Penn Athletics Shares Questionable New Ad

As one of many critical Facebook commenters observed, has no one learned anything from the disaster that was the Gisele and LeBron Vogue cover?! The implicit characterization of black men as “beasts” is, to put it lightly, an offensive and tired trope.

And while calling someone a beauty may seem like a compliment, in actuality, the ad serves to trivialize hardworking athletes by likening them to beauty contestants.

It’s probable that the Penn Athletics marketing team did not deliberately aim to stereotype or devalue any individuals or marginalized groups in this situation. Particularly in order to make a terrible pun about a Disney princess movie. But even if this was just an unintentional, exceedingly tone-deaf error, it is always necessary to recognize and speak out when such errors appear.

UPDATE: Director of Athletic Communications Mike Mahoney explained what Penn Athletics was thinking in an emailed statement after this post was published:

" 'Beauty and the Beast' competitions have been held nationally for nearly a decade now, and a number of schools that boast both gymnastics and wrestling programs have hosted them successfully in recent years. Prior to their seasons, our gymnastics and wrestling programs approached us with a request to hold one of these combined events—the premise being that the gymnastics and wrestling competitions run simultaneously in the same venue—and everyone involved is excited to showcase these great sports to new fans on Saturday at The Palestra. Regarding the graphic, we chose a pair of student-athletes (gymnast Morgan Hunker, wrestler May Bethea) who are excellent representatives of the respective programs," he wrote.