183:
sees ocker chic as "cultural propaganda". Ocker chic "helped to secure emergent sources of wealth, especially from a heavily unionised working class, and it permitted the open enjoyment of wealth in a time when wage growth was suppressed and unemployment was increasing." It is the
Australian machismo
231:
is seen as a key example of how widespread ocker chic had become by the 1980s. Hawke had cultivated an image as a typical union man that was very popular with middle-class voters as early as 1972 that carried him all the way to the prime minister's office. The central part of this image was his
270:, will often take on "ocker" cultural elements such as slang to appeal to various audiences. Coventry sees ocker chic as endemic, given the popularity of R. M. Williams boots and the popularity of "rugged" styles among middle-class men.
232:"world record" beer skol (scull) which was "at best apocryphal, at worst fabricated" with no evidential basis beyond its appearance in a beer pamphlet called the Guinness Book of Records. Prime Minister
66:) was said to have been met with a hostile reception when she attempted to write a book comparing "ockers" with "poms". John Richard wrote that the "awful ocker" juxtaposed with the "loveable larrikin".
69:"The ocker" was in popular use in the 1970s and 1980s, although was seen by cultural commentators to have dissipated by the 1990s. However, a number of commentators observed the emergence of an
240:
area, exhibited ocker chic by projecting a working class persona (drinking cans of beer in public and using tough talk) while also listening to classical music and collecting antique clocks.
461:
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in which middle-class people, predominantly males, took on the style, accent, mannerisms and backstory of working-class people or other mythical "national types", including the
149:
of the 1970s were marketed as "ocker comedies", representing a "masculine, populist, and cheerfully vulgar view of
Australian society". These films were latterly described as "
393:
380:
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Coventry cites numerous examples of ocker chic outside professional politics among businessmen, journalists, sportsmen, singer-songwriters and professionals.
47:
481:
Michelle Arrow, “‘Smash Sexist Movies’: Gender, Culture and Ocker Cinema in 1970s
Australia,” Journal of Australian Studies 46, no. 2 (2022): 183–84
421:, "Sedimentary Layers: Bob Hawke’s Beer World Record and Ocker Chic" Journal of Australian Studies (2023), online early publication (open access),
179:
According to Kirkby, the ocker became "less parodic as the nation became a 'projection of the larrikin fantasies of middle-class
Australian men'."
58:". However, the term is mostly understood to be pejorative compared to other terms, including larrikin, mate, cobber and bloke. In the 1980s,
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contained a character called Oscar ("Ocker") Stevens. The term "ocker" in its modern usage arose from a character of that name, played by
204:. The machismo strategy to align white men behind right wing populism in the United States began with the Republican political operative
657:
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is the positive term used by people engaged in ocker chic to describe themselves or others and is seen in favourable contrast to the
189:
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manipulated his backstory to make himself seem to be a rough outdoorsman, even though his fortune was made in gold mining. The
304:
662:
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Ocker depictions in cinema rapidly faded in the mid-1975s with softer characters emerging, played by actors such as
581:
Rory O’Malley, “The
Eclipse of Mateship: The ‘Wide Comb Dispute’ 1979–85,” Labour History 90, no. 1 (2006): 155–76.
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sees the ocker as a reactionary movement of men in the first half of the 1970s using parody to rebel against the
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John
Rickard, “Loveable Larrikins and Awful Ockers,” Journal of Australian Studies 22, no. 56 (1998): 78–85.
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248:
146:
590:
Mark McKenna, An Eye for
Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark (Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, e-Book, 2020).
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from 1965 to 1968. The term "ocker chic" arose in its modern meaning in 1986 in an article written for
105:"Ocker" was recorded from 1916 as a nickname for anyone called Oscar. The 1920s Australian comic strip
642:
422:
236:, who had come from a family that owned a large business and chose to live in an affluent part in an
153:". While popular with audiences, most ocker films were loathed by critics. Among the best known are
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defined the ocker positively as being "about conviviality: comradeship with a touch of good-hearted
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soldier and the stockman, but without the vulgarity of the ocker. The idea was first raised by
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97:, which is thought of as being neither sophisticated nor reflective of Australian values.
8:
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Every prime minister since Fraser has utilised ocker chic. Politicians, including former
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Lech Blaine, “Top Blokes: The
Larrikin Myth, Class and Power,” Quarterly Essay 4 (2021).
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Peter Tory, “Something Cuckoo in Hawke’s Nest?,” Daily Mirror, 14 April 1983, 15.
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David Day, Paul
Keating: The Biography (Sydney: Fourth Estate, e-Book, 2015).
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repurposed the working-class/union concept of the "fair go". The historian
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223:. From 1977, politicians began ocker-ising their image with Prime Minister
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14443058.2023.2215790
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was ascendant in the United States in the 1980s under
President
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The Man Card: White Male Identity Politics from Nixon to Trump
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196:. Others see the American machismo as beginning earlier with
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115:, which appeared in the satirical television comedy series
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Although Australians would say thongs, and not flip-flops.
514:(2020, directed by Peter Hutchison & Lucas Sabean).
394:"Ockers against wowsers stand up for their skimpies"
603:. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 11 June 2009
255:cultivated his image to appear more like a farmer.
525:The Consultant: The Story of Arthur J. Finkelstein
85:in the mid-1970s but was not conceptualised until
490:Coventry, (2023), with quote from Kirkby, (2003).
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227:being seen in public drinking beer. The rise of
50:, and acts in a rough and uncultivated manner.
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601:"Rudd says ocker sound bites fair dinkum"
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190:Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
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392:Chipperfield, Mark (4 February 2001).
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62:(daughter of British Prime Minister
527:(2024, directed by Eado Zuckerman).
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259:Present day ocker chic
238:Australian Labor Party
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184:equivalent to the one
21:Ocker (disambiguation)
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310:Gallipoli (1981 film)
206:Arthur J. Finkelstein
16:Australian slang term
638:Culture of Australia
30:" is used both as a
19:For other uses, see
123:Australian Playboy
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165:(1972), and
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108:Ginger Meggs
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87:Diane Kirkby
79:Donald Horne
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668:Stereotypes
300:Don's Party
632:Categories
368:References
268:Kevin Rudd
217:Paul Hogan
188:argued in
186:Gore Vidal
175:Ocker chic
113:Ron Frazer
83:Max Harris
71:ocker chic
40:Australian
26:The term "
229:Bob Hawke
134:The Ocker
101:Etymology
36:adjective
425:, pg.18.
352:Larrikin
331:See also
171:(1973).
159:(1971),
91:larrikin
607:13 June
403:13 June
129:History
38:for an
357:Westie
290:Caddie
56:sexism
44:Strine
362:Yobbo
337:Bogan
156:Stork
95:Bogan
75:ANZAC
28:ocker
609:2009
523:See
508:See
405:2009
347:Chav
219:and
81:and
46:, a
34:and
32:noun
634::
396:.
215:,
125:.
611:.
407:.
23:.
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