There is an ample amount of diversity in the media these days. In mainstream advertisements we see people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures. It wasn’t always this way though. There were times when there wasn’t any diversity on the screen and in advertisements and when there was a person of a different background other than White, that person was stereotypical. I mean, try to remember the last time you saw a 2000s teen comedy and tell me there wasn’t a side Black character that wasn’t either comedic relief or a athlete. I was watching She’s The Man which is a funny movie that you should definitely watch. But one of the side characters was a typical Black athlete that doesn’t have the best common sense and is made the comic relief. I’m not particularly mad at the screenwriter for not giving the character any momentous moments or lines, but it just goes to show how stereotyping was so common in media in that time. As of recent there has been an improvement with stereotypical characters in media though. Like the other day I saw a commercial about HIV/AIDS that depicted diversity quite well. It showed a collection of different couples where one of the partners had an HIV. There was one couple that particularly caught my eye as I saw two gay Black men, who aren’t typically shown in media all the time. There have also been improvements to the depiction gender roles in the media as I’ve noticed there have been less visuals of women at the house and men out working. Instead, I’ve seen women working along with their partner. Some argue that there has been an overload of diversity to the point that there’s no real need for diversity because it can be seen as a way for ad companies to simply meet a quota. This can be an ethical dilemma, but in the end when there is diversity it promotes the fact that different ethnicities and backgrounds can do the same things that straight white men can do.

Queer Black men (photo by Rafael Barros/Pexels)