According to the BBC, the Amateur International Boxing Association is advising women boxers to wear skirts. The President of the Association, Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu, argues that it allows viewers to tell the difference between the men and the women: I have heard many times, people say, ‘We can’t tell the difference between the men and the women,’ [...]
Breast cancer awareness efforts have been wildly successful in one way and, research suggests, a great failure in another. On the success side, the movement has mobilized a truly stunning range of companies to brand their products in ways that raise awareness of breast cancer. Here are a few examples. Fresh cookies (with pink chocolate [...]
In a previous post I’ve argued against framing a preference for boy children as “culturally ‘Asian.’” New data from Gallup, sent in by Kari B., shows that this preference is alive and well among Americans, at least among men. While women are most likely to have no opinion and are about equally likely to prefer a girl [...]
U.S. women of color have historically been the victims of forced sterilization. Some women were sterilized during Cesarean sections and never told; others were threatened with termination of welfare benefits or denial of medical care if they didn’t “consent” to the procedure; others received unnecessary hysterectomies at teaching hospitals as practice for medical residents. In [...]
From Sociological Images: Reader Tara C. sent in a great excuse to revive an old post featuring public resistance to marketing that sexually objectifies women. As I wrote back then, this resistance shows that: Adding commentary to the ubiquitous images that surround us [can help] us to notice, even if just temporarily, that our environment [...]
The New York Times has a fascinating 3-minute video on “roster management.” a term referring to the manipulation of Title IX rules in order to appear like you’re following them when you’re not. As the article explains, schools demonstrate compliance with Title IX; …by showing that the number of female athletes is in proportion to [...]
The cover of this month’s Dossier Journal magazine has caused a great stir. In a matter of a few hours, I’ve received five emails about it. Here’s what all the fuss is about: Featured is an androgynous male model named Andrej Pejic, with hair and make-up usually seen only on women, sliding his shirt off his [...]
Growing up in America, we learn that sweets and junk food are “guilty pleasures.” Women, especially, are supposed to refrain from such indulgences. And, if they cannot—if they, for example, desire more than that modest slice of cake served to each birthday guest—then they should feel not only guilt, but shame. For overindulging is grotesque [...]
Today, Equal Pay Day, marks the wage gap: the fact that full-time women workers earn 77 percent of what full-time male workers do. One major reason is job segregation by sex. Jobs themselves are gendered, such that women have a tendency to enter feminized occupations and men have a tendency to enter masculinized occupations. How [...]
No Comment: Caveman Courtship
Somewhere we got the idea that ”caveman” courtship involved a man clubbing a woman over the head and dragging her by the hair to his cave where he would, presumably, copulate with an unconscious or otherwise unwilling woman. This idea, as these two products show, is generally considered good for a chuckle. (glasses sent in by [...]