Category: Science & Technology

Science & Technology / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Multiple Births as Media Spectacle

by theoryforthemasses In the past week considerable debate has emerged over the birth of a set of octuplets to a California woman. Controversy has surrounded both the doctors who facilitated the births as well as the mother herself, who is single, unemployed, and has six other children. The attention that is being paid to this family by both the media and ordinary people who are eager to share their opinions on fertility treatments and parental responsibility has created nothing short...

Gender & Sexuality / Science & Technology / Social Movements / Social Change / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Transphotography

by kiddingthecity Transsexual people are willing to become invisible, international acclaimed photographer and researcher Sara Davidmann maintains, in order to be accepted in the social norm, which wants a strict binary distinction between genders.  The issue of safety in public space here, I guess, is crucial – hence, the urge to comply to the visual stereotype of the male or of the female. As it is the issue of ‘medicalization’, that is, the tendency of western culture to push ‘deviance’...

Gender & Sexuality / Political & Economic Sociology / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Science & Technology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Video Resources

Capitalism's meltdown and the Body (II)

by kiddingthecity Jeff Wall is famous for grand tableaux, which he shoots in sections over several months before stitching together the final image using computer montage. He has been known to spend almost two years on a single picture, with actors and crew to shoot scenes of the everyday. He teases out the myth of reality outside perception to the point that he is able to re-create in studio the ‘decisive moment’ of Cartier-Besson, in which the elements of an...

Political & Economic Sociology / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Science & Technology / Sociology of Culture

Perspective on Living in “Bad Times”

by rbobbitt Turn on the news on any given channel at any time during the day and more than likely you will hear something of the “hard times” befalling Americans as we continue to struggle through was has finally been recognized as a recession. As the holidays are upon us, pundits lament how holiday sales are down and people are modestly spending on one another. However, perhaps we Americans should be putting in perspective what we view as “tough times.”...

Science & Technology / Sociology of Culture

Birth, Knowledge, and Social Class

by theoryforthemasses A recent article in The New York Times explored the burgeoning popularity of homebirth among New Yorkers. Citing the success of the documentary film, The Business of Being Born, the article suggests that New York City women are increasingly opting for birthing at home rather than in hospitals. Researchers such as Robbie Davis-Floyd and Melissa Cheyney have offered interesting insights into the unique experiences of homebirthers, particularly into their acquisition and use of knowledge, power, and control during...

Gender & Sexuality / Science & Technology

Unintended Consequences

by dsantore   Prostate cancer patient Dana Jennings (who also happens to be a New York Times editor) has us thinking again about just what it means to be a man.  Jennings, who was diagnosed earlier this year, is learning about the ironic, gendered side effects associated with his cancer treatment.  According to Jennings, one of the drugs prescribed to him, Lupron, is a “testosterone suppressant, designed to starve hormone-dependent cancer cells of the fuel (testosterone) that they crave in...

Gender & Sexuality / Science & Technology

"Gender Solidarity"

by socanonymous Nobel-prize winner, Dr. Harald zur Hausen, who discovered the link between the human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer recently gave a talk to researchers and health specialists in Toronto about the dangers of non-vaccination. He discounted the view that only females need to be vaccinated and stressed the importance of female and male inclusion in HPV vaccination efforts. Even though almost all cervical cancers are caused by HPV, it also plays a large role in penile and anal...

Science & Technology / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance

U.S. College Presidents Call for Debate on Lowering the Drinking Age

by NickieWild With campus binge drinking on the rise, advocates on opposing sides of this issue are using health and safety study data to support their positions. Last July, the non-profit organization Choose Responsibly launched the Amethyst Initiative, a coalition of Unites State college presidents who want to start a serious debate about lowering the drinking age in an effort to curb binge drinking on campus. Citing the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the group argues that the...

Science & Technology / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Hyperreality and the Cocoon

by theoryforthemasses An international design collective, NAU, is developing an Immersive Cocoon that would allow users to step into 3D virtual worlds. Within the Immersive Cocoon, users would be able to visit virtual cities, museums, and stores, experiencing the environments as if they were actually there, walking, looking, and shopping. French sociologist Jean Baudrillard suggested that postindustrialized societies enter states of hyperreality marked by the dominance of simulacra, wherein simulations of experiences become more meaningful and important than actual experiences....

Science & Technology / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Soldiers and Suicide

by delawaregrad More than a century ago, French sociologist Emile Durkheim found that suicides were not simply the result of selfish individual action but were influenced by social forces such as age, gender and religion, and developed categories of suicide.  One of these categories is egoistic suicide, where individuals take their life because they are not well integrated into society due to a breakdown of social ties.  A recent article in the Washington Post found that suicide is on the...