Junk for Code : bogan culture?

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January 30, 2008

There is a bit of chat about Australian Bogan culture in the comments section of this post at Public Opinion.

Gary Sauer-Thompson, boobs, Union Lane Melbourne, 2007

Do the boobs go with the flannel shirt or the Beanie in Bogan culture? How are they different from yobbos? It's an elusive term but have a go and do a good job.

Melissa Campbell says:

Popular culture provides a window into Australian-ness, presenting images of who we should be. More importantly, it also shows us who we must not be. The powerful people who control our film and television, literature and magazines, music and fashion, play a major part in determining social norms of "right" and "wrong". An underclass of those designated "abnormal" then emerges from the mire of our supposedly classless society. These social outcasts are called bogans.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 5:29 AM | Permalink

| Comments (4)

Comments

Gary,
I don't think they are any different from yobbos. Campbell's 'hyper-Australian' is good.
And the cashed up bogan/ aspirational is an interesting vehicle for thinking about the class implications and cultural capital, or vice versa.

I agree there's a bit of bogan in all of us. Who hasn't ever wound up the car windows and screamed along to Working Class Man? I know I have. Although if I was a proper bogan I wouldn't wind up the windows.

The music, the soundtrack of boganism, seems to be a compilation of boy rock. But I'd bet the girls all know the Nutbush and the Time Warp.

Posted by: Lyn | February 1, 2008 11:51 AM

Discussions with 9 people yesterday concluded that the bogan is a cashed up yobbo.

Also that yobbos are defined by behaviour but bogans are defined by tastes. Bogans generally tend to behave a bit better than yobbos, but indulge in yobbish behaviour in some contexts like Australia Day or cricket matches.

Posted by: Lyn | February 3, 2008 10:22 AM

Lyn,
so bogans are more like punks than larrikans then? It's the style or the look that counts.

Posted by: Gary Sauer-Thompson | February 3, 2008 1:43 PM

Gary,
No way. Not at all. Punk and bogan are both very class conscious, but you'd hardly call punk aspirational in a class sense.

Punk could be aspirational in a spectacle sense - refusal of the ordinary. Bogan aspires to the essence of ordinary, ordinary with a big O. Respectability with a big R.

Posted by: Lyn | February 3, 2008 4:54 PM