Lack of Color

While flipping through the latest issue of Vogue, I noticed something that bothered me.  Advertisement after advertisement of overpriced clothing was presented, each one featuring a blase model with the usual porcelain skin and amethyst eyes.  I thought that it might have just been a fluke, that the advertisements I was looking at were unique in their lack of color, but the more I looked at, the more disgruntled I became.  Out of the hundreds of advertisements in the magazine, less than a quarter featured either African American, Asian American, Indian, or Middle Eastern models.

This is disgruntling because we are in a society that praises itself for being diverse.  In fact, we have become so obsessed with diversity that it has even been used as a selling point.  Go to this university because it is diverse.  Come to this city because of its diversity.  We value this, and yet one of the most widely circulated magazine blatantly lacks it.

Now, I am not saying that every single advertisement needs to look like a United Nations meeting.  I simply would like to see a bit more variation in the advertisements, not the same three or four caucasian models.