Length (Medium)

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Disability, Subminimum Wage, and Sheltered Workshops

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Disability, Subminimum Wage, and Sheltered Workshops

This powerful documentary examines the controversy surrounding sheltered workshops in the United States, which employ people with intellectual and developmental disabilities at subminimum wages under the 14C provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The debate highlights a clash between two competing frameworks regarding the lives of disabled individuals. On one side, activists and some former workers argue that these facilities enforce segregation and institutionalization, denying individuals the autonomy and fair compensation they deserve in an inclusive society. On the other side, many workers, families, and workshop operators view these sites as essential social safety nets. They provide a sense of community, structure, and purpose that some individuals may not find in the competitive marketplace, where they might face isolation or exclusion. After watching the video, do you support sheltered workshops?

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Gender Creative Parenting

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Gender Creative Parenting

This video profiles gender creative parenting, a practice where parents intentionally withhold their child's sex and gender identity from the public to avoid gender socialization. This movement embraces the social construction of gender while challenging the culturally dominant binary sex/gender system that organizes social life into performative categories and self-fulfilling prophecies.

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Climate Change & The Rich

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Climate Change & The Rich

This documentary examines the intersection of socioeconomic status and environmental impact, highlighting the vast disparities in individual carbon footprints. Through a sociological lens, the film shows how class shapes consumption patterns, with extreme wealth enabling carbon-intensive lifestyles (e.g., private jets, luxury cars, yachts).

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Video Game NPCs and Capitalism

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Video Game NPCs and Capitalism

The New York Times, 2024, 20:20… Here, we reflect on the question of work and what’s supposed to be normal. Despite the game’s turn-of-the-century setting, the labor routines, activity patterns — as well as bugs and malfunctions — paint a vivid analogy for how workers today toil under capitalism. Can we, the nonplayer characters of a political economy that controls, exploits and alienates us, find a way to rebel against the absurdity of our own activities?

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Credit Scores & Social Inequalities

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Credit Scores & Social Inequalities

Vox, 2023, 12:37… When credit scores were invented just a few decades ago, they were hailed as a way to democratize lending. Today, they’ve become so essential that not having one can essentially lock you out of daily life. Having a low score can make life challenging, too.

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Is Meritocracy a Myth?

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Is Meritocracy a Myth?

Vox, 2021, 20:01… Education in the United States is supposed to be meritocratic, meaning a student’s achievement is measured solely by their efforts. But how do class and privilege affect opportunity, and does everyone really get the same shot? Glad You Asked host Fabiola Cineas explores how the myth of meritocracy perpetuates racism while keeping the American dream achievable only for a privileged few.

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Hillbilly (2018)

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Hillbilly (2018)

Hillbilly (2018) examines the history and continuation of disempowering rural stereotypes. Though the film is based around the 2016 election of Donald Trump, the content extends far beyond our current political landscape. It is also engaging to watch as it masterfully integrates media stereotypes from popular shows and movies. Some prominent sociological concepts evident in the film include othering, codeswitching, and cultural appropriation as hillbilly may have become the new hipster..

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Ecofascism

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Ecofascism

Vice, 2022, 9:58… Concerns surrounding the environment and the climate crisis are no longer just the focus of liberals and the left. Eco-fascism is a growing racist ideology on the extreme right, marrying the ideas of environmentalism with white supremacy and ethnonationalism. With the climate crisis worsening by the day, eco-fascist thought has deepened alongside it.

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Parasocial Relationships and Merch

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Parasocial Relationships and Merch

Vice, 2021, 22:39… Celebrity stalking is an old problem. But it’s happening way more in the age of YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Fans repeatedly show up at their favorite content creators’ homes and expect the stars to be as welcoming as they are in their videos (“heeeeey guys”). Why don’t these fans realize this is invasive? In part, because the influencers encourage it.

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You’re Being Watched Right Now

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You’re Being Watched Right Now

NYT, 2019, 12:15… The surveillance state is the stuff of dystopian novels and futuristic thrillers. Or, as revealed in the Video Op-Ed above, it’s here now. With ad trackers on our phones, facial recognition cameras on our streets and N.S.A. agents listening in on our phone calls, Big Brother is watching. Throughout 2019, The New York Times Opinion department’s Privacy Project has been trying to make the conversation about privacy a little less boring, a little less complicated and a lot more real. We keep hearing, “I’ve got nothing to hide” or “I can’t actually do anything about it.” But when the government fails to protect your privacy, it’s up to you to set your limits. It’s time to decide: Are you really O.K. with being watched?

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Racism & School Discipline

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Racism & School Discipline

Vox, 2020, 10:47… When it comes to who gets punished and removed from American classrooms, the US doesn’t treat all students equally. Black students get suspended and expelled far more frequently than their white classmates, and often for the same or similar offenses. And the weeks of school that Black kids miss each year can kick off a chain reaction that changes a child’s future.

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Sexism & Cheerleading

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Sexism & Cheerleading

Refinery29, 2018, 11:47… On this episode of Shady, our host, Lexy Lebsack explores the dark side of NFL cheerleading that is often left out of the spotlight. She speaks with former cheerleaders who share their stories of verbal abuse, discrimination, and exploitation all at the hands of the NFL. Watch this shocking episode of Shady to get an honest look into the dark reality of NFL cheer!

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Interracial Couples in Movies (Featuring Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner)

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Interracial Couples in Movies (Featuring Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner)

The Take, 2020, 20:09… Films and TV shows have long used the onscreen interracial romance as a way to explore our own evolving relationships with racism. From I Love Lucy, to Jungle Fever, to The Big Sick, we’ve progressed from cautious depictions of interracial romance, to politically charged melodramas that confront them head on, to more modern tales where race is seen as just one of love’s many complexities. But even as movies and TV have increasingly normalized the interracial relationship, it remains a singular, and significant dynamic on screen—and an essential part of our cultural conversation. Here’s our Take on how all of these depictions of the interracial relationship bring something to the table, even if they come from different points of view.