Race and Gender in Contemporary Advertisements

Contemporary advertising reflects much greater inclusivity than ever before, as the campaigns of firms like Uniworld, owned by people of color and addressing a diverse audience, clearly reveal. 

But advertising rarely upsets conventional understandings of gender. Men are handsome, well groomed, fit, and usually authoritative. Women, whatever their jobs or achievements, remain largely defined by their beauty—youthful, symmetrical faces, full lips, straight noses, and styled hair. Although dimensions of these gender ideals have changed over time —and the gendered representations of people of color have been transformed—there remain profound limits to the ways masculinity and femininity can be imagined in advertising.