Bogan Pride

I've been pondering for ages doing a post on class in Australia and my rather complicated position in it (I grew up in a working class area without much money, but I'm not sure I was ever entirely working class, as much as my leftist family trained me to despise the bourgeoisie, and I feel alien amongst pretty much any class bracket) But for now I'll just say: I don't like the word "Bogan" as an insult (rather than self description etc). I think it's classist. (A lot of this applies to the word "hick" too)

Like the synonyms on Wikipedia: chav, white trash, redneck etc, people might claim it can't be classist because they also apply it to rich people who have the same characteristics, but that only indicates the difference between income and class. And "It's ok to discriminate against them because they suck" or "But it's funny!" are as unacceptable as they are with racism, sexism, etc :P
( Read more... )