What is the use of white men? (In a politically correct media world.)

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I sometimes like to analyse the scores of advertising, propaganda and publicity posters, which bespatter the places I live and work.

It is clear that the people who make and deploy posters don't have much use for white men.

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The rule is that if a single face is shown on a poster it must be a woman or an ethnic man.

If there is a sufficiently large group (about six or more) it is permissible to show a white man, so long as he is not the central 'character' and is surrounded by women and ethnic men.

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Are white men then useless for poster designers?

No.

Look carefully: there are some posters which deploy a single white man.

Indeed, I found three such posters in my survey sample - single face, white man.

Two posters depicted people who were identified as suffering from serious psychiatric illness, the third depicted a person identified as criminally insane.

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So white men do have their uses!

If you need to depict somebody low status, evil, or in a miserable state - then a white man is perfect for the job.

Indeed, it has to be a white man - because to use a poster featuring a single woman or an ethnic man to depict somebody non-admirable is clearly unacceptable.

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Great News! For so long as there is need to represent solitary and specific evil or misery - then for so long white men will be allowed to retain a place in the media.

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