In my opinion, today, advertising portrays women as powerful and empowered people, also with perfect body and beautiful face that fit beauty standards. However, these standards are very difficult for adolescents to be able to suit to them. In some cases, this leads them to develop eating disorders and makes them feel unconfident about themselves.

In this sense, I think that mass media are portrayed woman in a stereotyped way. It refers that the image of a woman is generalized and considered as an “object” and their body parts are the highest attribute. Likewise, the woman’s body image is used to sell all kinds of products both for men and women, or it is also used as mere decoration and entertainment to satisfy men. 

Advertising portrays women today in 21st-century culture and society as strong and powerful. I think that the role of advertising in the representation of women and gender equality should be equitable and in an appropriate way, without being stereotyped or sexualized. This can also promote diversity and inclusion by showing women of different backgrounds, ages, body sizes, and abilities. Companies and brands can use their influence through ads to motivate positive social change and promote gender equality. 

I think that advertising portrays women as sexual objects because society imposes some beauty stereotypes such as a perfect body and beautiful skin. For this reason, many women follow these beauty standards in order to fit into society and not end up being excluded. We can see this reflected in clothing magazines when they advertise women's underwear, swimsuits, and miniskirts. In this sense, advertising represents women in an inferior way because we are not treated with respect, and some brands show us in a sensual way as an object to satisfy men’s desires. However, lately, some TV Commercials are being inclusive because they show beauty as diversity. They include all women, no matter if they are thin, fat, tall, or short, and with different skin tones, as we could see in the Red Power perfume by ésika and the brand Dove. 

In this sense, today in the 21^st century, advertising portrays women as empowered people, but at the same time, the image of women is represented in a sexualized way. Representation of women in advertising has changed over the different decades in the 20^th century. For example, in the 50s and 60s, women were portrayed in the kitchen as housewives doing household chores, and taking care of their children and husband. Then, in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s, women became more independent and free than in years before. They were not ashamed of wearing bikinis and showing their bodies. Unfortunately, this led to seeing women as a “sexual object” to satisfy men’s desires. That’s why, women are currently portrayed as empowered and sexualized too.

Today in the 21^st century, advertising portrays women as independent people, empowered, confident, and know what they want. It is reflected in the ad of Red Power by ésika which shows modern women as powerful, strong, and self-confident who look for a better version of themselves every day. However, at the same time, some ads represent the woman in a sexualized way, and these have used her image as a way to attract more public. This has evolved as time goes by. For example, in the 50s and 60s, woman dressed modestly with much clothing, and all advertisements that she interpreted were at home taking care of her children and husband. Her role was as a housewife. Now she is free and independent and can interpret different products with her family. We can see both wife and husband cleaning the house in some TV commercials for cleaning products. In this way, some ads have started to promote gender equality in housework chores because before man was the one who worked and woman stayed at home.