Sociological Images

The point isn’t that you’re supposed to be outraged, but rather than these images can be used to spark sociological discussion (we intended them for classes, but I suppose you can do it on the street corner if you want) about bigger themes–the images themselves are a starting point for discussions about anything from discrimination to patriotism to globalization or whatever else you might think of to do with them. I don’t find the boob puddings “offensive,” I find them funny but also a possible starting place for a discussion of things like our obsession with incorporating sex into the world around us in some ways but not others; they also fit into a series of posts we’ve had of women’s bodies being turned into things you can buy/touch. Not that we don’t do that with men’s bodies too, obviously, but often in different ways.

I know there are erotic bakeries in the U.S. These products were on sale in Japan. We often tag things with the country they came from if they weren’t from the U.S. If we get a picture of something from Spain, we’d tag it as “Spain.” It doesn’t mean we’re saying that image says something about Spanish culture, but simply that that’s where it originated from. My comment in the post about Japan was meant to connect to the anime-like features, not that somehow Japan is the only place on earth that has food shaped like sexual parts.

As for the sociological element–we just provide examples of images we think might be useful for illustrating some sociological ideas (the way black women’s bodies are often animalized, for instance, or that social movement messages are often coopted and trivialized over time). But people are free to do whatever they want with the images. If the best someone can do is express “outrage,” that’s not particularly sociological or sophisticated, but I guess that’s what some people will do with it.