As seen from these stock images that appear when you search the term, young professionals are typically white, smiling, thin, and have the kind of faces that you want to punch.
Unlike other stereotypes such as the 'scary hooded youths', the 'teen-mum', or more broadly 'the chav', the young professional is a stereotype of a desirable human, the skin all young people should endeavor to inhabit.
The term isn't just something universities search for on google when putting together a brochure. It's a term that has been promoted by other genres of public discourse, other areas of social life, most notably, by landlords.
Anyone who has searched for a place to rent will have seen the propensity of letting agents and landlords to take it upon themselves to dictate not just the rent, fees, and deposit of a home, but also the type of person they want paying the rent, fees, and deposit. In being adopted by the housing sector as a term to describe the type of person they value and trust, the desirability of the label for young people has increased.
Look at this homepage for youthemployment.org.uk and you'll see what I mean.
This organization has adopted the term not just as a way to describe a broadly defined group of people, but as an accreditation that can be obtained by doing a course. The term 'young professional' is taking on a more concrete meaning. That is to say, it is becoming more defined, less lazy, and, by necessity, more exclusionary.
One has to wonder why those with money tied up in housing are, not just confident enough to dictate the social standing of prospective tenants, but why they want them in the first place, what's in it for them?
The relationship between the housing sector and the young is fraught, right across the western world. Rents are high and prospects of buying are basically non-existent, even for slim, well dressed, 28 year old marketing graduates. Landlords are aware that poor job security among the young is an issue. When a landlord on rightmove states they want 'young professionals' they mean people who can't afford to buy but who are nevertheless on salaries.
Young people on salaries may be fooled into thinking they are desired by the landlord-class because of their social-standing, that they raise the prestige of the tall block of glass and concrete they inhabit. While this is certainly a factor, it is not the primary concern of the landlord, just a bonus.
If we break it down by examining the wants of the landlords and letting agents we see the heavy-lifting this term is doing.
Young: unable to afford a mortgage
Professional: trusted to pay high rent consistently
It is in the interests of the landlord-class to further fetishize the notion of young people renting in perpetuity as a mark of 'the professional', to normalize it, because they're a cash-cow you can flatter into milking.
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