Here’s a little guessing game. This is a salt or pepper shaker: So what do you think its companion shaker might be? I suspect that most people would guess the other part of this pair would be another similarly doughy creature–possibly, in the light of the associations between salt and pepper and black and white,Continue reading “For a Spicy Experience, First Take the Pants Off”
Category Archives: Binary Opposites
Discriminatory Pantlessness
In an earlier post, I talked about some pantless pigs, and noticed the number of cartoon picture book animals who are similarly pantless. Now here’s a shaker set in which both the figures are pantless, but only one of them is shirtless: Surprisingly, it is the male who wears a shirt–at least if I amContinue reading “Discriminatory Pantlessness”
Scarfs Make the Man. And the Manly Bear.
Like the pigs in my last post, these creatures are also wearing headgear and scarfs: What I find particularly interesting here is that wearing a hat and a scarf is merely a generic condition for one of these two, and not all surprising. A hat and a scarf is what snowmen often wear, and IContinue reading “Scarfs Make the Man. And the Manly Bear.”
Polyamory
Recently, my friend Joseph Thomas made a comment on Facebook that relates to my interest in salt and pepper shakers: What I think is wonderful about salt n pepper shakers: although they come as a pair, they so often aren’t bound together, save by their maker’s intent or owner’s whim. Thus, even pairs “meant forContinue reading “Polyamory”
All Nature Is But Art
This is another set of salt-and-pepper shakers that my son Asa made me, this one a few years ago. As you can see from this view of their tops, he made them of modelling clay formed around an already-existing set of plain ceramic shakers. I’ve asked Asa for an explanation of what he intended themContinue reading “All Nature Is But Art”
Asa’s Ship Comes In
This is the salt and pepper shaker set my son Asa recently made and gave me as a Christmas present: It actually does work as a set of shakers: as the picture reveals, the mast is held in place by a cork that stops the hole where you can put salt (or pepper), and theContinue reading “Asa’s Ship Comes In”
Two Santas, and Some Guys Who Haven’t Been Good
In honour of the season, I offer yet another salt and pepper shaker set that consists of two male figures: Two Santas. And yet, of course, this makes no sense, no sense at all. There can only be one Santa Claus, surely. Other shakers, operating safely within the logic of a rigidly binary world, representContinue reading “Two Santas, and Some Guys Who Haven’t Been Good”
A Coupla Chicks Sitting Around
After generalizing about there being no same-sex pairs in my salt and pepper shaker collection, and then being surprised to find all the many male pairs I’ve been discussing in my posts over the last week or so, I decided it was about time to see what I could find in the way of femaleContinue reading “A Coupla Chicks Sitting Around”
Ambiguously Gendered: Batting for Which Team?
This shaker set is not necessarily ambiguously gay–more like ambiguously gendered. Its two baseball players (who each look a little like stereotyped angry codgers wearing too much eyeliner), might be either both male or both female or a combination of one male and one female. The shaker on the left wears a pink hat, whichContinue reading “Ambiguously Gendered: Batting for Which Team?”
Adam and Steve After All
This post stands as a warning about never making a generalization. In my last post, commenting on how salt and pepper shakers represent the gender of the characters they represent, I suggested that “once gender has been signified . . . then it is always, as far as I can tell, one shaker of oneContinue reading “Adam and Steve After All”
Perry Nodelman 