gender

This vintage ad is a great example of the intersection of sexism and racism. She’s there for YOU because YOU, white family, are “important”:

Text:

It’s not just the fact that she’s a multilingual, knowledgeable, helpful girl who, among other things, knows how to handle a family on the move. It’s the fact that to your JAL Ground Hostess, anywhere in the world, you’re her passengers.

We never forget how important you are.

JAPAN AIR LINES

(Source: Vintage Ads.)

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.

Sanguinity and Jen B. sent in a “That’s Gay” segment discussing, humorously, the discourse around figure skater Johnny Weir’s sexual orientation and whether he should be allowed to skate the way he does:

Quoting from The Sport Journal, Jen writes:

While figure skating is rumored to have the highest proportion of homosexual men of any amateur competitive sport, it is ironically a sport in which men must exhibit the most blatantly heterosexual signs to be successful and to receive commercial endorsements… at the 2001 World Championships in Vancouver when a well-known male Canadian skater was contacted by a gay magazine about the possibility of doing a feature story on him, he was told by Skate Canada that he must decline the request. As one coach said to me, “that is not the sort of picture that Skate Canada wants to paint for the country, especially in an international forum.” Every effort is made to construct such skaters as heterosexual.

We’ve posted on Skate Canada’s get “tough” campaign 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.

Mickey C. sent in this ad for the convenience store, Racetrac.  It’s fascinating in how overtly they take the good girl/bad girl dichotomy and apply it to food.   You are a good girl if you eat fruit, white meat sandwiches, and spinach wraps; you are a bad girl if you drink soda and eat cookies and hot dogs.

This is a narrative that we largely take-for-granted.  We are bad when we “indulge” in “sinfully” delicious treats and good when we do not.  Parallel is the narrative: you are a good girl if you resist your desires, a bad girl if you do not.

It reminds me of an NPR audio slide show about teenagers trying to lose weightwho confess, with guilt and glee, one night of indulgence at Taco Bell.  It’s not sinful to have a cookie, for goodness sake, or to eat at Taco Bell now and again.  And women cannot be separated into heaven-bound angels and hell-bound broads.

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.

In this video, sent in by Martha, Lindsay Ellis asks why it is that female characters in general-audience cartoons, if present at all, are always plot points for the male characters. Her point is clearly sound, but damn does she marshal the evidence!  She appears to have really done her homework… but I have no doubt that those of you who are experts in My Little Pony, Transformers, Scooby Do, and She-Ra will have something to add.

Here’s another video on the same topic:

For more on the phenomenon in which women are women and men are people, see our analysis of the “Human” Bodies exhibit, girls as an afterthought, dinosaurs are for boys (and girls), traffic lights with female figures, stick figures and stick figures who parent, and default avatars.

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.

Christopher R. noticed that the sibling sites www.youngwomenshealth.org and www.youngmenshealthsite.org had nearly identical advice for being vegetarian or vegan, except for one small detail.  He writes:

Both pages are generally the same (pretty much word for word), except for the last section on convincing parents to let you be vegetarian. The female version includes the suggestion “read vegetarian cookbooks or nutritional information with your parents and offer to help with the shopping and cooking,” as well as an extra article titled “What are some healthy meals that I can prepare?” I guess the difference between male and female vegetarians is their ability to cook and shop.

Screen shot of the male version:

Screen shot of the female version:

Also, pink and blue!  Of course!

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.

Lynne S. clipped this coupon for a “lovers special” at Cassano’s Pizza.  Notice it both presumes heterosexuality and genders meat as masculine and veggies as feminine.

We saw the same gendering of food in the Brick House Tavern Menu, TV dinner categories, and a vintage Campbell’s soup ad.

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.

Mihai L. sent in a Romanian commercial for wafers that suggests that women have been slowing down progress and re-writing history since the cavewoman days!

With subtitles:

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.

Claire P. and Jessica Sherwood, of the Sociologists for Women in Society, sent in a link to some data, from OK Cupid, on women’s preferences for frequency of sex by county.  The uptake: Women’s preferences for the incidence of sex goes up as they age.  You can check out the interactive map, or just check out my screen shots below.

Preferences at age 20 (red = higher preference for once a week; blue = higher preference for once a day; white = in the middle):

Preferences at age 25:

Preferences at age 30:

Preferences at age 35:

Preferences at age 40:

Also from OK Cupid: the racial politics of dating, what women want, and men’s preference for younger women.

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.