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“Free Pussy Riot” Lingerie Campaign: Appropriate or Appropriation?
Cross-posted at Osocio. We’ve been covering the saga of Russian protest punk group Pussy Riot for over a year now. The feminist collective performed guerrilla musical protests around Russia against...
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Punk in Burma: Cultural Appropriation & Resistance
Here at SocImages, we typically use the phrase “cultural appropriation” to describe rather frivolous borrowing of cultural practices and objects for the purposes of fun and fashion. We’ve posted on...
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That Racist Ice Cream Truck Song
Here’s a random creepy fact: one of the tunes that float out of ice cream trucks all summer is a racist song called “Nigger Love a Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!,” first recorded 1916 or before. Have a...
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Be Young, Be Cool, Be Happy…as an Apple Consumer
This is the third post in a four part series. Start at the beginning with: Whimsical Branding Obscures Apple’s Troubled Supply Chain. I cannot watch this 2003 Apple iPod commercial without shaking my...
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From the Mouths of Rapists: The Lyrics of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines
Trigger warning: Graphic descriptions of sexual assault. Note: The opinions expressed in this post belong to Sezin Koehler alone and should not be attributed to anyone involved with Project...
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My Two Cents on Feminism and Miley Cyrus
Oddly, three high profile female musicians find themselves in a public debate about what it means to be a feminist. We can thank Miley Cyrus for the occasion. After claiming that the video for...
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Does History Repeat Itself, But With More Porn?
In 1990 I was still an American Culture major in college, but I was getting ready to jump ship for sociology. That’s when Madonna’s “Justify My Love” video was banned by MTV, which was a thing people...
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“Hard Out Here”: Lily Allen Skewers the Music Industry
If the past few months in the music industry have left you demoralized — what with the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy and all — Lily Allen might make you feel better, emphasis on might. Her...
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From the Mouths of Rapists: The Lyrics of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines
We’re celebrating the end of the year with our most popular posts from 2013, plus a few of our favorites tossed in. The original of this post can be found here. Trigger warning: Graphic descriptions...
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Baby Conductor: Children Absorbing the World Around Them
A few times on SocImages we’ve been tickled to highlight instances of very young children performing adult behavior. In each (adorable) case, they were great examples of how children learn how to a...
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What Does It Mean to be Authentically Cajun?
Flashback Friday. The term “Cajun” refers to a group of people who settled in Southern Louisiana after being exiled from Acadia (now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) in the mid...
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Why Only Women, Wrestlers, and Weight Lifters Wear Leotards.
I am so grateful to reader Emma Farais for recommending that I look into the history of the leotard. It was invented by — well, who else — Jules Léotard. Born in 1842, Jules grew up to be an acrobat....
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The DJ in American Culture: Resonant, Misunderstood
As a sociologist who happens to DJ — or is that the other way around? — I’m always curious to see how DJing is depicted in popular culture and advertising. Ever since the 1970s, when the disco craze...
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Buy a Joe Strummer Replica Guitar with Your Sex Pistols Credit Card Because...
Ah, capitalism. The thing about our time is that we just might value individuality more than at any other point in the history of human life and, yet, at the same time, we have more capacity to mass...
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Why is it so hard to give Taylor Swift credit for 1989?
Musician Ryan Adams recently released an album cover. A cover, that is, of an entire album written and performed by Taylor Swift. Both albums are titled 1989. via TheVine.com. Critical praise for...
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You Think It’s Great, but It’s Probably Just Familiar
Despite the maxim about familiarity breeding contempt, we usually like what’s familiar. With music for example, familiarity breeds hits in the short run and nostalgia in the long run. The trouble is...
View ArticleMasculinity and Fidelity in Pop Music
Originally posted at the Gender & Society blog. Two songs that seemed like they were on the radio every time I tuned into a pop station last summer were Omi’s single, “Cheerleader” (originally...
View ArticleHow LSD opened minds and changed America
In the 1950s and ’60s, a set of social psychological experiments seemed to show that human beings were easily manipulated by low and moderate amounts of peer pressure, even to the point of violence. It...
View ArticlePunk Rock Resisting Islamophobia
Originally posted at Discoveries Punk rock has a long history of anti-racism, and now a new wave of punk bands are turning it up to eleven to combat Islamophobia. For a recent research article,...
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A Data Dive into Competitive A Cappella
Source Photo: Ted Eytan, Flickr CC It’s that time of year again! Fans across the nation are coming together to cheer on their colleges and universities in cutthroat competition. The drama is high and...
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