Email, author and factual mistakes

Chad Swanson

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time" - TS Eliot

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About the author

Chad Swanson

In 1997, Chad completed a Bachelor of Arts with majors in sociology and social psychology. Sociology concerns the origin and evolution of social values. Social psychology concerns how the perceptions of the group impact upon the individuals that operate in it. Together, the two subjects provide a useful theoretical framework to study cultural identity.

In 2005, Chad completed a Master Degree in Professional Communication, which in turn provided another diverse perspective in which to analysis culture. During the degree, he learnt how the communication industry exploits perceptions of cultural identity to sell papers, sell goods, build brand image, or get their press release in the newspaper. He also learnt the techniques that the media uses to stir up the red ants and the green ants so that they fight each other, which in turn gives the media the opportunity to give running commentary on the conflict. Media consumers take sides, gain a feeling of belonging, and experience the emotional highs and lows that flow from the conflict.

In addition to institutionalised education, Chad's perspective comes from significant travel and work experience abroad. He has lived in China and Japan for almost four years. While people around the world might be about 95 per cent the same, the five per cent of difference tends to get exaggerated. For this reason, Chad has spent many years raising eyebrows at actions that are acceptable in other countries but taboo in Australia, while trying to avoid publicly exhibiting the taboos of other countries that are acceptable in Australia.

Even though there is a functional benefit in knowing about culture, the convict creations website was primarily motivated by curiosity. "Australian culture" is a taboo topic in Australia and is almost never discussed. For Chad, this makes it a very interesting topic to consider. When it has been discussed, it has usually been through feminist or homosexual prisms that have sought to deconstruct it. The deconstructive approach has generally been quite useless - partly because very little about Australia is agreed upon in the first place, and partly because culture needs to be approached with an inquisitive and constructive mind. In addition to the approach being wrong, the methodology has been wrong. Culture can't be understood from books alone, and it can't be understood by working in only one academic discipline. Culture is fluid and the commonalities that bind people are expressed in a multitude of different areas. To identify the commonalities in a seemingly diverse country like Australia requires consideration of a diverse field of subject matters. This just hasn't been done by many Australians. As a result, it is still a fertile subject matter for people who want to explore something that few others have explored.

In some ways the site is like a blog except Chad is not posting a diary for public consumption. He is experiencing something about being Australian and recording those experience in a variety of different categories. It is not "This is how the group affected to me" it is "this is what I see the group doing and being treated." As he gets a new experience or learns something new, the page updates to reflect the expansion of awareness.

Westerners are not usually trained to think in such a way. From an early age, many westerners watch Sesame Street where a kid does something different and a voice then sings something like, "can you tell which thing is not like the others?" The message being promoted is that kids should be unique, look at those who are unique, or to tolerate those who are unique. They are not ever told to look at what the class is doing or everything as a group. As a consequence, most westerners grow up with a Seasame Street attitude that involved expressing themselves to the world, rather than looking around to see what the world is like. For one reason or another, the Sesame Street attitude is very strong in Australia and has led to very little understanding of Australia as a whole.

Masculine bias

This site is dominated with culture associated with Australian masculinity. One reason for this is that I am a man therefore the site would obviously reflect a man's bias. Another reason is that female academics have let their gender down in their approach to cultural discussion. As a consequence, there is very little to write about. Instead of focussing on culture associated with Australian femininity, they have focussed on Australian masculinity in the aim of deconstructing it. For example, I was once in a media linguistics lecture that focussed on analysing advertisments targeted at working class Australian men. The lectuerer was a woman, and 80 per cent of the students were women. As was to be expected with such a social dynamic, the analysis was less than complimentary. Furthermore, aside from feeding the desire of some women to denigrate working class men, the subject matter was not relevant to the lives of women. Another typical example comes from an academic named Jessica Stewart. According to Ms Stewart:

"Australia's 'desired' perception of itself seen, for example, through certain beer advertisements on television, is drawn almost exclusively from the third fifty years and reflects the dominance of British culture."

Instead of understanding Australia by analysing beer advertisements targeted at men, Ms Stewart could have tried to understand Australia by analysing shopping advertisements targeted at women. Admittedly, some female academics ocassionally consider such advertisements, but they consider them in order to expose universal discrimination against women. They do not consider them in order to understand what Australian women are like, and why they are that way. Most importantly, they never analyse the advertisements to give women any sense of pride or self-respect.

The result of the deconstructive approach is that Australian masculine culture remains a molehill king on a flat landscape. No matter how small, or how insignificant it is, as king it will always remain the focus of attention, which will in turn provoke more focus on it. Even if I wanted to write about Australian women's culture, the deconstructive approach of women has resulted in Australian women's culture being somewhat of a wasteland with very little to write about. About the only thing that I could write about is the female's focus on deconstructing male culture, or wanting to be like a man.

If the Kangaroo on the Australian Coat of Arms can be thought of as representing Australian masculinity, and the Emu can be thought of as representing Australian femininity, I'd like to see women take ownership of the Emu and do something constructive with it. In other countries around the world, particularly in Asia, female culture is strong and very interesting. I would be genuinely intrigued if female academics in Australia could follow the Asian lead and likewise educate me about cultural attributes that make Australian women unique and special.