{"id":41527,"date":"2011-11-18T12:24:05","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T17:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=41527"},"modified":"2012-01-08T14:41:08","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T19:41:08","slug":"u-bahn-priority-seat-symbols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/11\/18\/u-bahn-priority-seat-symbols\/","title":{"rendered":"U-Bahn Priority Seat Symbols"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Cross-posted at <a href=\"http:\/\/myvienneseadventures.wordpress.com\/2011\/11\/03\/u-bahn-priority-seat-symbols\/\" target=\"_blank\">My Viennese Adventures<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There is something that I love about the Vienna metro system (besides the fact that it is supremely fast and reliable).<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at this:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/myvienneseadventures.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/11\/metrosexist.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/myvienneseadventures.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/11\/metrosexist.jpg?w=575&amp;h=202\" alt=\"\" width=\"518\" height=\"182\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What do you notice?<\/p>\n<p>OK, first, the graphic design is fantastic. But what else?<\/p>\n<p>The \u2018old\u2019 and \u2018injured\u2019 people are represented by male figures. The pregnant individual is (unavoidably) a woman, and the person carrying a child is also female.<\/p>\n<p>So far, so typical.<\/p>\n<p>Most public signage on Earth seems to follow this pattern. The generic individual is by default male, except when they are connected with child-rearing, when they magically become female. Never mind that women also get old and break their legs, or that men are perfectly capable of toting around a three-year old on public transport.<\/p>\n<p>The difference with the U-Bahn is that you will see just as many of these signs as of the one above:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/myvienneseadventures.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/11\/metronotsexist.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/myvienneseadventures.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/11\/metronotsexist.jpg?w=580&amp;h=168\" alt=\"\" width=\"522\" height=\"151\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The preggers woman is still there, but who are those folks with her? An old lady! An injured gal! And, most radically, a dude with a pesky kid!<\/p>\n<p>It might seem insignificant, but the signs that surround us are constantly sending us messages about who we are, and our place in society.<\/p>\n<p>These signs are a small gender-victory, and they put a smile on my face!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Kate Shea Baird works at Women Without Borders in Vienna, specialising in the counter-radicalization of violent extremists. She has a BA in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from the University of Oxford, and an MA in European thought from University College London.<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to write a post for Sociological Images, please see our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2007\/07\/21\/instructions-for-guest-bloggers\/\" target=\"_self\">Guidelines for Guest Bloggers<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cross-posted at My Viennese Adventures. There is something that I love about the Vienna metro system (besides the fact that it is supremely fast and reliable). Take a look at this: What do you notice? OK, first, the graphic design is fantastic. But what else? The \u2018old\u2019 and \u2018injured\u2019 people are represented by male figures. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,2088,272,1766,23622],"class_list":["post-41527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gender","tag-gender-marriagefamily","tag-marriagefamily","tag-nation-austria","tag-social-construction-symbols"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41527"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43575,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41527\/revisions\/43575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}