11 August 2006
Growing up male in rural Australia is not the uncomplicated rural idyll portrayed in movies and advertisements, new research has revealed.
Instead, it is a complex process fraught with inter-generational conflict and simmering territorial rivalries, a three-year study led by Professor Jane Kenway of Monash University's Education faculty has found.
Professor Kenway's findings are documented in a new book, Masculinity Beyond the Metropolis.
Professor Kenway said country towns were changing rapidly as globalisation altered their economies. "There have been big shifts in the kinds of work available in country towns," she said. "When work changes, boys have to re-invent themselves as workers and as males. This can create personal difficulties and tensions between fathers and sons, especially if their work is seen as feminine. Older country men may openly question the manhood of boys who work in non-traditional areas such as hospitality -- they don't like boys to wear aprons."
Masculinity Beyond the Metropolis examines daily life for boys and men in Morwell in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, the New South Wales coastal town of Eden, the mining and tourist town of Coober Pedy and the fruit and wine-growing town of Renmark in South Australia.
Professor Kenway said country people reject city-dwellers' stereotypical views of rural Australia. "Each country town is distinctive, and the boys in these towns shape their identities through the places where they grow up and through comparison with rival places," she said.
"Boys in Morwell have to deal with painful memories of local men being put on the scrap heap when the power industry massively down-sized. Morwell is a brave town trying to get over its sadness. The threat of further restructuring and their town dying again still hangs over local families."
Professor Kenway said that visitors to the towns of Eden and neighbouring Merimbula would be surprised by their intense rivalry. "Boys in Eden call the boys from Merimbula 'fairy bread-eaters' because they see Merimbula as a 'tinsel town' where men work in the 'feminised' tourist industries. The Merimbula boys call the Eden boys 'concrete munchers' as a short-hand for working class males who probably work in hard, dirty jobs," she said.
For further information or assistance, contact Ms Robyn Anns, Media Communications, on +61 3 9905 9317 or 0417 568 781.
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