prejudice/discrimination

Emily sent us this classic Goodyear tire ad. The ad starts out talking about mileage and showing men, but then moves to a segment where a woman is driving and there’s scary music and we’re to presume that she’s maybe being chased or is in danger–and you want to be sure your wife has good tires so she can get away.

NEW! This ad for the VW Bug also plays on the idea that women are terrible drivers:

Text:

Women are soft and gentle, but they hit things.

If your wife hits something in a Volkswagen, it doesn’t hurt you very much.

…

She can jab the hood. Graze the door. Or bump off the bumper.

It may make you furious, but it won’t make you poor.

So when your wife goes window-shopping in a Volkswagen, don’t worry.

You can conveniently replace anything she uses to stop the car.

Even the brakes.

In case you weren’t aware, godhatesfags.com is a website run by Fred Phelps, leader of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. They’re the ones who have anti-gay protests around the U.S., including at some points showing up at the funerals of gay men, and have moved on to a general “God hates America” theme, due to all our depravity. He makes Jeremiah Wright (Obama’s pastor) look like a teddy bear–at least he was just saying God ought to damn America.

These t-shirts depress me more than anything I have seen in a really long time.

A completely unrelated Kansas story: When I was living there, in a small town, I discovered that my vet was the head of the Board of Education and was leading the anti-evolution efforts at the time (this was before voters elected a new Board and got rid of a lot of the anti-evolution people).

Anyway, thanks to Larry H. from The Daily Mirror for this photo (found here). I guess.

This ad, playing on white resentment about affirmative action, ran during the 1990 North Carolina Senate race between Harvey Gantt and Jesse Helms:

Before the ad ran (during the last week of the campaign), Gantt was ahead in the polls. The ad is widely believed to be the reason Helms won.

Might be good to pair with the infamous Willy Horton ad from the 1988 Presidential campaign in a discussion of how images of minorities have been used to frighten white voters.

You may have seen this Hillary Clinton nutcracker around, but did you know they are selling it at the super popular Urban Outfitters?

Analiese M. said that when she “ran across this item in Urban Outfitters online store… [she] emptied [her] shopping cart.” Awesome, Analiese!

NEW: A commenter on this post, Ana, says she found this on the Urban Outfitters store also:

Note: It also comes in George W. Bush, but not Barack Obama.

More sexism and racism in the 2008 elections: sexist anti-Hillary propaganda, comparing sexism and racism, and “How do we beat the bitch?”

This ad for Star Wars on Spike TV suggests that Darth Vader turned evil because he was called a girl’s name as a kid. After all, what could be more insulting than that? (His name, before he was Darth Vader, was Anakin Skywalker.)

Thanks Craig S.! Craig saw the ad in the New York City subway.

Also in men must avoid femininity at all costs: eat like a man, I have to act so masculine, denigration with feminity, and my wife makes more money (the shame).

.

The first time I saw this, I was suspicious that it might be a hoax. But it turns out it’s real (at least Snopes says so).

This commercial (found at multicultclassics) makes fun of large women, small men, and couples that defy “proper” pairing:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63O7aIHcfmA[/youtube]

While we’re on the topic of the current presidential campaign…

I’ve noticed something interesting about the images and phrases used to criticize Clinton and Obama. Why does the majority of anti-Clinton rhetoric use sexist images and language? And how prevelant is the (expected?) matching racism in the anti-Obama rhetoric and images? Why, instead, does Obama’s national allegiance and patriotism come into question? I think this would make for a great class discussion on intersectionality, an what prejudices are perceived to be “socially acceptable.”

Some possible questions for discussion:

• Is it more socially acceptable to be overtly sexist than overtly racist? Why?
• Why might it seem to be more okay to question someone’s patriotism/nationalism than to be overtly racist? What is the difference?
• What is really racist that doesn’t immediately appear racist?

And the images– again these come from Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members. See also previous images of Hillary Clinton here and here.

“I found my voice”:

“Stop mad cow”:

“Fly, my pretties, fly!  Bring me the presidency”:

And now for Obama…

And here are some attacking Barack Obama’s nationality and patriotism:

And the infamous image (more info from snopes.com):