to Christine who recommended this in our comments.

Notice it’s melon-flavored gum.

Every time I see the cover of Parenting Magazine I’m surprised by the tagline:

“What matters to moms”

Here is the cover of the most recent issue. Where are dads? What sort of parenting do they do?

Over at the New York Times, Peggy Orenstein wrote a light article about the social construction of race, ethnicity, and culture through the lens of multiracialism. This figure (in Hawaii, Hapa means “half”) shows the states with the highest percentages of people claiming to be multiracial:

For background: 2000 was the first year that the Census allowed us to mark more than one race… talk about the social construction of racial categories!

Perhaps related to increasing wealth and income inequality in our society, the gap between the life expectancy of the rich and the poor is also increasing. This image is from a New York Times article on the topic:

Dr. Singh, who was part of the study, explains:

In 1980-82… people in the most affluent group could expect to live 2.8 years longer than people in the most deprived group (75.8 versus 73 years). By 1998-2000, the difference in life expectancy had increased to 4.5 years (79.2 versus 74.7 years), and it continues to grow.

I found this in Rolling Stone.

This commentary by Dan Charnas on Obama’s speech and the public reaction (found here) might inspire an interesting class discussion on race, politics, and getting along:

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/808451[/vimeo]

White People, Get Over Yourselves from Dantrification on Vimeo.

Thanks to Lawgeek for sending this our way!

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Copyranter has pointed me to a recent spate of ads for homes, apartments, and condos that use the idea of accessible women, or otherwise use sexuality, to sell their product.

Lindsey Dale, at Nobody, sent along this additional example:

Also in using women’s sexual availability to sell real estate.