Sociological Images

In honor of Black History Month I thought I’d post this Family Dollar ad from last February, sent in by Gloria K.:

As Gloria says, “I guess nothing honors African-American heritage quite like cream relaxer.” Indeed. If only they’d included some skin lighteners, we’d really be set.

[Random advice: As a person with super, extremely, extraordinarily curly-for-a-White-person hair, I am telling you: do not let anyone convince you that you should try these products to straighten your hair. This stuff will burn the shit out of your scalp. You will feel like it is on fire. I can't imagine that it doesn't feel about the same for Black women. This is a product invented to torture people.]

Sociologists have noted that race and gender have been more politicized in the U.S. than class.  In contrast, class is highly politicized in Europe, leading to a much stronger labor movement.   The weak labor movement in the U.S. is partly to blame for the stingy federal policies around vacation and holidays.  The U.S. federal government dictates that employees are given exactly zero paid holiday and vacation days a year (that means, if you get such things, it is because your employer is being generous/in a benefits arms race with other employers).  This is in stark contrast to most other OECD countries:

Yep, that’s right.  In every country included except Canada and Japan (and the U.S.), workers get at least 20 paid vacation days.  In France and Finland, they get 30… an entire month off, paid, every year.

When I show figures like these (and there are many of them, parental leave, work hours, military spending, class inequality, etc) to my students, they are STUNNED.  Most Americans are woefully ignorant of how pro-business U.S. policies are compared to the policies of like countries.  I think this ignorance contributes to the resistance many Americans display when politicians and activists talk about improving protections for workers.

Gin and Tacos:

We’re a nation of people working harder and harder for less and less, and the merest suggestion that we should do anything other than work 9 hour days without pause until we drop dead is met with cries of socialism…

The quality of life of a typical American certainly suffers from our ignorance of life in other nations.  If we were more aware of what a strong labor movement could offer, we might be more supportive of those movements.

I’ve always loved this bumper sticker:

I recently went to Target to buy a birthday card for my grandma. I spent quite a while looking at all the cards because she’s hard to pick things out for (even a card). It was only because I was scrutinizing every single row of cards that I came upon the Jewish card section, way down on the bottom row. I could tell it was the Jewish section because all of the dividers that tell you what kind of card is in that slot (birthday, anniversary, etc.) had a Star of David on them.

I was interested in what a specifically Jewish birthday card might look like, so I picked this one up:

The inside:

I was initially confused and thought it must have been misplaced until I finally noticed that the two pink packages have Stars of David on them. I also thought maybe there’s a stereotype that Jews feel guilty a lot, since the word “guilty” was emphasized on the front. (Ok, I googled it and apparently I’m the only person who didn’t know that’s a common association.)

Mary Waters found that people often believe that ethnicity explains all types of behavior even though that behavior is in fact very widespread and claimed as typical of many ethnic groups. She interviewed White ethnics in the U.S.; they often attributed their families’ characteristics to their ethnicity. Take the idea of the loud, boisterous family, often including a mother who is constantly trying to get the kids to eat more of her homecooked meals and worrying if they aren’t married. Many individuals depicted their family this way and claimed that their ethnicity was the reason.

People who identified their background as Italian, Greek, Jewish, Polish, and others all believed that the way their family interacted was a unique custom of their ethnic group. Yet they all described pretty much the same characteristics. The cardmakers’ (and others’) allusion to guilt to signify Jewishness seems to me to fall into this category: take out the Stars of David and I bet a range of religious/ethnic groups would think it was tailored to them specifically.

So you take a card, say guilt in it, add a Star of David, and you’ve got a Jewish card. Take out the Star of David, maybe it’s a Catholic card, especially if you added a cross, since they’re often portrayed as feeling a lot of guilt. I’ve had friends who grew up Southern Baptist or Pentecostal joke about having felt guilty about everything (especially stuff related to sex or, for one friend, secretly eating Halloween candy), so you could market the card to them, too! I think it’s a good example of how we often treat characteristics or behaviors as somehow meaningfully connected to a specific ethnic background rather than being a pretty common way that people in general, across ethnic lines, behave.

UPDATE: Reader The Martian makes another point:

The card could be seen as reinforcing the stereotype of the “Jewish American Princess.” Notice the high-heeled slipper and the allusion to lots of shoes; the “spoiled” Jewish woman who spends lots of money (implicitly, daddy’s or her husband’s money) on clothes, etc. I’m not saying this was intentional, but that this could be the consequence.

This vintage ad reminds us of a time when “gay” meant “happy” and fruit cake wasn’t a joke:

See more gay ads here!

From Vintage Ads.

In this clip from QI, the host and guests discuss the Roman God Mithras and his suspicious similarity to Jesus:

Thanks to Mytch P. for sharing this show with me!

Consider this a catch-all post showing the many ways in which marketers use the excuse of gift-giving to reinforce gender stereotypes.

Exhibit One: Katrin B. sent along this example from Zazzle.  She writes:

The gift guide section is great… Men fish, hunt, are tech nerds, BBQ kings, and are in the military.  And, if you really have to, there is a “Metro Man gift” section as well. Women are animal lovers, spiritual, environmentalist, interior designers, teachers, brides, sorority members AND they “support the troops” as military wives. Of course THEY are NOT soldiers. Just like men cannot be married to and much less, support, a woman in the military.  The only thing men and women have in common?  The 80s.

Exhibit Two: Keely W. sent along this delightful gift suggestion. Moms, need a gift that costs just a little but seriously pays off? Buy your daughter these eyebrow tweezers! They’ll make for hours of wonderful mother-daughter time! Here’s to the intergenerational transfer of patriarchal beauty standards!

Exhibit Three: Maggie G. sent in these screen shots from the Lego website.  First, notice that, just as with the dinosaur website we posted about recently, legos are assumed to be for boys, unless they are specifically for girls.  The girls category in the bottom row makes all the other categories, by default, for boys:

If you click on girls, you get two options, Belville and Preschool:

Here’s what the Belville sets look like (all pink with horsies, puppies, and fairies!):

Legos aimed at younger kids are, I guess, gender-neutral… which is consistent with the increasingly pressure to gender-differentiate as kids get older:

Got any more gendered x-mas guides?  Send them in and I’ll start a post for next year.

See also this post on gendered gift-giving guides.

Reader Jennifer E. B. alerted us to the Dutch tradition of Zwarte Piet, “Black Pete.”  Jennifer writes:

I grew up in a town that was overwhelmingly Dutch.  Most people in town had Dutch anscestry (though not my family), there was a Dutch festival each spring, and before Christmas there was a Sinterklaas parade (Dutch Santa Claus).  When we were there for Christmas this year both of my daughters received a chocolate in the shape of their initial in their stockings from my sister.  I had let them have some of the chocolate several times before the background picture on the box caught my eye.

What Jennifer saw was what looked like a character in blackface (product found here):

Jennifer did some digging and she discovered that Zwarte Piet is a traditional Christmas character in the Netherlands.

Lulu Helder at the Museum of Racist Memorobilia explains:

The role is usually played by a white woman or man who wears black or brown grease paint on their faces (Saint Nicholas is always performed by a man). He or she wears large golden earrings, a curly wig and red lipstick. Right now they wear brown grease paint more often because “the blackness frightens children”.

Once the transformation is completed, a change in voice and behaviour usually follow. He or she will speak improper Dutch with a low voice and a Surinamese accent.

Below the jump are some pictures (not safe for work):

(more…)

Over Thanksgiving we posted a Bed, Bath, and Beyond ad that illustrated the fact that women, overwhelmingly, take responsibility for the work involved with holidays.  Victoria S. sent us a U.K. website illustrating the same idea.  The website, for a shopping center, is using the slogan, the 12 Mums of Christmas.

Victoria writes:

…it assumes that the mum of the family does EVERYTHING for the family/friends.  It also forgets about people who therefore don’t have children, or people who are on their own, or those that don’t have a mum-type figure in their lives etc…

The site even nicely describes the various tasks that “mums” are responsible for.

The shopper:

The planner:

The wrapper:

The party girl:

Mums!  Do all the work!  Look great!  And have a good time, too!  Or else you fail as a mother.  Just sayin’.

The first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was put up in 1931, during the Great Depression:

In 1944 the tree was left unlit because of WWII and the need to blackout cities to avoiding bombing.

In 1967, the tree was opportunity for Canada and the U.S. to demonstrate good will to one another.  It was Canada’s 100th birthday and, in honor of the milestone, they donated a tree.

In 1971, Rockefeller Center bowed to the environmental movement and agreed to recycle the tree.  In the picture below it is being taken to a processing plant to be turned into mulch. 

Later,  the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, and Habitat for Humanity would put the tree to use.

In 2007, the tree was lit with LED lights instead of incandescent bulbs in order to save energy.  NBC covered the story very favorably, attracting criticism given that it was NBC’s parent company, General Electric, who manufactured and sold the bulbs.

In 2008, signifying its commercialization, a 10 foot tall, 550-lb star made with 25,000 Swarovski crystals topped the tree.  Rumor is that Swarovski paid $1.5 million dollars for the privilege, while pop star Fergie had the privilege of helping unveil the over-the-top tree topper:

All photographs and information borrowed from Time.

Privilege comes in many forms: class privilege, white privilege, male privilege, heterosexual privilege and so on.  Being privileged means that you “fit” in the society in which you live and reap rewards by virtue of just being.

Recognizing privilege isn’t just a matter of being thoughtful or empathetic, it usually involves sacrificing something.  Sometimes it’s something big (like the belief that your success is due entirely to your talents and hard work) and sometimes it’s something small.

The person who sent this confession to PostSecret is admitting to feeling frustrated by giving up one of those small benefits that come with privilege:

Please welcome Guest Blogger, Monica.  Monica is teaches ethnic studies and works with survivors of interpersonal violence.  She blogs at The Woes of a Barren Lesbo and recently wrote an irreverent take-down of the cover of a Target holiday catalog.  We thought you’d enjoy her humor and creativity.

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My besties gave me a copy of the target toy catalog for 2009 and pointed out the front cover.

At first i thought it was just your typical run of the mill gender socialization propaganda…

White girl on the cover? Check.
Is she wearing pink? Check.
Is she wearing a tiara? Check.
Is she wearing a tutu? Check.
Is the tutu pink? Check.
Is she smiling? Check.
Is she playing with barbie? Check.
Is there a little boy in the image? Check.
Is he doing one of the following: making a mess, eating something or expressing anger? Check.

Ok, the basics are covered.

But upon further inspection, I realize that the barbie is holding Lego flowers…. and… wait a minute… are those church bells I see?!  …

That little boy isn’t just upset because she is playing with his (read: a boy’s) toy… He is mad because she is marrying them!

So not only do we have an image of a smiling white girl wearing a pink tutu and tiara playing with barbie while a little boy is expressing anger… but we can add heteronormative relationships and male aversion to marriage to the list.  Yay!  The only things missing are caption bubbles:

As a silver lining I like to look at this image and imagine that the little boy is upset for other reasons…

Or maybe the little boy is a radical activist:

Evidence that they’ve been trying to sell us high-technology razors since at least the 1930s (source):

Text:

The Schermack Round Safety Razor is the first really efficient and safe razor for women–because it’s round.  It fits all under-arm curves perfectly–any way you hold it. No sharp points or porjecting edges.  Shaves faster–smooth and clean–yet with no danger of cutting delicate skin.  Just what women have long been looking for.

A Splendid Christmas Gift!

As beautifully finished as a piece of jewelry…

A splendid Christmas gift, indeed.

What stuns me about this commercial is the utter celebration of a trivial, materialist culture for girls.  Girls love LOVE clothes and fashion!  Aaaaahhhh!  So haaaaappppy!

Via Jezebel.

This ad, found in Town and Country, features a man battling “a gift list of frightful aspect.”

Text:

THE FABLE OF THE GENEROUS GENT AND THE LOATHSOME LIST.

Once a generous sir, beset by a gift list of frightful aspect, vanquished the beast with one fell stroke of genuis in a quest triumphant at The Forum Shops.

It draws attention to what many of us feel, few of us say, and very, very few advertisers would emphasize: the gift giving mandate associated with Christmas (and, to a lesser degree, other U.S. holidays) can be an incredible emotional and financial burden, as well as a time suck.   I have no doubt that expressing dissatisfaction regarding gift giving is more acceptable, in general, for men than women (despite the fact that women do the majority of holiday-related chores).  Thus, it’s no accident that this ad is aimed at men.