{"id":49817,"date":"2012-08-01T11:20:48","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T16:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=49817"},"modified":"2013-11-08T01:52:51","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T06:52:51","slug":"power-and-the-paradox-of-writing-against-inequality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/08\/01\/power-and-the-paradox-of-writing-against-inequality\/","title":{"rendered":"Power and the Paradox of Writing Against Inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of the challenge of taking care of a blog involves keeping the archive alive. \u00a0One way to do that is to link readers to older posts they they might be interested in. \u00a0We do that, in part, with an automated process called Link Within<\/a>. \u00a0When we publish a post, the program searches our archive for similar posts and includes a set of thumbnails at the bottom that readers can click on if they’d like to know more.<\/p>\n

At the bottom of a recent post about the role of carrots in World War II<\/a>, for example, linkwithin offered these options:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThere are pitfalls to this type of program that illustrate a bigger problem involved with talking about social inequality. \u00a0A reader named Sarah C. emailed us the following observation in response the thumbnails that followed a post about the sexual objectification of women<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I wanted to point out the dissonance I feel when I spend time reading a thoughtful article about gender equality and then when I finish the bottom of the page greets me with a line of 100 x 100 px images of sexualized womens’ bodies. \u00a0They are the same kinds of images I would see browsing Cracked or College Humor, or other mainstream sites. \u00a0The Huffington Post does it too – sites claiming to be (and often actually are) more or less progressive are using sexist tactics to get people to click, or at least that’s what it seems like…<\/p>\n

I think it’s great to include examples of objectification in your posts in order to illustrate your point. \u00a0But using those images as a thumbnail gets you the wrong attention. \u00a0It feels hypocritical, or at least incongruous with your blog’s goals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is what Sarah saw:
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since the thumbnails are automatically generated, we don’t actually know what the thumbnails will be until we see the published post on the site. \u00a0So, upon seeing Sarah’s screenshot of the thumbnails, I was taken aback. \u00a0I understood immediately why she felt compelled to send us an email.<\/p>\n

The phenomenon goes far beyond thumbnails. \u00a0Even if we did away with Link Within, our posts on the sexual objectification of women would include images that sexually objectified women. \u00a0We are Sociological Images<\/em>, after all. \u00a0 So our posts drawing attention to and criticizing the phenomenon also reinforce it. \u00a0It’s two steps forward and one step back, plus or minus a step.<\/p>\n

But even if we weren’t an image-based blog, even if we simply discussed sexual objectification without an accompanying visual, doing so would remind readers that women are objectified, that they need to worry about how their bodies look, and that they’re being judged by their appearance. \u00a0At least one study<\/a> has demonstrated that simply being exposed to objectifying words<\/em>, devoid of imagery, can increase the degree to which women self-objectify.<\/p>\n

Talking about sexual objectification always threatens to deepen the degree to which people feel sexually objectified, even if that is the opposite of one’s intention. \u00a0This phenomenon applies just as well to other forms of oppression. \u00a0Talking about the way in which state policies help or hinder Mexican immigrants to the U.S., for example, potentially further entrenches the idea that all Latinos are “illegals.” \u00a0Pointing out under-development in parts of Africa potentially affirms the notion that all of Africa is economically backward or politically corrupt. \u00a0Referring to women’s lack of representation in math and science may make women even more anxious about pursuing these careers.<\/p>\n

This is one of the ways that power works. \u00a0It \u00a0co-opts the strategies available for fighting back. \u00a0 Power is flexible and\u00a0accommodating, it controls and convinces through all possible channels, it finds ways to infiltrate all mediums. \u00a0This is why it’s so hard, in the first place, to eradicate prejudice and inequality.<\/p>\n

Coming to our blog is, for these reasons, a scary proposition. \u00a0Because we sometimes talk about ugly things, there will be ugly things here. \u00a0Taking out the thumbnails won’t change that; neither would deleting all of the images we reproduce. \u00a0Deleting all posts that address inequality would, but then we would be silently complicit with the status quo. \u00a0So, we keep blogging, and we keep uploading, and we keep trying to engage our readers further… for better or worse.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of the challenge of taking care of a blog involves keeping the archive alive. \u00a0One way to do that is to link readers to older posts they they might be interested in. \u00a0We do that, in part, with an automated process called Link Within. \u00a0When we publish a post, the program searches our archive […]<\/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":[279,55,2093,2098,129,283],"class_list":["post-49817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-objectification","tag-gender","tag-gender-objectification","tag-gender-prejudicediscrimination","tag-media","tag-prejudicediscrimination"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49817","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=49817"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58219,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49817\/revisions\/58219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}