Bogan

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For other uses, see Bogan (disambiguation).

The term bogan (pronounced /ˈboʊgən/, rhyming with slogan) is Australian and New Zealand English slang, usually pejorative, for a person who is, or is perceived to be, of a lower-class background. According to the stereotype, the speech and mannerisms of "bogans" indicate, poor education, cheap clothing (singlet, jeans and no shoes are the sterotypical bogan outfit) and uncultured upbringing. 'bogans' usually reside in economically disadvantaged suburbs (often outer metropolitan) or rural areas^[1].

The term is a close regional equivalent to the British term Chav, Irish term Skanger and the North American term White Trash. However the term 'bogan' is occasionally used with some affection in Australia/NZ, whereas those corresponding terms are not.

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1 History
2 Elements of the stereotype
3 Non-pejorative usage
4 References in Popular Culture
5 Use in Marketing
6 Regional equivalent terms
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] History

The origin of the term 'bogan' as a pejorative is unclear; both the Macquarie Dictionary and the Australian Oxford Dictionary cite its origin as unknown. In a name context, it means "soft" like a bog or "bow" as in bow and arrow. The name can be found in the records of the English Parliament, especially from Devonshire, and all over Ireland.

The Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC) included the word in its Australian dictionary project^[2] in 1991, attributing the earliest known reference to a 1985 surfing magazine. The 1902 poem "City of Dreadful Thirst" by Australian poet Banjo Patterson makes reference to a "Bogan shower" as a term meaning "three raindrops and some dust". However this is clearly a reference to the dry region around the Bogan River in Central Western NSW.^[3] 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 they are not regarded as the source of the term.^[2]

The term became widely known in the late 1980s, when the character Kylie Mole (played by Mary-Anne Fahey), from the popular Australian sketch comedy television program The Comedy Company, popularised the term, using it frequently to disparage those she disliked: "[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 'bogan' is closer to the common use of "dag" ("dork" or "nerd") than "westie," which apparently predated 'bogan' by some years.^[4]

Bogan was deemed one of twenty Australian colloquialisms by a selection panel and in an online poll to be most relevant to Australian users.^[5]

[edit] Elements of the stereotype

The bogan stereotype is roughly equivalent to the American white trash, although the term bogan does not necessarily suggest violent or anti-social behaviour.^{[citation needed]}

Certain styles of clothing are stereotypically associated with bogans, including Moccasin-style slippers, ugg boots, jeans, black leggings. ^[6]^[7]^[8]

[edit] Non-pejorative usage

The term 'bogan' has been employed favourably to indicate being proudly un-fashionable or 'rough around the edges.' Radio station Triple J held a "National Bogan Day" on June 28, 2002, which they commemorated by playing music by bands such as Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil, Rose Tattoo and AC/DC.^[9]

Australian humour website bogan.com.au was archived on the National Library of Australia's Pandora Archive in August 2006,^[10] for it was considered to be "of significance and to have long-term research value."^[11]

Residents of streets such as Bogan Place and Bogan Road have been moved to action by the negative connotations of their street names and lobbied to rename them. ^[12]

[edit] References in Popular Culture

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.^[13]
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. Their later song whatareya? on the album www.tism.wanker.com can also be considered as a classist comparison between the lower (yob/bogan) and upper (wanker) classes.^{[citation needed]}
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 relationships.[1]
In 2005 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."^[14] In the story the family frequently refer to themselves as bogans, to the extent that youngest daughter Bree wrote a book (based on her mother Janelle's idea) entitled The Bogan's Tipped Hair.
"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.
In the ABC TV show The Glass House, host Wil Anderson frequently made reference to bogans, their poor taste and their tendency to have really bad name choices for their children with correspondingly bad spelling of those names.
The British band Abdoujaparov released a song called "Let Bogans Be Bogans" as a b-side on their 2001 single "Emergency Medical Hologram."
Actress Holly Valance, resident of Los Angeles for several years, once described herself as a bogan in an interview with the Australian press.^[15]
American musician Ben Folds released a song on his 2004 EP Sunny 16 (and again on his 2006 Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the LP) called "Adelaide" which includes the lyric "now I see the bogans at the motor race."
Bogan Pride is a 2008 comedy television series on SBS TV, starring Rebel Wilson.

[edit] Use in Marketing

The term "Cashed Up Bogan," or "Cub," 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 conspicuously expensive consumer items. The media has cited tennis player Lleyton Hewitt and his actress wife, Bec Cartwright, as examples. ^[16] The Kaesler Winery in the Barossa Valley wine district make and produce a Shiraz wine called the 'Bogan.'

[edit] Regional equivalent terms

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

In Hobart, Tasmania, the term chigger (also chigga or chig) is used. This appears to be a reference to the Hobart suburb of Chigwell.^[4]
Bevan in Queensland.^[4]
Booner or boon in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.^[4]
Scozza in Geelong, Victoria, Australia.^[4]

The term westie (or westy) is not synonymous with bogan; however, westies are often stereotyped as being bogans. This term seems to predate bogan by some years,^[4] originating in Sydney, New South Wales in the 1970s to refer to people from that city's western suburbs. The term is now in wide use in many cities and towns across both Australia and New Zealand, where it especially refers to the denizens of West Auckland.