Contexts blogs

• immigrant workers: doing it all for you
  The New York Times reports that the number of foreign-born workers is on the rise in the U.S. Nearly one in six American workers is foreign-born, the highest proportion since the 1920s, according to a census analysis released Monday. Because of government barriers to immigration, the share of foreign-born workers dipped from a 20th-century high of 21 [...] […]
• Phone Sex: Real and Imaginary (NSFW)
  In my Power and Sexuality class, I sometimes assign articles from a book called Whores and Other Feminists. All of the essays are written by current and former sex workers who identify as feminist. It’s pretty fascinating. So some of the phone sex operators talk about what they do while having “phone sex,” like chores and booking airline ti […]
• SocImages Apparently Undermining Itself One Image at a Time
  If you were to view an article about the diversity of Saudi Arabian life, and it included the following images, what would you likely take away from the article? Elisabeth R. drew our attention to a recent study asking about the relationship between images and text. It found that, when images that confirmed a reader’s stereotypes about a place were pai […]
• Gay marriage in the US by space and time
  What works I cropped what you see above from an infographic that is part of GOOD magazine’s infographic section called Transparency. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend it. This was the strongest part of the graphic. It does a masterful job of elegantly illustrating a relationship both in space and time. [...]
• Calling out Vile Homophobia
  Big shout to co-Contexts blogger Kari Lerum at Sexuality and Society for bringing attention to a vile piece of legislation in the Ugandan Parliament that would allow the “crime of homosexuality” to be punishable by death.  As academics we are trained to take detached, analytical approaches to events in the social world.  Understandably, we don […]
• Global Warming Reparations
  Nothing beats a nice clean visual presentation to hammer home a point. Point here…we are some energy hoggin’ you-know-whatters but we’re not alone.  To be fair, it would probably be more appropriate to collapse the global emissions of all the EU nations into one bubble rather than breaking it down by individual country.   Are you as [...] […]
• Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right—Dude, Where’s My Stimulus?
  Years ago, I once had a conversation with an economist who freely admitted that there was no unified macroeconomic theory.  What works versus what doesn’t work in a particular sociopolitical context is really just so much spitballing.  This never surprised me given the complex realities of global capitalism. I’ve been genuinely perplexed by Barac […]
• Weekends Are for Porn (Not News)
  Just in case you’ve ever wanted evidence that people do more online searches for porn on weekends (especially Friday nights!): Thanks to Larry. UPDATE: Reader Dangger sent us a comparison of searches for porn and news: (Via.) (View original at http://contexts.org/socimages)
• Weber’s Monopoly on Violence
  Perry H. sent in this cartoon: The cartoon, of course, reminds us of the power of words.  Calling something “terrorism” is a way to make it seem illegitimate.   And, often, what makes violence illegitimate is not something inherent in the violence itself, but your perspective on it. The cartoon also reminds us of Max Weber’s insight that th […]
• Finally A Women’s Movement Men Can Get Behind
  Last week Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a scorching critique of the uproar over pushing regular mammography back till 50-years-old, in light of the muted response to the Stupak amendment excluding abortion from both state and public health insurance programs. “So welcome to the Women’s Movement 2.0,” she writes “pink-ribbon culture has replaced […]