Objectify This

Saturday night’s Mos Def concert was punctuated by frequent samples to highlight the talents of Mos’ DJs. One of the samples they chose was the bouncy blues of Ray Charles’ “I Got A Woman” (click for an audio-only experience; this was pre-MTV). A girl behind me bopping her head to the beat, was trying to [...]

Jay-Z begins his well-known hit “99 Problems” without music. Here’s the video: He states, “if you having girl problems, I feel bad for you, son; I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain’t one.” The beat kicks in, and in the verse that follows, the self-proclaimed “rap’s Grateful Dead” rhymes on: I got the rap [...]

In this video, Big Pun’s “100%,” featuring Tony Sunshine, the message is simultaneously one of Puerto Rican nationalism and unity and the objectification of women. The chorus in Spanglish, “Pronto llegara, el dia de mi suerte, te lo juro por mi gente, que el dia llegara, even though you playa’ hating, we always knew we’d [...]

The Supreme Court announced Wednesday, April 18th, that after a 5-4 decision, it will uphold the 2003 ruling of a lower court to ban partial- birth abortion. According to this article, the decision is “the first in which the court has upheld a ban on a specific method of abortion, means that doctors who perform [...]

A recent New York Times Article by Alex Williams, “Gay by Design, or a Lifestyle Choice?” discusses the idea of cars as markers of sexual identity, referring to the “soft lines” and “vibrant personality” of such vehicles as the Austin Mini Cooper and the Mazda MX-5 Miata. The market for “cute” cars, the article suggests, [...]

So there’s this billboard on Route 9. It used to look like this: The obvious parallels between the shape of the woman’s hips and the beer bottle and the tagline “Expect Everything” unite the woman’s body with the beer, as something to be consumed. The addition of the belt buckle in the shape of the [...]

  Since the advent of television, the News has been presented by a figure in a suit, sitting behind a desk. As the medium through which the news is conveyed, and as the only visible member of the production team responsible for creating the news, this person embodies the inner monologue of the news. The [...]