Before this semester, I never thought I would take a Gender and Women’s Studies class. I guess there was just something a little off-putting to me about the prospect of constantly hearing about the plight of women for an entire semester, and I thought the class would be too repetitive.

Nevertheless, I signed up for a class to fulfill a required elective and have been continually surprised by how many new and interesting things I have learned.

For one thing, the class doesn’t focus on just the struggles that women face – it deals with sexuality, race and socio-economic class struggles, among others.

I never thought I would take a course that would have such an influence on my way of thinking.

For instance, I had never really paid attention to TV shows and noticed what gender and race the main characters were, or what demographic particular ads were trying to reach.

But what really has stood out to me is that very few of the advertisements in my favorite women’s magazines feature women of any race other than white. Models of different races are few and far between and are mainly used in specialty ads.

One such specialty ad is for Hallmark and the RED campaign that helps people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. The ad features a black woman mailing a RED Hallmark card. Hallmark most likely chose this model because she is black, and because her race makes the Hallmark audience think about Africa.

In another ad for Baby Phat, Kimora Lee Simmons’ fashion line, Simmons herself is featured as the model. I don’t think Simmons appeared in the ad because she is an Asian-American woman, but merely posed because it is her fashion line. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I don’t think her prevalent ads are good examples of diversity in magazines.

Simmons even calls herself the “Asian Barbie,” and obviously likes to think of herself as some exotic version of the “perfect” white female, which again does not embrace diversity.

The models featured in the stories in the magazines are a little more varied – they will occasionally be black or Asian, but rarely are there models of any other races.

I understand that it isn’t necessarily a magazine’s fault that there is a lack of diversity, and that often they will merely photograph the models the designers have chosen, or will just display the ad they are given. Yet, they are helping perpetuate the prevalence of white models and this is something that needs to be changed.

At the risk of sounding cliche, America really is a melting pot of people and cultures and there are so many different races in our country, and so many gorgeous women who are not white.

So why don’t we see a more diverse world in modeling? Do the advertisers really think their sales will go down if they use someone other than a white model?

One reason I love reading these magazines is to celebrate beauty, and I think it’s time to celebrate more than one type of beauty.

Colleen is a junior in Media and she has not studied any advertisements in men’s magazines, but she suspects there is a lack of diversity in those as well. She can be reached at [email protected].