Search results for embed

This website created by the American Anthropological Association is a great way to explore the social construction of race. There’s an awesome timeline that traces political and scientific trends where you can click on any part of it and get more information. It’s a great resource.It also includes this great 7 minute video called “A Girl Like Me”:

I’d actually love to get some feedback on this video. I really like it, but last time I showed it (in a social psychology portion of a Race and Ethnicity course), the class had a hard time recovering. It was depressing and I wasn’t very successful in DOING something SOCIOLOGICAL with it. Any ideas?

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.

The Dodge La Femme (1955 and 1956):

Here are some pictures of some restored La Femme’s:

Pink rosebud patterned upholstery:

It even came with matching accessories!

An umbrella and raincoat:

A compact:

A coin purse:

I think showing this car would be interesting in comparison with the contemporary marketing of feminine guns (see Gwen’s post here). The guns look surprisingly like the car.

It would also be interesting, I think, to do a discussion about whether and how they market cars to women today. They do, of course, but the ideal femininity has changed and so, therefore, have the cars. Women, though, haven’t changed very much. One of the reasons that the La Femme didn’t sell was because women were, frankly, offended.

NEW (Jan. ’09)!  I found this effort to market cars to women from 1969, the “women-winning” Barracuda with “pop prints” and “gals in mind”!

NEW! (Nov. ’09): Tim McC. sent in this trailer for a Volvo concept car specifically for women. It’s really interesting to compare the marketing of a car to women in the 1950s versus today.

Notice that while beauty is still important, today there’s also an emphasis on the car being tough–but not too tough, not brutal.

Tim adds,

YCC has some fairly significant design decisions (some arguably limitations) that seems to imply certain things about the intended market. For example, the car has no hood that can be opened by the owner. Instead, the car must be taken to the shop for engine maintenance and oil changes. The tires are also run-flat, meaning that the tires will continue to work after a flat, again so that the car can be taken to a garage for the tire change. This seems to imply that the company assumes that women are too ignorant or too afraid to fix their own mechanical problems. This also implies that DIY work on engines or really any technological product is a male pursuit. Keeping women from working on engines seems to say that women shouldn’t have to even consider working with technology. It also features automated parallel parking (a feature common on luxury cars, but prominently emphasized in the materials), which may carry sexist undertones å la the “woman driver” stereotype. The drive train is hybrid-electric, which implies that environmentalism is a feminine concept.

PETA is well known for objectifying women in their efforts to encourage us to be kind to animals. Here are some print ads using (near) nudity:

In these two, they actually make women into animals in cages:

This one, found at Feministing, includes the following press release from PETA which in no ways tries to obfuscate their reliance on the objectification of women for their own purposes:

Wearing sexy yellow bikinis outside the legislative meeting of the United Egg Producers in Washington on Wednesday, six PETA beauties will crowd into three cramped cages to mimic conditions for laying hens on factory farms. The ladies will hold egg-shaped signs that read, ‘Chicks Suffer for Eggs.’

In case you were wondering if they were denigrating women as well as showing them naked and in cages… Here you go:

Because women’s natural bodies are actually quite disgusting, apparently.

Boys too!

NEW: Matt S. sent in three more PETA posters and a video featuring Alicia Silverstone:

To see this video featuring Silverstone on youtube, I had to verify my age and was warned that it might not be suitable for minors:

As Matt pointed out, if you didn’t know what PETA is, these ads could just as well work as pro-fur ads, by implying that if you buy a woman a fur, she’ll get naked and be sexually available to you.

Thanks, Matt!

Who knew that Santa endorsed cigarettes?

Christmas cigarettes endorsed by Ronald Reagan:

NEW (Dec. ’09)!

Found here, here, 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.

Welcome to Sociological Images.  The images in this post correspond to an article in the anthology Images That Injure.

Figure 1: Advertisement for Tango Dance Lessons

Figure 2: Advertisement for Cabana Cachaça Rum

Figure 3: Advertisement for St. Pauli Girl Beer

Figure 4: Commercial for m&m’s:

Figure 5: Advertisement for m&m’s:

Figure 6: Advertisement for m&m’s:

Figure 7: Commercial for ampm Convenience Stores

Figure 8: Commercial for ampm Convenience Stores

Figure 9: Advertisement for Redtape Shoes:

Figure 10: Commercial for Mayflower Moving Company

Figure 11: Commercial for Moosehead Light Beer

Figure 12: Advertisement for Slim Fast

Figures 13, 14, and 15: Advertisements for Itambé® Fit Light Yogurt

Figure 16: Advertisement for Skyy Vodka from Maxim and Cosmopolitan Magazines

Figure 17: Couple from King of Queens

Figure 18: Couple from According to Jim

Figure 19: Couple from The Simpsons

Figure 20: The Character Richard Fish from All McBeal

Figure 21: The Character Ling Woo from Ally McBeal

Figure 22: The Character John Cage from Ally McBeal

Figure 23: The Character Nell Porter from Ally McBeal

Figure 24: Advertisement for Dolce & Gabbana

Figure 25: Advertisement for Unforgivable Woman Perfume

Figure 26: Advertisement for Isaia Napoli Clothing

Figure 27: Advertisement for Campari

Figure 28: Advertisement for Fashion Designer Brian Atwood

Figure 29: Advertisement for Fashion Designer Brian Atwood

Figure 30: Advertisement for Fashion Designer Brian Atwood

Figure 31: Advertisement for Lanvin

Figure 32: Advertisement for Missoni

Figure 33:  Advertisement for Patrick Cox

Figure 34: Advertisement for Voodoo pantyhose

Figure 35:  Advertisement for Dolce & Gabbana