Miguel E. sent us a link to a story about Natural High, a Japanese company that reportedly makes “extreme” pornography. The producer, Sakkun, felt bad that many children in Africa live in poverty and so he sent a porn star to Kenya to have sex with African men (on film, of course). The company gave a Kenyan aid organization one million yen (around $10, 800 U.S.) and 1,000 more (currently about $10.77 U.S.) is donated for every DVD sold (story here). Images and discussion after the jump:
sex: sex work
Many believe that all women involved in prostitution are desperate for rescue and that being rescued always and inevitably leads to a better life for women and their families. Myra M. F. sent us a link to this poster, made by brothel workers in Thailand, begs for an end to attempts to rescue them. Laura Agustin, who took this picture (and blogged about it here), writes:
This poster comes from the EMPOWER centre in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where brothel workers gathered to discuss recent raids and rescue operations. On the left they have written a list of reasons why they do not wish to be rescued by police, ngo or charity workers.
The text (as transcribed by Agustin):
• We lose our savings and our belongings.
• We are locked up.
• We are interrogated by many people.
• They force us to be witnesses.
• We are held until the court case.
• We are held till deportation.
• We are forced re-training.
• We are not given compensation by anybody.
• Our family must borrow money to survive while we wait.
• Our family is in a panic.
• We are anxious for our family.
• Strangers visit our village telling people about us.
• The village and the soldiers cause our family problems.
• Our family has to pay ‘fines’ or bribes to the soldiers.
• We are sent home.
• Military abuses and no work continues at home.
• My family has a debt.
• We must find a way back to Thailand to start again.
Many activists in the U.S. similarly argue that the policing of prostitution, ostensibly to “protect” women,” serves to criminalize them (and not so much their johns) and ultimately makes their lives more difficult and dangerous than they would be otherwise. (See, for example, Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics or COYOTE.)
See also posters against the criminalization of prostitution.
The propaganda below, from World War II, was distributed by the U.S. government. In the posters, venereal disease (later known as sexually transmitted disease, and even later as sexually transmitted infections) is personified as a woman. Remember, venereal disease is NOT a woman. It’s bacteria or virus that passes between women and men. Women do not give it to men. Women and men pass it to each other. When venereal disease is personified as a woman, it makes women the diseased, guilty party and men the vulnerable, innocent party.
In this ad, the soldier is made innocent with the label “The Young, The Brave, The Strong.” The first girl is labeled “prostitution.” She says to the soldier: “Two girls I know want to meet you in the worst way.” The two women on the stairs, with the faces of skeletons, are labelled “syphilis” and “gonnorhea.”
Text: “Warning: These enemies are still lurking around.” The women are labeled “syphillis” and “gonnorhea.”
This one is my favorite. A female skeleton in an evening gown walks with her arms around Hitler and Hirohito. The text reads: “V.D. Worst of the Three.”
Here are three more:
At least some of these can be found here. Thanks to the unbeatablekid pointing out a source in our comments.
NEW: Marc sent us a link to these images (all found here):
A matchbook:
A pamphlet distributed to soldiers:
Thanks, Marc!
Miguel pointed us to this now defunct TV series, Stripperella.
According to Wikipedia:
Stripperella was a short-lived adult-oriented American animated television series created by Stan Lee. The main character, voiced by and based on Pamela Anderson, is a stripper named Erotica Jones who is also the superheroine/secret agent Stripperella. It is rated TV-MA in the United States.
Enjoy her many stripper-related tricks in this youtube homage:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16ZlNq65S4I[/youtube]
Thanks Miguel!
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 the late 1930s, the movie Reefer Madness dramatized the effects of marijuana abuse (watch the entire video here). In the 1970s, it was ridiculed as hysteria and propaganda.
In light of this, and without trivializing meth addiction (which I understand to be devastating… but where does my information come from?), what do we think of these anti-meth PSAs from the Montana Meth Project? (You can also find television commercials there to go with these print ads.)
Hat tip to copyranter for bringing my attention to this ad campaign.
These posters were made by Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE), an association for sex workers’ rights.
Newsweek had an article today wondering if girl’s Halloween costumes might be too risque. I wasn’t surprised (I remember being shocked when I saw young girls dressed up as Spice Girls in 1998) so I decided to look around the Internet to find other questionable costumes. Not surprisingly, Halloween costumes are markers of not only gender and heterosexuality, but of race and class as well.
Let’s take children’s “occupational” costumes, for example. Here are some for girls: The French maid, nurse, and cheerleader costumes were the most prevalent.
And what about occupations for boys?
And look at how race is marked with some of the children’s costume models (2 cats, and a dancer):
And note how the intersections of race, militarization, sexuality and gender are also displayed in this costume. The first is a children’s costume, and the second is for teenagers. Both costumes are called “Major Flirt.”
And now let’s move on to teenage costumes. Here are some particularly popular ones for teen girls– sexy devils and sexy angels.
The costumes for couples are also pretty telling– marked by heteronormative stereotypes. The first is a “Pimp and Kristy” costume, the second is a cop costume, and finally a costume of a brick layer and a woman dressed as a home, where the woman is literally displayed as the object, as the object of a man’s action.
Anyway, happy Halloween!
Many believe that all women involved in prostitution are desperate for rescue and that being rescued always and inevitably leads to a better life for women and their families. Myra M. F. sent us a link to this poster, made by brothel workers in Thailand, begs for an end to attempts to rescue them. Laura Agustin, who took this picture (and blogged about it here), writes:
This poster comes from the EMPOWER centre in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where brothel workers gathered to discuss recent raids and rescue operations. On the left they have written a list of reasons why they do not wish to be rescued by police, ngo or charity workers.
The text (as transcribed by Agustin):
• We lose our savings and our belongings.
• We are locked up.
• We are interrogated by many people.
• They force us to be witnesses.
• We are held until the court case.
• We are held till deportation.
• We are forced re-training.
• We are not given compensation by anybody.
• Our family must borrow money to survive while we wait.
• Our family is in a panic.
• We are anxious for our family.
• Strangers visit our village telling people about us.
• The village and the soldiers cause our family problems.
• Our family has to pay ‘fines’ or bribes to the soldiers.
• We are sent home.
• Military abuses and no work continues at home.
• My family has a debt.
• We must find a way back to Thailand to start again.
Many activists in the U.S. similarly argue that the policing of prostitution, ostensibly to “protect” women,” serves to criminalize them (and not so much their johns) and ultimately makes their lives more difficult and dangerous than they would be otherwise. (See, for example, Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics or COYOTE.)
See also posters against the criminalization of prostitution.
The propaganda below, from World War II, was distributed by the U.S. government. In the posters, venereal disease (later known as sexually transmitted disease, and even later as sexually transmitted infections) is personified as a woman. Remember, venereal disease is NOT a woman. It’s bacteria or virus that passes between women and men. Women do not give it to men. Women and men pass it to each other. When venereal disease is personified as a woman, it makes women the diseased, guilty party and men the vulnerable, innocent party.
In this ad, the soldier is made innocent with the label “The Young, The Brave, The Strong.” The first girl is labeled “prostitution.” She says to the soldier: “Two girls I know want to meet you in the worst way.” The two women on the stairs, with the faces of skeletons, are labelled “syphilis” and “gonnorhea.”
Text: “Warning: These enemies are still lurking around.” The women are labeled “syphillis” and “gonnorhea.”
This one is my favorite. A female skeleton in an evening gown walks with her arms around Hitler and Hirohito. The text reads: “V.D. Worst of the Three.”
Here are three more:
At least some of these can be found here. Thanks to the unbeatablekid pointing out a source in our comments.
NEW: Marc sent us a link to these images (all found here):
A matchbook:
A pamphlet distributed to soldiers:
Thanks, Marc!
Miguel pointed us to this now defunct TV series, Stripperella.
According to Wikipedia:
Stripperella was a short-lived adult-oriented American animated television series created by Stan Lee. The main character, voiced by and based on Pamela Anderson, is a stripper named Erotica Jones who is also the superheroine/secret agent Stripperella. It is rated TV-MA in the United States.
Enjoy her many stripper-related tricks in this youtube homage:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16ZlNq65S4I[/youtube]
Thanks Miguel!
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 the late 1930s, the movie Reefer Madness dramatized the effects of marijuana abuse (watch the entire video here). In the 1970s, it was ridiculed as hysteria and propaganda.
In light of this, and without trivializing meth addiction (which I understand to be devastating… but where does my information come from?), what do we think of these anti-meth PSAs from the Montana Meth Project? (You can also find television commercials there to go with these print ads.)
Hat tip to copyranter for bringing my attention to this ad campaign.
These posters were made by Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE), an association for sex workers’ rights.
Newsweek had an article today wondering if girl’s Halloween costumes might be too risque. I wasn’t surprised (I remember being shocked when I saw young girls dressed up as Spice Girls in 1998) so I decided to look around the Internet to find other questionable costumes. Not surprisingly, Halloween costumes are markers of not only gender and heterosexuality, but of race and class as well.
Let’s take children’s “occupational” costumes, for example. Here are some for girls: The French maid, nurse, and cheerleader costumes were the most prevalent.
And what about occupations for boys?
And look at how race is marked with some of the children’s costume models (2 cats, and a dancer):
And note how the intersections of race, militarization, sexuality and gender are also displayed in this costume. The first is a children’s costume, and the second is for teenagers. Both costumes are called “Major Flirt.”
And now let’s move on to teenage costumes. Here are some particularly popular ones for teen girls– sexy devils and sexy angels.
The costumes for couples are also pretty telling– marked by heteronormative stereotypes. The first is a “Pimp and Kristy” costume, the second is a cop costume, and finally a costume of a brick layer and a woman dressed as a home, where the woman is literally displayed as the object, as the object of a man’s action.
Anyway, happy Halloween!