The Political is Personal: Examining the Role of Personal Connection to a Disease as an Access Point for Singledisease Interest Groups
“Comparing the advocacy efforts of the MS Society and ME Action Network demonstrates that single-disease advocacy groups gain access to representatives when they target those Congressional representatives with a personal interest in the disease.”
“Approximately 133 million Americans live with a chronic illness…. I am one of those Americans and live with a disease that very few doctors specialize in and for which few treatments options exist, at least in part because of lack of funding. This experience led me to ask what lobbying strategies are effective specifically for interest groups that represent patients with a single disease.”
“A single-disease interest group that finds legislators who have a personal connection to a disease is helping to create a shift in which suffering or observing a family member suffer from a disease changes from an unfortunate occurrence to an identity analogous to gender, race, religion, or any number of other characteristics that help shape one’s political identity.”
by Lindsey Mills
Exploring the History of Subliminal Racism in Ivory Soap Commercials
– As diseases and death skyrocketed due to the lack of accessible sanitary programs, the Eugenics movement swept in and latched on to the pollution panic. By defining “purity” as what one is not, as well as maintaining that white is the norm, one had defined whiteness as the pure norm and any other race as the other-ed filth (Berthold 14). page 2
-She is in the commercial because her boyfriend wrote to the Ivory company, stating that he believed Marcia was the perfect “Ivory girl”. This is one of the first examples of the “Ivory girl” being shown as an achievable symbol. “The Ivory girl” can be bought and created, as long as she is white. Marcia tells the viewers that she just loves learning about Ivory purity, because when she sees the commercials she just thinks, “That girl believes what I believe” (Procter & Gamble “Ivory Soap Commercial-1970’s”). Page 4
-Every white and white passing woman is seen in a simple white top before they are shown naked coquettishly covering their breasts; however, the black woman is never shown wearing clothing. The first time she appears on screen her back is to the camera, and she is only wearing a white necklace. There is a brief image with her smiling afterwards. In the next image, the woman is shown with a shirtless black man who has his arm around her; they both stand with their backs facing the camera. In the final image, she’s in the arms of the black man who is wearing a white shirt, but again, the woman is still naked (Procter & Gamble “Ivory Moisture Care”) page 5
-In fact, individuals who have weak feelings of identification with their race or culture have more positive attitudes towards ads featuring White models, no matter what their ethnic identification is (Morris and Kahlor 418). White people benefit from this finding on both ends, since individuals who have a stronger identification with their race have been found to have more positive attitudes towards ads featuring models from their ethnic group (418). page 6
by Anna Bloomfield
Read: Exploring the History of Subliminal Racism in Ivory Soap Commercials
Structural Violence in The Baltimore Sun’s Coverage of 1910 McCulloh Street
“The appearance of such language in the prominent Sun newspaper ensured that anti-African American sentiment would spread throughout the city and deny them a sense of belonging to the neighborhood community.” (3)
“To say that black individuals should not be allowed to live in these “best” parts of the city is to say that skin color is an immediate disqualifier for individuals combatting the city’s racist social, economic, and political norms.” (4)
“A black resident could have the same level of education and profession as a white resident and still not receive mutual respect and recognition, a sign not only of persistent racism but of white Baltimore’s effort to keep black families from acquiring wealth and assets in the form of property.”(4)
by Kathryn Vajda
Read: Structural Violence in The Baltimore Sun’s Coverage of 1910 McCulloh Street
Amid clouds of change, “The Sun comes out every day”
“An old-school newspaperman, Rasmussen stands out in the digital newsroom. He is a glimpse of The Sun’s past: a bow-tie is fastened around his neck and a gold watch on a chain sits in thepocket of his vest. His computer is buried underneath piles of notepads and books.
Since 1992, Rasmussen has handled one of the essential services of the 180-year-old newspaper: informing the public of the deaths of people from Baltimore. His obituaries are some of The Sun’s most-read pieces, both online and in print.”
“Paul McCardell, that invaluable sole researcher, spent so much time in the newsroom growing up that he likes to joke that he was born at The Sun. Since beginning work in the library in 1983, his job has been constantly changing. In 1991, the library began transitioning to an online format. Now, almost everything is digitized and only a skeleton of the former library remains.
‘I feel like I time travel every day,’ says McCardell.”
“‘We didn’t envision any of this,’ says Rasmussen. When the internet first came to The Sun, no one thought that it would be as popular as it is. And no one knows what the next big thing will be or how it will affect the way news is spread. Journalists at The Sun are confident the paper will persevere, but it is hard to imagine the newsroom changing even more.”
by Clara Symmes
Sex and The State: The Impact of State Policy on Sexual Expression in China
“During the Cultural Revolution, the central government defined love as collective enthusiasm for the state. This created a paradigm where expressions of love and desire for the purpose of self-fulfillment were framed as selfish, and even anarchistic.”
“In the span of a relatively short amount of time, the Chinese were subjected to two opposing messages from the state. Initially, they were encouraged to use their sexuality and nationalism to support the state by bearing children. Not long after, they were told to show their patriotism by limiting the number of children they had. In both instances, however, sex was framed as a biological imperative, and not a means to fulfill one’s romantic or sexual desire.”
“The focus of the state and society shifted from class struggle to economic development, and with this shift came the rise of self-determinism: the actions of one’s self are now determined by themselves alone. When thought of in terms of sex, what was once viewed as only a means to increase the workforce and population became a source of pleasure for pleasure’s sake.
by Emma Loftis
Read: Sex and The State: The Impact of State Policy on Sexual Expression in China
Interactions & Environmental Attitudes: A Statistical Analysis of How Experiences Determine Outlook Towards Goucher’s Woods
“The purpose of this study is to better understand how Goucher students relate to the Woods surrounding Goucher’s campus in terms of both regulatory and cultural/aesthetic services, which are measured by scales of Environmental Responsibility and Environmental Identity for the cultural/aesthetic services, and Environmental Knowledge for the regulatory services.”
” However, there were two variable combinations that were deemed significant by the Chi Square test that, when tested in a two sample, two-sided hypothesis test, were inconclusive. The results pose an interesting dilemma, as they compare highly emotional attitudes.”
” This survey research found that Interactions with the Woods positively influences the environmental attitudes that Goucher students report. The most salient explanatory variable is Visit, which determines the level of contact that students have with the Woods.
by Rachel Grosso
The Empathetic Author in the Internet Age: The Victorian Serialized Novel and the Internet Serial as Social Experience
“Like the reader’s letters to Dickens pleading for Nell’s life, direct address to the reader was a way for the author to plead for the reader’s continued interest.”
“For a comic with a seven to eight year run, questions arise: what is a “spoiler” versus what is information that will affect a reader’s decision to continue reading the comic?”
“While in the Victorian context serialization was the mainstream form of publishing, being the form of choice of Dickens, Trollope, Gaskell, Eliot, and countless more, in today’s context, serialization is reserved for the unambitious or the countercultural.”
by Alyssa Krasnansky
Whiteness, Man: Whiteness and King of the Hill
“Through the use of satire,King of the Hill presents whiteness as racial imagery while simultaneously providing critiques of white supremacy. While other satirical programs “critique” racism solely through the use of overtly-prejudiced characters,King of the Hill targets the way whiteness functions as a whole. The program exposes the seemingly innocuous manifestations of whiteness, such as white guilt, performative tolerance, and the idea that racism exists only as individual acts of prejudice. The Hill family, their peers, and white viewers are satirized for their ignorance without being “let off the hook” for their internalized racism.” (p. 1)
“Similar to how white viewers are comfortable distancing themselves from outwardly-racist characters, liberal, intellectual white viewers may feel comfortable distancing themselves from the “white trash” whiteness portrayed in King of the Hill.This reading of the show further cements the “invisibility” of whiteness, but it instead deems “liberal whiteness” as the neutral, universal identity. White viewers should read the show as a critique of all whiteness instead of reading it as a critique of “that other kind of whiteness.” (p. 7)
“The show primarily depicts the operation of whiteness in the following ways: white performative guilt/ sympathy, white belief in racism as individual prejudice, and white dependence on people of color for validation. The following sections will explore how each of these manifestations of whiteness function in the episodes “Westie Side Story,” “Traffic Jam,” and “Racist Dawg.” (p. 8)
by Maddie Hardy
Visual, Auditory, and Olfactory Sexual Selection Methods in Birds Inform Mate Choice by Serving as Indicators for Mate Quality
Olfactory cues can provide females with information about the size, species, sex, and even behavior of other birds.
Visual cues give females information about the developmental success, nutrition, foraging ability, and genetic quality, while acoustic signals allow females to access the intelligence of males.
by Jack Hodges
