{"id":52849,"date":"2013-01-02T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T17:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=52849"},"modified":"2017-09-17T08:26:59","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T13:26:59","slug":"gender-ideology-by-geico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2013\/01\/02\/gender-ideology-by-geico\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender Ideology by Geico"},"content":{"rendered":"

In her classic article, Teddy Bear Patriarchy<\/a>, Donna Haraway examined the arrangement of the taxidermied animals in the American Museum of Natural History mammal hall in the first half of the 1900s. \u00a0She observed that the dioramas consistently featured nuclear families with strong fathers alert for dangers and nurturing mothers attending to their children.<\/p>\n

This was a lie, of course. As we well know, the nuclear family is the exception, not the rule among mammals. \u00a0Instead of science, it was our own beliefs about men, women, and gender roles that informed the curators of the exhibits… and left viewers with a sense that these arrangements were more natural and universal than they are.<\/p>\n

I’m an animal lover and have a broad appreciation for science, so I particularly enjoy exposing this type of projection. \u00a0Bee Movie was a particularly egregious case<\/a>\u00a0and we’ve written posts on nature documentaries that do this (on hyenas<\/a> and flatworms<\/a>). \u00a0The latest case is a Geico commercial. \u00a0See if you can catch it:<\/p>\n