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Bogan
Bogan (/ˈboʊɡən/ BOHG-ən) is Australian and New Zealand slang to describe a person whose speech, clothing, behaviour, or attitudes are considered unrefined or unsophisticated. Depending on the context, the term can be used pejoratively or in a humorous, self-deprecating manner. The term "bogan" has also been associated with changing social attitudes towards class in Australia, and its use often reflects broader cultural stereotypes and divisions.
Since the 1980s, the bogan has become a very well-recognised subculture, often as an example of bad taste. It has antecedents in the Australian larrikin and ocker, and various localised names exist that describe the same or very similar people to the bogan.
The origin of the term bogan is unclear; both the Macquarie Dictionary and the Australian Oxford Dictionary cite the origin as unknown. Some Sydney residents' recollection is that the term is based on the concept that residents of the western suburbs (stereotyped as "Westies") displayed what are now termed "bogan" characteristics and that an individual who displayed these characteristics to a strong extent was as "west" as the Bogan River in western New South Wales. According to another anecdote, the term emerged in Melbourne's outer-western and outer-eastern suburbs in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[citation needed]
Another possible origin may be the 1973 Burt Reynolds film White Lightning, which was set in fictitious "Bogan County" in the state of Arkansas.[citation needed] The film, which is partly set at the "Bogan Raceway" dirt track where a modified sedan/demolition derby type race is taking place, is principally a vehicle for Reynolds and other Redneck type characters to indulge in lots of tyre smoking car chases, stunts and "hoon" type driving.[citation needed]
The term "bog" has been used in Perth, Western Australia since at least the late 1960s, and means the same as bogan. The term "bog laps" is still used in Perth to mean the same as "hoon laps" and "blockies" are used to mean in other parts of Australia – driving around in a muscle car doing burnouts or wheelies here and there.
The term became widely known in the late 1980s when the teenage character Kylie Mole (played by Mary-Anne Fahey), in the Australian sketch comedy television series The Comedy Company, frequently used the term to disparage anyone she disliked. The same program included a sketch about a magazine called Bogue (a parody of Vogue), which featured traditional bogans.
The Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC) included the word in its Australian dictionary project in 1991 and said the earliest use they found was in the September 1985 issue of surfing magazine Tracks: "So what if I have a Mohawk and wear Dr. Martens (boots for all you uninformed bogans)?"
In 2019, Bruce Moore of the Australian National University published a piece in The Conversation, in which he suggested an earlier usage or origin of the word, discovered by historian Helen Doyle: an article in a student magazine published at Melbourne's Xavier College in 1984, which describes a fictional toy—the "bogan doll"—which possesses many characteristics of the bogan stereotype.
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Bogan
Bogan (/ˈboʊɡən/ BOHG-ən) is Australian and New Zealand slang to describe a person whose speech, clothing, behaviour, or attitudes are considered unrefined or unsophisticated. Depending on the context, the term can be used pejoratively or in a humorous, self-deprecating manner. The term "bogan" has also been associated with changing social attitudes towards class in Australia, and its use often reflects broader cultural stereotypes and divisions.
Since the 1980s, the bogan has become a very well-recognised subculture, often as an example of bad taste. It has antecedents in the Australian larrikin and ocker, and various localised names exist that describe the same or very similar people to the bogan.
The origin of the term bogan is unclear; both the Macquarie Dictionary and the Australian Oxford Dictionary cite the origin as unknown. Some Sydney residents' recollection is that the term is based on the concept that residents of the western suburbs (stereotyped as "Westies") displayed what are now termed "bogan" characteristics and that an individual who displayed these characteristics to a strong extent was as "west" as the Bogan River in western New South Wales. According to another anecdote, the term emerged in Melbourne's outer-western and outer-eastern suburbs in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[citation needed]
Another possible origin may be the 1973 Burt Reynolds film White Lightning, which was set in fictitious "Bogan County" in the state of Arkansas.[citation needed] The film, which is partly set at the "Bogan Raceway" dirt track where a modified sedan/demolition derby type race is taking place, is principally a vehicle for Reynolds and other Redneck type characters to indulge in lots of tyre smoking car chases, stunts and "hoon" type driving.[citation needed]
The term "bog" has been used in Perth, Western Australia since at least the late 1960s, and means the same as bogan. The term "bog laps" is still used in Perth to mean the same as "hoon laps" and "blockies" are used to mean in other parts of Australia – driving around in a muscle car doing burnouts or wheelies here and there.
The term became widely known in the late 1980s when the teenage character Kylie Mole (played by Mary-Anne Fahey), in the Australian sketch comedy television series The Comedy Company, frequently used the term to disparage anyone she disliked. The same program included a sketch about a magazine called Bogue (a parody of Vogue), which featured traditional bogans.
The Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC) included the word in its Australian dictionary project in 1991 and said the earliest use they found was in the September 1985 issue of surfing magazine Tracks: "So what if I have a Mohawk and wear Dr. Martens (boots for all you uninformed bogans)?"
In 2019, Bruce Moore of the Australian National University published a piece in The Conversation, in which he suggested an earlier usage or origin of the word, discovered by historian Helen Doyle: an article in a student magazine published at Melbourne's Xavier College in 1984, which describes a fictional toy—the "bogan doll"—which possesses many characteristics of the bogan stereotype.