Due
to Australians being great actors, it is very difficult to form accurate stereotypes
about them. Just as prison inmates put on an act about wanting their cellmates
to pick up the soap, many Australians put on an act about being lazy, unpatriotic,
stupid and disliking their mates. As a
consequence, Australians are perhaps subject to more misleading stereotypes than
any other nationality. Curiously, many Australians seem to like it this way.  Misconception
1 - Australians are lazy
Most Asians
hold the stereotype that Australians are lazy. In reality, there is a great deal
of evidence to the contrary. Australians work an average of 1800 hours a year.
This is significantly more than most Europeans who only work an average of around
1350 hours per year. Furthermore, a study
by the International Labour Organisation found that 20 per cent of Australian
employees work more than 50 hours a week. This is only marginally behind the world's
most diligent workforce, the Japanese, where 28 per cent of employees work more
than 50 hours a week. Statistics aside,
the Australian work ethic is reflected in the language. Australians have invented
words like "bludger" to express their scorn for those people who want
a free ride off someone else. Australians have
also invented words like "hard yakka" to express their appreciation
for an honest days work. Australians are
hard workers because until recently, their survival depended upon it. Australia
doesn't have black fertile soils like America nor the reliable rivers that may
sustain rice paddies like Asia. Australia is a tough and unforgiving land. Its
cities were built by the world's under-classes who weren't born with silver spoons
in their mouths. The wealth of Australia has been achieved via hard work alone.
The stereotype that Australians are lazy
probably comes from the Australian demeanour that seems laid back. An Australian
businessman who works in excess of 60 hours a week may sit down at a barbecue
and reveal nothing about their lifestyle. They will sit in thongs, with a beer
in the hand, and have a leisurely chat. Asked how their life is going, they may
answer "not bad." "No worries" is constantly infused into
the conversation. Such an image is difficult
to reconcile with that of a stressed out worker who should have the weight of
the world on their shoulders. Consequently, it is just concluded that the worker
must be lazy. Misconception
2- Australians are worried about the Paul Hogan stereotype If
one reads an academic paper exploring the Australian identity, one might come
across an opinion that Australia is not a nation of Paul Hogans who wrestle
crocodiles. To correct this inaccurate stereotype, the authors of these articles
seem intent on informing the world that most Australians live in cities and have
NEVER even seen a crocadile!!! It would
mistake to see the author's concerns as representatives of those of mainstream
Australia. In reality, most Australians are not any more worried about the world
thinking Australia is full of crocodile wrestlers than the Poms are worried that
the world thinks England is full of James Bonds who seduce women and drink
vodka martinis. Most Australians give world
observers enough intellectual credence to be able to discern the difference between
a movie and reality. Even if world observers can't tell the difference, most Australians
also know that there is a positive side to the Paul Hogan stereotype. Men know
that playing on the stereotype can help attain those intimate encounters with
a fair, but gullible, maiden. They also know that spinning a myth about fighting
a croc can be as entertaining as spinning a myth about a dropbear or hoop snake.
There are also a great many Australians
who can appreciate that Paul Hogan did great things for the Australian film industry,
and great things for the Australian tourism industry. In recognition of his contribution
to Australia, many Australains have a great deal of respect for Paul Hogan. While
it is true that some concerned citizens can't see the positive side of Paul Hogan,
these concerned citizens are in no way representative of the Australian character,
hence they should be ignored. Misconception
3 - Australians are alcoholics In days
past, the stereotype that Australians were alcoholics was indeed an accurate one.
In is believed that during the colonial era, Australians drank more alcohol per
capita than any other civilisation in human history. Even
after the end of convict transportation, alcohol remained central to all business
transactions and all social gatherings. In 1887
jounalist Finch Hatton wrote: "
All through Australia, in every class, it is not considered good form for a
man to drink by himself. Very few even of the most hopeless drunkards ever do
so. The consequence is, that when a man feels inclined to drink, he immediately
looks out for someone to drink with...At whatever hour of the day a man meets
another whom he has not seen for say twelve hours, etiquette requires that he
shall incontinently invite him to come and drink. This is a custom that pervades
every class in the colony, and cannot be departed from without something more
than a breach of good manners." The
impressive reputation as a drinking nation continued right up until the 70s when
Australia was ranked in the top two nations for per capita beer consumption. The
last two decades has seen a rapid slide down the list. Nowadays, Australians are
ranked ninth - and are falling even further year by year. In regards to overall
alcohol consumption, Australia is ranked in the 30s. Despite
the overall drop in consumption, alcohol is still the mainstay of all social gatherings.
No barbeque lacks beers, no dinner party lacks wine and no post match sporting
celebration is without a bountiful supply of booze. Australians also lionise alcohol
in a way other countries do not. Australians have invented the concept of a "cleansing
ale" before bedtime, after dinner time, or anytime. There still lingers a notion
that if two glasses of wine are good for you, then a whole bottle must be even
better. The Friday Swill, that involves workers heading to the pub for
a end of workweek beer, is still a integral part of Australian custom. In Western
Australia, there is also the concept of a Sunday Session whereby people
head to the pub for a beer on their rest day. In
a sense, the decline in per capita consumption represents a refinement of the
alcohol appreciation genre. Lower consumption allows for the realisation of alcohol's
finer aspects, without having to experience the sting in its tail - as a true
love affair should be. Beer consumption 1. Czech Republic: 160 litres
per capita 2. Republic of Ireland: 142.5 3. Germany: 134.5 4. Denmark: 117.63
6. Austria: 116.0 6. Luxembourg: 109.0 7. United Kingdom: 102.3 8. Belgium: 102.0
9. Australia: 95.4 10. New Zealand: 93.9 Misconception
4- Australians are not patriotic It
is easy to believe Australians are not patriotic. Australians do not stand with
hands over their hearts as their flag is raised. They seem proud that they can't
remember the words to their national anthem. They make jokes about their prime
ministers who have held beer drinking records, been discovered wandering without
their trousers or were washed away by the tide.
Paradoxically, their irrelevant attitude is one of the cultural traits that Australians
get most patriotic about. Although they
may not say it openly, most Australians are in no doubt that they live in the
best country on earth, and anyone who believes the grass is greener on the other
side best move on in search of it. Misconception
5-Australians are jealous of achievement There
is a misconception that Australians are jealous of any achievement that isn't
sports related. This "jealousy" is commonly known as the tall poppy
syndrome. Rather than jealousy, perhaps
a more accurate definition of the tall poppy syndrome would be "the character
trait whereby people try to promote change by criticising the incumbent rather
than praising the alternative. "
A good example was seen in the 2002 Australia
Day Awards. Some scientist named Donald Metcalf received an 'Australian
Legend' honour. He then said: "I
could name 11 colleagues whose accomplishments would exceed those of our cricket
11. They haven't been entertaining people. They have been saving lives." Arguably,
criticising the incumbent is not an effective method of persuasion. In all likelihood,
any cricket fan who heard Mr Metcalf's comment would conclude he is a wanker.
Perhaps Mr Metcalf would then misinterpret this hostility as a sign of people
who are jealous of his superior intellect. Like
Australia's cricketers, Paul Hogan is another victim of the "tall poppy syndrome."
Criticism of Hogan does not stem from feelings of jealousy, rather it stems from
a large number of people not identifying with him. Rather than praising the alternative,
Hogan's critics just have a whinge. Misconception
6- Australians are stupid There is
a famous expression that "an Australian is someone who reads comic books
without moving his lips." The
stereotype that Australians are stupid probably comes from the Australian language.
Sentences like "av'a go ya mug" don't seem to indicate any kind
of intellectual mastery. In reality, Australians
are extremely clever, no matter what criteria is used to assess intelligence,
or how they speak English. In terms of
education, Australia's "school life expectancy" – the average number of years
of schooling that individuals can expect to receive – was 20.1 years in 2001.
Only the United Kingdom had a higher school life expectancy – 21.8 years. The
world average is 13.2. Of course people
with formal education are often exposed as lacking an ability to think laterally.
It is on this lateral thinking criteria that Australians truly excel, as evidenced
by the impressive array of Australian inventions. One
of the more recent inventions is the Jindalee Radar System. Costing a mere
A$1.5 million to develop, it is able to detect the American Stealth Bomber,
a plane that cost US$11 billion to be designed "invisible." Now for
the Australian defence shield, the stealth bomber is nothing more than an unusual
shaped plane. An Australian's intelligence
may also be the result of having criminal ancestors. Criminals are by nature lateral
thinkers who need to develop innovative solutions to break the law, evade capture
or escape from prison. Many of Australia's
"Elites" act quite stupidily, but it is important to remember that this
group is not an accurate reflection of the Australian character. Misconception
7- Australians are tight-arses In
many parts of the world, Australians have a Scottish style reputation for being
tight-arses. One of the reasons for the reputation might be
that Australians don't automatically tip as do Americans. When
informed that bar staff, waitresses, and taxi drivers are dependent upon the tips
to get by, the Australian attitude is that the workers should ask their boss for
a pay rise or join a union. If these aren't options, the workers should provide
a better service. A final reason for the
tight-arse reputation might be the Australian man's insistence on splitting the
bill on a date. Many-a Asian woman who has dated an Australian man has felt insulted
by being asked to pay her own way. However
the Australian man is not a tight-arse, he is merely conforming to the desires
of his female compatriots. The Australian woman realised a long time ago that
there is no such thing as a free lunch. She realised that a man would want to
get value for money if he bought her dinner. Consequently,
she became insistent on paying her own way. With time, the Australian man came
to appreciate the relaxed nature of equality, as well as the joys of a thicker
wallet. Since that time, he has lost all desire to return to the old ways. Misconception
8- Australians are immoral Many foreign
visitors who come to Australia conclude that Australians have no morality. On
Bondi Beach, topless women tan their breasts. For Chinese and Koreans,
this is considered very immoral. To make matters worse, every year Sydney hosts
a Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. As well as being confronted by the parade
itself, Chinese and Koreans are particularly surprised that heterosexuals don't
seem to care. In the arts, the stage act
Puppetry of the Penis features naked men manipulating their genitals into
shapes such as hamburgers or atomic mushrooms. Entrepreneur
Dick Smith launched a new brand of matches to rival the Red Head
brand. He used a play on words and called them 'Dick Heads' which is only marginally
better than calling them something like Purple Heads. However
those who accuse Australians of lacking morality have just failed to appreciate
that Australians have a different kind of morality. Instead of judging people
by their sex lives, Australians may instead judge them by their honesty, fairness,
integrity and loyalty. Cultures that are overaly concerned with sexual morality
often forget that these values are also important in a society. Furthermore,
although some cultures are very moral in the public sphere, privately there is
a great deal of acceptance of businessmen visiting prostitutes or men and women
cheating on their partners. The same is not the case in Australia. An
apathetic attitude to other people's sex lives also spares Australians from acting
like busy bodies everytime a famous person is caught having an affair. Unlike
the English newspapers which are full of lewd conduct by famous people, Australian
newspapers are relatively smut free. When Australians are judging politicians,
they don't judge them by their misuse of a cigar with an intern or their love
of wearing female underwear. Instead, most Australians judge them on how well
they are doing their job of managing the country. People
all over the world are judgemental- reflecting the morals they hold. Most Australians
are also judgemental, they just judge people using a different criteria. Misconception
9- The problems of the Aborigine are the same as the American Indian and Black
American. In recent years there has
been a push to put Aborigines into the same category as the black American or
native American. However the history of relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
Australia is completely different. In
the colonial era, the second-class citizens were convicts and their children.
Aborigines were generally well liked by the authorities. A military officer, Watkin
Tench, recounting: "During
the intervals of duty, our greatest source of entertainment now lay in cultivating
the acquaintance of our new friends, the natives. " Some
of the Convicts seem to have initially thought of the Aborigines as a weak race
who could be exploited. Watkin Tensch recorded a party of Convicts senting off
to forcibly relieve Aborigines of their fishing tackle. But instead of being victimised,
the Aborigines gave the Convicts an absolute thrashing. (This outcome was not
surprising considering that Aborigines had been engaging in hand-to-hand combat
for 50,000 years.) To rub salt into the wounds of the surviving Convicts, Governor
Arthur Phillip had them flogged in order to teach them to be more respectful
towards the locals. As the colony expanded,
Aborigines came into conflict with the authorities over land, or the Aborigines
spearing livestock. However these conflicts were never on the same scale as those
that American colonists had with the Indians. In America, when British colonists
started pushing west, they found green fields and fertile soil. High density farming
communities developed, and these communities rallied together to fight the Indians.
When British colonists pushed west in Australia, they were quickly wiped out by
droughts, kangaroos and bushfires. Only small density farming communities survived.
Lone farmers realised it really wasn't in their interests to pick a fight with
the Aborigines when they didn't have strong communities to back them up. Nor
were Australian landowners able to exploit Aborigines the way American landowners
were able to exploit Negroes. If a landowner tried to make a slave out of an Aborigine,
the Aborigine just walked off into the bush. Consequently, it was pacific islanders
who were kidnapped to take the place of Convicts as the free labour source. It
was Asian girls that were kidnapped to become the sex slaves. Plain and simply,
Aborigine's knowledge of the land, and numerical dominance in the bush, made them
difficult to exploit. Reflecting the
generally respectful sentiments towards Aborigines, when the colonies of NSW,
Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania framed their constitutions in the 1850s,
they gave Aborigines the vote. Although Aborigines were denied the federal vote
50 years later, under section 41 of the constitution, anyone with a State vote
also had a federal vote. As Aborigines were never stripped of their State vote,
they have been allowed to vote for as long as any other Australian. Aborigines
were not officially given the federal vote until 1962 and not included
in the federal census until 1967. It is these two facts that are generally used
to put Aborigines in the same category as the American Indian and black. Although
Aborigines have lacked recognition by federal politicians, the
wider community used to hold them in high regard. Textbooks of 50 years ago talk
of their skills as bushmen and their sense of humour. These were admired attributes
during this period. In modern times, textbooks
talk of Aborigines being over-represented in prison, high numbers on welfare and
their low life expectancy. Although the negative
focus of the text creates a negative stereotype of Aborigines, there is no malice
in the authors' minds. In fact, the authors think "exposing" disadvantage
is actually helping Aborigines. Nor do
the statistics themselves reflect any malice towards Aborigines from non-academic
Australians. The chief reason for the statistics is the incompatibility between
the communal focus of traditional Aboriginal customs with the individualistic
focus of the modern capitalist world. This incompatibility has led to an outcome
that is dysfunctional in the eyes of both cultures. Ironically,
in trying to "help" Aborigines, the Australian legal system is partly to blame
for this situation today. In 1992, the Mabo vs Queensland judgement decreed
that Aborigines must own and manage their land in a communal fashion. This aimed
to empower Aborigines with the ability to continue their traditional cultures.
However the judgement also decreed that the traditional Aboriginal legal systems,
which were once used manage the land communally, are not to be recognised as legal
systems. Consequently, Aborigines could end up in jail if they practiced their
traditional land management laws. Not suprisingly, the judgement entrenched the
cultural incompatibility that produces the statistics of disadvantage. Once
more, the judgement was a case of a moralistic action that seemed like a good
idea at the time, but just wasn't thought through. | 
