Sociological Images

Comments

• 

  eallen 7:05 am on November 13, 2008 | # | Reply

  Not relevant to the message, but I think there might be some Photoshop Disasters going on with this woman. Torso looks awfully short and arms look awfully small.

• 

  Vidya 10:01 am on November 13, 2008 | # | Reply

  Glad you mention ‘who is deserving of that altruism’. It’s been pretty well established that the lives of people considered to be attractive are more highly valued in Western societies than are those who do not fit these narrow ideals.
  The model’s low body weight is significant in this case, as many/most transplant centres will refuse to operate on people over a certain weight threshold, as they maintain that organs should go to those who will have the best ‘quality of life’ — even when there is no indication that a patient’s weight is or will become a quality-of-life issue. Fat people are often simply refused placement on transplant waiting lists unless they ‘lose the weight’ (a biological/metabolic impossibility in most cases).

  • 

    bosstone75 12:31 am on January 21, 2010 | # | Reply

    I disagree. Obesity has become an epidemic in the United State. True, there are people who have medical issues that don’t allow them to maintain a reasonable weight, but those people are a VERY SMALL minority of the fat people. The cure for most folks is not a biological or metabolic impossibility and to say so is to doom them to failure, when they could have succeeded. For most people, being fat is a lifestyle choice as much as smoking and drinking. Giving organs to obese people could stand to be as much of a waste as giving it to a chain smoker or binge drinker. We feel free to shame smokers and drinkers, but we lay pity on the all the obese, regardless of the reason? And how can a patient’s weight NOT affect their quality of life. It’s proven in scientific studies that obesity increases your chances of diabetes, heart failure, joint problems, breathing issues and death. I say we continue the practice of forcing fat people to lose weight before investing valuable organs to their systems EXCEPT in the VERY RARE cases of biological/metabolic issues impacting their weight loss which would be easy to determine. It’s time to stop babying everyone and force them to face their issues head on. Until they defeat their demons, they will never have pride and self-confidence.

• 

  Vidya 1:28 pm on November 13, 2008 | # | Reply

  Also, there are interesting parallels to be explored in the way organ transplantation contributes to thinking about and treating bodies and parts as exchangeable commodities rather than holistic entities, and the way that this ad invokes sexualization of women’s bodies to do the same.

  • 

    bosstone75 12:36 am on January 21, 2010 | # | Reply

    What strange world do you live on? These marketers are geniuses, possibly tapping an entire demographic of people who previously would not have considered donating, thus saving tens, hundreds or possibly thousands of lives that would not have been saved otherwise. And the fact that she is hot does not say that our society only values hot people. If it showed a whole line of hot people all in line for organs while a pile of ugly people were being harvested for their organs and discarded in mass graves… then THAT would show that we only value hot people. This is ONE person, not a representational sample of all the people.

• 

  Bagelsan 4:50 pm on November 13, 2008 | # | Reply

  Also a bit ironic, ’cause apparently heart-transplants (and perhaps other organs as well) work better when done between two people of the same sex. But I guess a picture of a half-naked young man sprawled over the couch, while more accurate, would have a narrower appeal? :p

• 

  rrsafety 6:13 pm on November 13, 2008 | # | Reply

  Vidya: Invididuals who are obese are sometime refused a spot on the waitlist not because of “Western society values” (give me a break) but because transplant surgeons are morally bound to maximize the use of each donated organ. Transplanting that organ into the obese who have much poorer outcomes makes little sense when there are equally sick individuals in better health who are more likely not to “waste” the organ.

  Bagelsan: Organs do not “work better” between people of the same sex. The deciding factor is body size. For instance, a young teen boy can donate to a petite woman and vice versa. A petitie woman’s heart transpanted into a large man however, won’t have the pumping power. Body size – not sex – is what provides for better outcomes.

• Message to the Guys: Donating Your Organs is Almost Like Sex : The Curvature 1:04 pm on November 14, 2008 | # | Reply

  [...] This ad promoting organ donation appeared in a Belgian men’s magazine. [...]

• Hoyden About Town 9:26 am on November 15, 2008 | # | Reply

  [...] quite a lot of chat around the femiblogosphere about this ad for organ donation, spotted at Sociological Images. (See also The Curvature, Feministe, the [...]

• Feminist Law Professors » Blog Archive » Does this make you want to become an organ donor? 11:33 am on November 15, 2008 | # | Reply

  [...] Via. [...]

• 

  Jeremy 3:06 pm on November 22, 2008 | # | Reply

  You stupid putz! Its no Photoshop disaster. Is your depth perception shot to hell from so much acid use? Its a photo taken with her sitting back in what looks like a limo seat. Get a grip. Nothing wrong with the photo.

  jd-professional photographer, photoshop expert for over 10 years.

• 

  Roulette Systems 10:00 am on November 23, 2008 | # | Reply

  Simple, but very effective advertising.

• 

  jess 2:51 pm on February 22, 2009 | # | Reply

  I agree that this is definitely photoshopped. you can tell because the pixels are all wrong. I’ve seen plenty of ’shops in my day…

• Sociological Images » “SEX SELLS” 2:25 am on March 2, 2009 | # | Reply

  [...] examples include these posts with ads promoting organ donation, an air conditioning technical school, selling pasta, vegetarianism, aviation, cars, war, travel, [...]

• What We’ve Been Up To Behind Your Back (August 2009) » Sociological Images 3:08 pm on September 1, 2009 | # | Reply

  [...] Sea Monkeys!  We added new ads for sea monkeys to our post on heteronormativity and a new collection we’re starting on ads that use sex to sell the most unlikely things. [...]