Whoever is advising Prime Minister Tony Abbott understands something of the place of the larrikin in the Australian national consciousness. Abbott’s threat to shirtfront Russian President Vladimir Putin…
Violent rhetoric appeals to disaffected young men because it gives them a challenge to express aggression as ‘proof’ of manhood.
Sillouetted children playing as soldiers/Shutterstock
Recent coverage of counterterrorism raids in Australia featured hard-core gyms, anabolic steroids, nightclub bouncers, gangs and weapons. Footage from the Middle East regularly depicts truckloads of young…
Almost a quarter of Australians believe domestic violence can be excused if the attacker can’t control their anger.
Halfpoint/Shutterstock
Have you cringed when a friend was degraded by her partner in public? Or felt uncomfortable because your friend’s partner continually rings to check her whereabouts? Is your friend’s partner intimidating…
Women are now established in the workforce, but are still required to conform to expectations of femininity.
Shutterstock/Pressmaster
Research on gender roles has shown that individuals consider men to embody more masculine (e.g. assertive, dominant) traits than women, and women to embody more feminine (e.g. gentle, sensitive) traits…
Where to for Don Draper and the kind of man he is in Mad Men’s final season?
Courtesy of FOXTEL
This weekend, AMC’s Mad Men returns to TV screens for its final season, due to be shown in two halves, this year and next. In its six seasons to date the period drama has won plaudits for its writing and…
The Kiwis are going to vote on a change of flag. What does the Australian flag mean these days?
Matthew Kenwrick
Do flags matter? Well, if the news from New Zealand is any guide, they do. Holding a referendum or two to change the flag, as proposed by that country’s parliament, will not be cheap. Assuming our friends…
My K-pop (Korean Pop) “bias” Rain, the South Korean singer, dancer, and actor whose real name is Jung Ji-Hoon, recently released a new album called Rain Effect, which has reignited my, uh-hum, “academic…
Mixed martial arts fighter Shaun McNeil (above) is accused of killing Sydney teenager Daniel Christie with a single punch in Kings Cross, Sydney. The case has sparked debate on alcohol and violence.
AAP Image/Facebook
The recent outcry in Sydney about “alcohol-fuelled violence” has many people asking whether young men are out of control, or whether alcohol, or our hyper-masculine culture, might be to blame. Now the…
Australia’s cricketing mojo has returned in this Ashes series. While effective, their methods have not always been pretty.
AAP/Dave Hunt
After losing three Ashes series on the bounce and following much soul-searching about the decline of its national sporting prowess, Australia is giving England a pounding in the cricket. For many, all…
Levels of masculinity vary for men and women depending on if the questions are asked online or offline.
Helga Weber
How masculine are you? This might seem a fairly simple question, especially if you’re asked to fill out a simple ten-question survey investigating traits such as “aggressive” and “forceful”. But it may…
The belief that rugby league is a ‘hard sport’ played by ‘hard men’ made by insiders does little to advance the image of the game.
AAP/Action Photographics
When his grandson was tragically killed while playing rugby league in April this year, former New South Wales and Australian halfback Tommy Raudonikis said: Everyone needs to understand that this was just…
“Record-breaking Heatwave”. “Australia Burns”. “Heroes of the Flames”. Headlines such as these will be familiar to anyone who has lived though a bad bushfire season in Australia. These past two weeks have…
Lleyton Hewitt went down in straight sets in the first round of the Australian Open last night.
AAP/Julian Smith
Any hopes that Lleyton Hewitt could revisit past glories in his 2013 Australian Open campaign were dashed last night when he lost in straight sets to Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic. It now seems impossible…