There’s something really heartening about the term bogan being used as a positive, finally. For too long, Australian and Kiwi working-class people, as with “chavs” in England and “neds” in Scotland, have been characterised as uncouth, stupid and a menace to society at large. Stereotypes persisted, of drinking, vandalism, prison tattoos and mullets, and not one brain cell to be found anywhere.
As a working -class woman, I related to being judged as having some of these unhelpful clichés within my upbringing. At school in the neighbouring town, I was often told my home town was “rough”. Attending ballet soirees, I’ve been judged for not wearing ‘the right clothes’. It still hurts, after all this time, after all my hard work. I’m not sure it ever really goes away.
But the rise of bogan culture is actually a welcome one. It’s a reclaiming term for the marginalised, the misfits, the misunderstood.
Amyl and the Sniffers (pictured above) are part of the new breed. Singer Amy Taylor, a petite whirlwind who comes on like the unlikely lovechild of Iggy Pop and Olivia Newton-John, is pure bogan punk rock. She calls out slut-shaming, in her bikini tops, shorts and big boots. She’s also really thoughtful and articulate offstage, with great pop culture awareness and a love and knowledge of her Australian heritage. Not bad for a little bogan gal, right?
If the indie scamps’ rise wasn’t enough, cult sitcom ‘Kath and Kim’, which parodied soap tropes, was wonderfully camp and astute, with bad eighties decor, and lines like “I pacifically (sic) told you that before”. Everyone’s ridiculous and yet knowing, and the attempt to be middle-class is fooling no-one. It’s bogan okay, from spiral perm, to cheap running shoe.
What then, of all-conquering 1994 film ‘Muriel’s Wedding’? PJ Hogan’s comic masterpiece elicits sympathy as well as laughs. Misfits’ misfit Muriel Heslop, sequestered in her sad bedroom with elusive dreams of meringue wedding dresses, ABBA and getting slim, is more than ugly duckling yarn, more even than rom-com. It’s poignant, savage and extremely touching. It’s also prime bogan,with people trying to escape their small town limitations. Aren’t we all Muriel Heslops, in a sense, dreaming of the day we see better days? All together now…
Hit The North 