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Bogan

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Bogan (pronounced /ˈbəʉ.gn̩/, rhyming with slogan) is an Australian and New Zealand English slang term, generally pejorative, for a person who is, or is perceived to be, unsophisticated or of a lower class background. According to the stereotype, the speech and mannerisms of "bogans" indicate poor education and uncultured upbringing. It mostly encompasses white, working-class people.

The stereotype presupposes a link between cultural practices of working-class people (i.e. style of dress, accent, and musical tastes) and anti-social behaviour.

Contents

[edit] History

The origin of the term "bogan" is unclear; both the Macquarie Dictionary and the Australian Oxford Dictionary cite its origin as unknown.

The Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC) included the word in its Australian dictionary project<ref name="ANDC">Australian National University: Australian National Dictionary Centre</ref> in 1991, in which it attributed the earliest known reference to a 1985 surfing magazine.

The term became widely known in the late 1980s, when the character Kylie Mole from the popular Australian sketch comedy television program The Comedy Company popularised the term by frequently using it to disparage anyone she didn't like; for instance, "[a bogan is] a person that you just don’t bother with. Someone who wears their socks the wrong way or has the same number of holes in both legs of their stockings. A complete loser." Kylie's use of the term was more in the sense of the Australian slang term "dag" ("dork" or "nerd") than a "westie," which appearently predated "bogan" by some years.<ref name="BBSB">Moore, Bruce: Of Boondies, Belgium Sausages and Boguns, OzWords (Australian National University), November 1998.</ref>

There are places in Western New South Wales that contain "Bogan" in their name — including Bogan Shire, the Bogan River and the rural village of Bogan Gate — but these places are not regarded as the source of the term.<ref name="ANDC">ANDC</ref>

Bogan is also an Irish family name, albeit an uncommon one in Australia, and also unlikely to be the source of the term. While Melissa Campbell, who wrote her thesis on bogans in 2004, wrote in The Age: "It is no coincidence that Bogan is an Irish surname. Irishness is associated with bogans' 19th-century ancestors: English and American hooligans, and Australian larrikins." <ref>Campbell, Melissa: The order of Australia, The Age, 14 July 2002.</ref>, there is no known evidence the meaning of the adjective is derived from the characteristics of any person or people named Bogan.

Microsoft included the word "bogan" in the spell check dictionary of its Microsoft Office 2007 software. It was included as one of twenty Australian colloquialisms deemed by a selection panel and in an online poll to be most relevant to Australian users.<ref>Press release: [Strewth! Microsoft Office 2007 will recognise more dinky-di words, Microsoft Corporation, 15 May 2006.</ref>

[edit] Elements of the Stereotype

Note: To avoid introducing original research, please do not change the content of this section without discussing proposed changes on the talk page first.

The bogan stereotype is the rough equivalent of the British stereotype of a chav, or the American white trash, although the term bogan does not necessarily suggest violent or anti-social behaviour. The detailed stereotype involves the styles of clothing associated with bogans, including Moccasin-style slippers, ugg boots, jeans, black leggings <ref> UTS Experts Making News July: http://www.uts.edu.au/new/experts/media/2003/july.html </ref><ref>The uggly side of life - The Age: http://www.theage.com.au/news/danny-katz/the-uggly-side-of-life/2006/09/27/1159337216912.html</ref><ref>Anatomy of the trend - leggings - The Age: http://www.theage.com.au/news/fashion/anatomy-of-a-trend--leggings/2006/10/05/1159641427417.html</ref>. Bogan is also used in New Zealand, where it is applied in particular to those residing in medium-sized provincial towns such as Nelson, Napier, and Gore.

[edit] Non-perjorative usage

The term "bogan" has sometimes been used in apparently favourable contexts despite its origins as a pejorative term. Radio station Triple J held a "National Bogan Day" on 28 June 2002, which they commemorated by playing music from bands such as Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil and AC/DC.<ref>Griffin, Michelle: Bogansville: meet the new in-crowd, The Age, 16 July 2002.</ref>

Australian humour website bogan.com.au was archived on the National Library of Australia's Pandora Archive in August 2006<ref>Pandora Archive: Bogan.com.au. Retrieved 11 September 2006.</ref>, for it was considered to be "of significance and to have long-term research value".<ref>Pandora Archive: Selection Guidelines. Retrieved 11 September 2006.</ref>

Actress Holly Valance, resident of Los Angeles for several years, once described herself as a bogan in an interview with the Australian press.<ref>Adams, Cameron: Holly, the bogan's hero, Sunday Herald Sun, 19 August 2006.</ref>

[edit] Cultural references

  • Australian band Area-7 released a single called "Nobody Likes a Bogan" in 2002, which listed several aspects of a stereotype bogan named "Bazza." The song reached #46 on the ARIA Charts in February of that year.<ref>Rage: ARIA Top 50 playlist, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 26 February 2002.</ref>
  • Melbourne band TISM released a song written from the point of view of a bogan beating up a mod, "The Fosters Car Park Boogie," on their 1988 album Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance.
  • The SBS television show Pizza portrays a stereotypical bogan character named Davo (played by Jabba). Davo is often depicted wearing a flannelette shirt, thongs and a singlet. He also undertakes stereotypical bogan activities including drinking Victoria Bitter beer, smoking cannabis, and talking bogan slang, and is often referred to as a bogan by other characters.
  • Australian comedian Chris Franklin's public persona is a self-proclaimed "King of the Bogans," in which he frequently eats meat pies, wears a flannelette shirt with its sleeves ripped off, and occasionally wears a football beanie over his permed mullet. In 1999, Franklin released a comedy single called "Bloke" (a parody of "Bitch" (1997) by Meredith Brooks), which expressed a bogan perspective on male/female relationship.[1]
  • Residents of the Victorian town of Colac objected to the backstory of the fictional Timmins family (described by ABC Local Radio as a "bogan family") on the soap opera Neighbours, which portrayed them as being from the town. Scriptwriter Ben Michaels denied regional stereotyping, stating "I think most people know there is a bogan contingent in every town, and we happened to take the piss out of the bogan contingent of Colac."<ref>Martin, Steve: Not happy with Neighbours: Colac residents say enough is enough, 15 June 2005.</ref>
  • "Cricketer Shane Warne receives regular ribbings from the Australian media for his bogan persona. His struggles with weight loss and cigarettes, the unsophisticated dietary habits, are all fodder for commentators who recoil at his uncouth habits. But Warney is the ultimate Aussie bloke: all brawn and few brains when it comes to controlling his appetites, plus a blinding addiction to blondes who are typically clones of his attractive wife." (Emma-Kate Symons, "Spinning out of control", The Weekend Australian (2-3 July 2005), p 19.

[edit] Use in Marketing

"Cub", or "Cashed Up Bogan", has been used by one marketing researcher to describe people of a blue-collar background now earning a high salary, and spending those earnings on such items as show-piece utility vehicles, jewellery and home appliances. The media has cited tennis player Lleyton Hewitt and his actress wife, Bec Cartwright, as examples. <ref>"Snobbery alert: the 'Cub' is busy turning Melbourne into Boganville", The Age, 20 May 2006.</ref>

[edit] Regional equivalent terms

Although the term "bogan" is understood across Australia (and parts of New Zealand), certain regions utilise their own slang terms for the same group of people. These terms include:

  • The term "westie" (or "westy") seems to predate "bogan" by some years<ref name="BBSB">ref westie</ref>, originating in Sydney, New South Wales in the 1970s to refer to people from that city's western suburbs. It is also used in Melbourne to describe people from western suburbs. Westie is also used in Ballarat, Victoria, mainly to describe people from Wendouree West. "Westie" is also used in Auckland, New Zealand to refer to the inhabitants of the suburb of Waitakere.
  • In Hobart, Tasmania, the term "chigger" (also ""chigga" or "chig") is used. This appears to be a reference to the Hobart suburb of Chigwell.<ref name="BBSB">ref chigger</ref>
  • "Bevan" in Queensland. <ref name="BBSB">ref bevan</ref>
  • "Booner" or "boon" in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.<ref name="BBSB">ref booner</ref>
  • "Gully" in Temora, New South Wales. <ref name="BBSB">ref Gully</ref>
  • "Ravo" in Launceston, Tasmania refers to those from the Launceston suburb of Ravenswood.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

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