As snow starts to settle in the northern hemisphere, a perennial symbol of the festive season has been dismissed by a British academic as racist, sexist and politically inappropriate for the 21st century.

For Birmingham University lecturer Tricia Cusack the snowman is unacceptably white and male and his presence is "a reminder of masculine dominance, ordering and surveillance."

Cusack's 15-page paper on the representation of snowmen in Christmas cards also argues that they are "phallic symbols" which condemn women to second-class status in society.

In the traditional setting of the front garden "snowmen symbolize man's domination of the outside world -- while all women are indoors slaving over the Christmas dinner in the kitchen," Cusack writes in the left wing periodical New Formations.

"Is it accidental, in view of the Western narrative of active masculine domination of nature/female, that out of virgin snow a male icon is built -- or erected?" she asks.

"Some members of cultural minorities in Britain find the central power relationship of Christmas threatening, not to speak of its whiteness -- a white Christ, a white snowman," she adds.

Her answer is to create more "ethnic diversity" in snow people, so as to give snow role models to the downtrodden.

On Thursday, one of Britain's largest Christmas card companies, Hallmark, said the snowmen they displayed were neither racist, nor sexist. "We know from our research that they're hugely popular with the public," said a company spokesman.

Children' author Raymond Briggs described Cusack's analysis of snowmen as sexist and racist as "absolute rubbish." Briggs, the author of the popular children's book The Snowman, added, "They are only white because snow is white and a female snowman would be very difficult to do -- it would be very hard to model bigger hips and breasts unless the snow was absolutely freezing."

"I would say my snowman is a non-sexual, non-racial being. It's got no sexual characteristics and couldn't be other than white," he adds.

India Abroad News Service