abstractly, you're right on, but with elephants it's more than a sign of extreme boredom. it's a sign of extreme hopelessness, a response to trauma and sometimes even a warning sign of aggression. humans do it too when we go into the "fetal position" and rock back and forth as a response to something terrible or a precursor to irrational behaviour.
that elephant has been driven insane by the hopelessness of being held in captivity; elephants understand freedom in remarkably human terms.
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?nov 20, 2009?
this guy....he's brutal. the premise of him taking the spin out of everything is comical precisely because he doesn't understand anything.
the idea of the photo was simple: they were casting sarah as the ditsy cheerleader stereotype. this is what the article is about, so it was chosen precisely because it is IN context. it wasn't sexist; it had nothing to do with her gender. it was an underhanded attack on her intelligence.
the comparison would be to bush cast as the terminator.
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it's all so amazingly ironic. the right has been complaining for years about political correctness.
attacking palin's intelligence or criticizing her for being an airhead is not sexist because the criticism is completely accurate. accepting equality means accepting that *some* women are morons, just as *some* men are morons. palin is one of the female morons.
if the media cannot tear down those who are mentally unfit to hold office due to political correctness then we're entering a scary era.
by comparison, if the cover cast clinton, rice or livni in such a pose then it WOULD be sexist because the stereotype doesn't hold. clinton has a post-doctoral degree and a resume the length of palin's vocabulary. i believe rice was the youngest person ever to graduate from her college and she had a lengthy stay through several administrations. livni was also more than qualified.
palin really IS completely clueless about everything and this WAS the context!
....but the article in the magazine was partially about how she's gotten this far partially through her looks, in spite of her weak intellect! this *is* the context!